Grand exit hits a nerve

August 11, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO

A groundswell of support grew online and at office water coolers across America on Tuesday for a JetBlue flight attendant who pulled off one of the most dramatic “take this job and shove it” acts in recent memory.

In fact, the new phrase for quitting a job in dramatic fashion just might be “sliding the chute.”

After reportedly trying to deal with an unruly passenger on a parked aircraft Monday, JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater used the plane’s intercom system to curse out the passenger. Then he allegedly grabbed a beer from the beverage cart and deployed an emergency escape slide on the runway of New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Then he jumped, only to be arrested shortly after.

Anyone who works in customer service or answers to an insufferable boss seemed to relate to Slater, as online message boards and social networks flooded with empathy for the man who gave new meaning to the term “jumping ship.”

“He’s a lightning rod for a lot of social realities that are converging,” said Adam Hanft, a culture and branding expert. “The culture climate is right to make this guy a folk hero. The escape chute is so symbolic.”

A “Free Steven Slater” page was one of several created on social network Facebook. As of Tuesday, tens of thousands of supporters had visited that page and others like it to click a “like it” link. Another page is titled the “Steven Slater Legal Defense Fund.”

Slater probably succumbed to stress and lashed out at the unruly passenger, said Patrick Wanis, a behavior expert. “He’s become the poster boy for the resentment people have with other rude people,” he said.

Obviously, Slater’s stunt is not the way to deal with conflict in the workplace, said Lynne Sarikas, executive director of the MBA Career Center at Northeastern University in Boston.

“I think people are naively finding it glamorous to vent and let it all out,” she said. “But can you imagine what his chances are for finding another job as a flight attendant?”

JetBlue said Tuesday that Slater has been suspended pending an investigation.

Slater was released Tuesday night after posting a $2,500 bond.