BA CABIN CREW NAME BADGES

POST BUGADVISOR

This isn’t important to me, but I wondered why some British Airways crew badges have first name/last name and some have first name only. The reasons I can think of are:

Staff choose to have their surname removed for personal security, passengerturns-stalker reasons.

Mixed fleet are only allowed first name – maybe so the badges can be re-used after they leave within a year!

FDOS_UK

It’s cost saving, printing one name is less expensive. BA did this with their aircraft in the 1980s and the idea has been recycled as a new management initiative.

ALEX_F.

It all started with the CEO. Why be Mr Walsh if you can be called Willie?

DEREKVH

Easy to find someone on social media if you have first and last name – I can understand why a move to first name only would be preferred by most staff.

RFERGUSON

The name badge comes under the domain of BA’s Uniform Standards.

Oddly, there are two different sets of uniform standards – one for the legacy crew, and one for the new mixed fleet crew.

For the legacy crew, it is at their discretion as to whether they order their name badge with their first name only, or full name. Cabin service directors have to have their full name, as do all mixed fleet crew.

There has been some amalgamation of standards. For example, originally only mixed fleet female crew wore the hat. Now the legacy crew on the A380 and 787 do as well. Previously mixed fleet female crew were not allowed to wear trousers, and the skirt was mandatory like their legacy crew colleagues. They can now wear trousers. For legacy crew, the requirement was that any tattoos be covered and not visible. For mixed fleet any tattoo prevented a potential candidate from being selected, even if it was in an area that could be covered. They have now changed this silly rule.

ALEX_F.

crew are safety and service providers. I don’t see the relevance of cabin crew name tags including a surname. For identification purposes a passenger can always ask the crew member for their surname and explain why they need it (for example, to write a compliment). The crew member can provide it at their discretion. In any case, if there is a serious need to identify a crew member, there are other ways of achieving this, such as their ID card.

RFERGUSON

Even if writing a compliment/complaint letter about a crew member, you wouldn’t need a surname. On each flight the senior cabin crew member completes an “onboard form” on the iPad, and enters where on the aircraft each crew member is working: which cabin, which aisle etc. So theoretically, even if you had no name at all and sent a letter with your seat number, customer relations should notify the crew member/members working in that aisle or part of the aircraft. I guess there could be a situation where you might have two Janes working in first class or on a short-haul Airbus, and if you really wanted to recognise one of them it would be necessary to ask for a name.

Personally, I choose to have my full name on my name badge. No social media stalkers so far (sigh). Lol.

CANUCKLAD

I think DerekVH makes a very relevant point, and I’m surprised that it forms part of a uniform standard to have a person’s full name displayed prominently.

In this age of facial recognition software aligned to easy access to social media and its inherent risks, I’d have thought that BA would have a dutyof-care to protect its customer-facing employees from the potential threat of deranged nutters who have disembarked into the wilderness of anonymity.

I get that rferguson doesn’t mind sharing his full name, but I’d ask rferguson if he’d be happy to reveal his full name to the unknown loons he’s serving if his name was Chumba Wamba or Bobby Bordeaux or some other name, and no disrespect, but these are not as common as "Ferguson".

Where I work, customer-facing employees are encouraged not to share their full name if it’s requested. Rather they share their employee ID number and their first name. And our compliance officers agree with this approach.

CEDRIC_STATHERBY

I agree that preserving personal privacy is going to be a good part of this. After all, how many of us posting on this forum post under our real names?

FDOS_UK

I’d suggest numbers, like policemen, because they all look the same to me and you know what they say about your time of life when the police look young...