The well-being of civilian aircrews - Part 2
In the previous post, I began to discuss some survey results for crew well-being. I mentioned that about 28% of the pilots, and 40% of the flight attendants who took the Aircrew Stress Study survey had scores on a measure of well-being that suggested that they were 'at risk' for poor health.
Let's have a look at some of the characteristics of those who had poorer well-being scores (and next time we'll look at those whose scores were high). I already mentioned that age, gender, and education level seemed to matter to a certain extent, but what about job characteristics? After all, this is a study of an occupational group: people who fly for a living.
The survey participants were asked a number of questions about their work situation. For those who had low well-being scores, two job factors stood out prominently for both pilots and flight attendants: Commuting and being on reserve! In fact, about a quarter of all of those who had poor well-being scores said that they were commuters, and 23% said that they were on reserve.
For my readers from outside the aviation industry, I should briefly explain what we mean by "commuting" and "reserve" in airline-ese.
When airline people say that they commute, they don't mean what office workers mean. Crewmembers who live in a place that is distant from their base "commute" to work by flying. Sometimes that may be a relatively short distance -- say, from Portland to Seattle. But many crewmembers commute thousands of miles to get from their homes to work. Later on I'll talk more about commuting and why it is so stressful, aside from the obvious.
Now, about reserve: Airline crews get a new trip schedule each month. These schedules are referred to as "lines." But things sometimes happen to prevent the line-holders from flying when they're scheduled to fly. They may get sick; or events like weather or mechanical problems with an aircraft may prevent a crew from being where they should be at the right time for the next leg of their trip. When that happens, substitute crewmembers have to work in their place. Those substitute crewmembers are the reserves.
Most crewmembers -- pilots and cabin crew alike -- dread being on reserve. They have to stand by -- sometimes at the airport, sometimes at home -- waiting to be called for a trip. Sometimes they fly, sometimes they don't, but even if they don't they still have to be prepared to leave on short notice. Often when they do fly, they are not notified until the last moment.
Usually the most junior crews have to "sit reserve." But, depending on the airline (and things like provisions in labor contracts), some more senior people also have to be on reserve at least part of the time -- usually on some rotational basis.
Now, for my aviation industry readers, I should point out something about how the reserve vs. line holder question was posed. Participants answered the question "for this month," that is, they indicated their situation at the moment they answered the questionnaire. So, we don't know if people who said they were on reserve were on reserve all the time, or if it was 'their month' to be on reserve in some pattern of rotation.
In any case, both commuting and being on reserve seemed to 'go with' a poorer sense of well-being. They're not the only factors, or even the most important factors, as we shall see later on, but both of these situations clearly contribute to overall stress levels. (And a commuter who has to sit reserve has my complete sympathy!)
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