Thursday, February 6, 2020

Can You Check That Bag?

By Roberta Vriesema, CLAC Representative

If you’re ever been on a crowded flight, you may have had the opportunity to experience the call for gate-checked bags.

The speaker system will crackle and the announcement is made:

“For those flying on flight WS 2580 heading to Cancun, the flight is full and we are asking you to consider checking your carry-on luggage. We are looking for 50 bags to help speed up the onboarding process and to help us get to our destination faster. For any bag checked, you are asked to remove your medicines, electronic devices, reading material, and any items you require for the flight. Your bag will be available upon arrival at the gate for you to pick up. Please come see personnel at the desk if you are able to help us with this request.”

If you enjoy people-watching, this process can instigate a very interesting series of behaviours. Often, there are a certain number of people who grab their bags and head to the counter, as if they packed for this possibility and were waiting for this moment. Then there are some who seem to consult with their traveling partners, open their bags, shift items around, and then slowly walk toward the counter with some reluctance to release their bag.

After the first group of people drops off their bags, the voice comes on again asking for people to bring their bags forward for gate checking. At this point, you start to see people glancing at each other at the gate. It’s as if people are measuring up the sizes of others’ bags and challenging those with more than one bag to step up to the counter.

After a third call for bags, comments can be heard in the waiting area.

“I can’t check my bag; I only have one and I have important medicine with me!”

“I only travel with one bag. Someone else should check in their extra bag!”

“I never check in my bag because I did once and it ended up in Alaska! And I was in Mexico. Worst trip of my life!”

I was reminded of this gate check ritual at a membership site visit early this year. It was a great visit and I had the opportunity to speak with several members about a variety of topics. As I was listening, I became aware that part of what I was doing was listening very hard to hear the message behind the situations being shared with me.

There were the specifics of what had happened and what needed to happen, but as we spoke, it became clear that the solution was often as diverse as the people speaking to me. Yes, these might be issues related to pay, or scheduling, or co-paid benefits—but the solutions to seemingly similar problems were very different.

To understand what the solution should be, I had to hear the expectations that the person speaking to me brought to the conversation. As a listener, I had to begin to understand by hearing the underlying assumptions each person had going into the problem.

For one member, once I learned that they had an adult child living with them who was a dependent, then I could understand why they were so passionate about benefits and why the solution that worked for their coworker would not work for them.

For another member who worked a lot of double shifts, learning that they were working toward sponsoring a family member’s immigration to Canada and was required by the government to meet earning thresholds went a long way to understanding why they were upset when overtime disappeared as new employees were hired. As I listened, I learned that this expectation was part of a seven-year plan, where her family had saved up to have her educated in Canada as a registered nurse. She had taken a co-op program so she could graduate with a job, obtain her residency status, and then work toward bringing her family to Canada in return.

In each conversation, there were outside factors and assumptions that drove the expectations of each speaker. Some of those expectations provided motivation and encouragement. Others seemed to provide extreme stress and negativity for the individual. As an outsider, it was not my job to judge their expectations but to listen and understand.

Yet as I listened to each member, I was reminded of the airport. The members were all carrying baggage with them that clearly influenced their concerns. I wondered if they could check some of that baggage. Would there be a benefit to handing over the burden to someone else to carry for awhile? Were there pieces that they could release? Are there pieces that they had to hold on to, like important medicine? Could they leave some things behind and just carry the essentials?

With last week’s focus on mental health, this image came to me. I thought of the people who, upon the first call, are ready to walk forward and drop off their bag. They were confident that when they got to their destination, the bag would be there for them. They had prepared in anticipation of the gate check option. This meant that they had already sorted out what they had to keep with them and what portions they were okay with letting someone else carry for them.

The more I travel, the more I admire that ability to let go of baggage, and the more I strive to be ready to gate check a bag myself. What if I considered carefully the mental baggage I carry with me? What experiences must I carry forward? Which ones could be left behind? Which ones can I place aside for a short time, knowing that I’ll get back to them later when the time and place is right? Which mental expectations can be better carried using the support of a trained expert? And what would it take to make me ready to accept that help?

What would it take for you?

Can You Check That Bag?

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