The Blemished Crew Member

    Every now and then we get stuck flying around with a crew member whose a real whack job. Mine turn was recently.
    Just like every job, the flight attendant profession has its fair share of them. Whether they are on medication to control their bipolar disorder, are schizophrenic, negative "nellies," or just plain miserable with their life, we seem to have them.
     What I thought was going to be nice two-day trip, ended up being a little too much for me. Simply because of one particular flight attendant on our crew.
     I should have known he was going to be a piece of work during the start of our trip in the initial briefing. He began to whine because he was the most junior crew member and didn't want to fly the purser position. (For the record, someone else chose to fly it for him). Then he proceeded to "warn" the entire crew about the lurking "diseases" out there at the hotels where we stay overnight.
     He went into a full-blown account of how he was currently being treated for contracting scabies. YES!!! Scabies. A very contagious skin infection. It was a little more information than us crew members wanted to know on the start of the trip at 5 A.M. He alleged he got it from "one of the layover hotels we stay at." So we asked him which one. Of course he didn't know. But was certain it was at a layover hotel.
     I took his warning with a grain of salt since our flight attendant rank and file had not received any "credible warnings" about such outbreaks at any of our layover hotels -- from our union OR company. Nonetheless, I noted his comments in the back of my mind and reminded myself to stay away from  him, not rub against him, etc.
     The gross part of this whole story is that he wore a short sleeve uniform shirt. Fortunately, I was not able to see any of the rash on his forearms or hands, so I could only guess where he had the scabies. It was just a bit too much for me to even think about.
     Technically, he should not have even been flying trips while suffering from such a skin ailment. Company policy and health rules forbids it. Even with a fever blister, the our airline policy says employees who handle food and beverage should not be working. Plain and simple.
     Makes complete sense to me. I do not want some restaurant worker with yellowish-white liquid matter oozing from a contagious skin rash serving me my meal and drink. The thought makes me ill.
     But this crew member said he could not afford to stay on sick leave until he got better. Which made me really question the validity of his initial allegation.
     So as the trip went on, I kept finding this person continually coming to my part of the cabin to try and strike up conversation. Talks that I tried to keep to a minimum so that he would go away.
     This flight attendant was not the cleanest person either. He sweated profusely, had foul breath and horrible body odor, as if he was wearing an unwashed uniform. Which made me begin to wonder, whether the "scabies" was just a form of poor hygiene.
     But the drama didn't just stop there. He continued to tell fellow crew members about all his other health issues that he suffered. And when not telling us about THAT, he constantly reflected on how -- before transferring to his current home base -- he used to fly nothing but international trips to international destinations because he was a "language qualified" flight attendant. Despite him being very junior on our systemwide seniority list. He just loved to name drop.
     After a while, I just got tired of listening to his B-S. And I took it for just that. Ironically, a friend of mine told me that she, too, had just flown with this person and that he acted the same way, told the same stories and even shared his "scabies" episode.   
    Overall, he was a very nice guy. And in some ways, I did feel sorry for him -- but for other reasons. He probably has low self-esteem, so he felt the need to pump himself up and make people feel sorry for him at the same time. We all like attention now and then.
     But the scabies thing just itched me the wrong way! And for that reason, I tried to stay clear from  him the entire trip.