82 year old flight attendant won't quit

flying pops wrote:
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twinci...s/15434728.htm

More work, less pay. But quit? No way

NWA's longest-serving flight attendant loves his job, even after 55
years.

BY JULIE FORSTER
Pioneer Press

Longer hours, pay cuts and strike threats. Those could be good reasons
to quit your job.

Bob Reardon will need several more. At 82, he has no intention of
giving up the title of Northwest's longest-serving flight attendant.

After 55 years of working the aisles of Northwest Airlines planes,
Reardon keeps a full-time schedule as purser in charge of the cabin
crew on the airline's international flights.

Sure, his job gets under his skin sometimes. Yes, he's dismayed at
cuts and work-rule changes that require him to work more for less pay.

But Reardon finds the rewards of working Northwest's Pacific flights
too alluring to surrender.

"If I didn't like the job," he says, "I would have quit 20 years ago."

Grumbling about work, for many, has been raised to an art. And who
hasn't tossed a few bucks into the lottery pool with an eye on sudden
retirement?

Evidently, not Reardon.

His affinity for his job is fueled by some basic factors widely viewed
as keys for a fulfilling work life: control over your schedule, a
sense of responsibility, a job that complements your personal life and
the ability to walk away if you want to.

As purser, Reardon is the lead flight attendant on Northwest's
747-400s, its largest aircraft. They seat 403 passengers and require a
cabin crew of at least 12.

In his job, he communicates with the pilots in the cockpit and makes
sure the cabin service flows smoothly. He smoothes over disputes,
extinguishes potentially hostile situations with passengers. He tends
to ill passengers. He prepares incident reports and customs documents.

He also tries to keep morale up, imploring workers not to take out
their frustrations on each other. He does a lot more morale boosting
these days as flight attendants are mired in a labor war with
Northwest.

As the most senior flight attendant, Reardon can bid on exactly the
trips he wants. The sense of control over his schedule gives him the
feeling of being his own boss.

"There's a certain freedom," he said. "You can build your time to suit
yourself."

Lately, Reardon's monthly schedule includes two six-day trips. He
flies from the Twin Cities to Tokyo. Once his plane touches down,
Reardon doesn't hunker down in the hotel for the night. Instead, he's
off for dinner with his friends who live there and who are a major
part of his life.

He stays in Tokyo overnight and flies the next day to Hong Kong or
Manila. After a 36-hour layover, he returns to Tokyo, then back to the
Twin Cities the next day.

Reardon's time in the air keeps his body at a trim 160 pounds. Working
a flight is like a workout: more than 12 hours of remaining tense and
braced, twisting and balancing much of the time.

The job is a lot more physical than the public realizes, said John
Murray, a Northwest flight attendant for 37 years. Just being in a
pressurized cabin for a 12-hour flight takes a toll.

"That's what amazes me - that he could still do it," Murray said of
Reardon.

Being a flight attendant at Northwest is becoming more of an endurance
test.

Before the most recent work rule changes and pay cuts imposed upon the
flight attendants in July, Reardon typically averaged 72 to 74 hours
per month of flight time. To meet the new minimum requirement of 75
hours per month, Reardon had to add another flight to his monthly
schedule: roundtrip to Honolulu, boosting his flying time to 82 hours.

Attendants could be scheduled with as many as 100 hours a month.
That's just time in the air. Time on the ground, including boarding
and deplaning, or any ground delay, is unpaid. The increased hours
eventually will have to change, he says. "It's got to or people will
just drop over."

Reardon doesn't have to work for the money. His salary - though
recently cut 21 percent - will come to $36,000 to $38,000 per year.
Like many in his era, he receives a nice pension, which, after taxes,
amounts to $2,300 each month. Federal law allows people to collect
their pension at age 70½, working or not.

Unlike many of his co-workers, Reardon has no mortgage. He has no
children. Nor does he have car payments. A cabin cruiser he owns is
paid off. The rent for his Highland Village apartment runs $625 a
month. He doesn't worry about saving for old age because he's already
there.

"You have a stress-free existence," one flight attendant told him.

Stress free, perhaps. Persnickety definitely.

Before each of his trips, he goes to the neighborhood barber for the
minutest trim of his short gray hair, which he keeps combed into place
and shot full of hair spray on his trips. Halfway through the 12½-hour
flights to Asia, he changes into a fresh shirt. His garment carry-on
bag is packed in the same precise manner, with four days' change of
underwear and an extra change of clothes - in case his luggage doesn't
make it. His attaché case is packed the same always: with four types
of currency, traveler's checks and his passport.

His exacting manner leaves little room for suggestions or negotiation.

"He knows exactly how he wants things done," says his friend and
co-worker Lori Rothmund, who also is an international purser. "He
knows his job and how things should be done, and he does it
consistently. He is just a perfectionist."

Reardon began his career with Northwest in 1951 with a mind to take a
year and a half break from his post-graduate studies in French and
Spanish literature at the University of Minnesota. Studying was
getting tiring and he needed a change of pace.

At that time, the plan was to return to school after his break and
then pursue a career as a foreign-service officer. Plans have a way of
getting derailed.

"I liked the job so much that I didn't want to quit," he said. "A year
would go by, another year would go by. After 20 years, I said, 'Well,
I guess it's permanent.' "

The job becomes a lifestyle, particularly for someone who lives alone.

"That is part of the reason Bob is still there," said Wanda Murray, a
flight attendant, who is married to John Murray. "He has a lot of
friends in Asia. His co-workers - in our own way - we are family."

Maybe it's living the life he loves that keeps him young and healthy
and on the job. Maybe it's passion for the work or the uncomplicated
life he leads. For one, while he hears his job described as high
stress, he doesn't consider it so. Not yet, anyway. If that changes,
so will he.

"If I don't feel well," Reardon says simply, "I'll quit."

Actually, this is great. I don't blame this guy one bit. If you enjoy
it and can do it, by all means, keep doing it. I would have no problem
having this guy as a flight attendant. In fact, Northwest should be
credited with not finding some lame excuse to get rid of him.

Charles R. Whealton
Charles Whealton @ pleasedontspam.com