ALASKA AIRLINES' new flight-attendant uniforms look good. There's just one problem: the new clothes made some employees break out in rashes. About 10%of the carrier's flight attendants had issues with the uniforms, the attendants' union wrote to the airline last month. The union believes that Tributyl phosphate, an odourless liquid that is found in some detergents, may be the cause of the problem. One of the employees who had problems spoke to Seattle's NBC affiliate about her uniform:


That sounds terrible, and Gulliver sends his sympathies—especially after seeing the images in the NBC report. The airline says it's still not sure what the problem is. "Numerous tests by three different labs have been unable to determine the cause of the physical reactions," Andy Schneider of Alaska Airlines told NBC. In the meantime, the company says it is providing alternate uniforms to employees who are having reactions.

Ultimately, it seems like the airline handled this situation pretty well—it acknowledged there was a problem, sought out the cause, and provided a temporary fix in the meantime. I'd be curious to learn how long it took Alaska to realise that this was a real issue, and when it decided to allow flight attendants to wear the alternative uniform. The uniform was introduced in 2011, so some flight attendants may have suffered through these issues for some time. 

There's another lesson here, too. Customer service—which, fundamentally, is most of what flight attendants do—is a hard job. Customers can be grumpy and impatient, and low-level employees often have little power to actually solve the problems that make customers angry. I imagine the job is even harder when you're breaking out in hives from the uniform you're required to wear. So next time your flight attendant seems a little short with you, or doesn't respond to your request right away, cut her a little slack. Maybe she's just itchy!