Thursday, April 16, 2009

Scary.

A tour operator that was in business for 37 years here in Canada closed down yesterday. For somebody like me, working in the travel industry, that's nothing reassuring, but I feel like the company I work for will get out of this bad financial climate strong and alive.


What scares me the most is the comments I have seen on news websites, such as CBC.ca. People are bashing the company, of course, blaming them for everything, but have they thought of the people working for them ? Hundreds of employees were laid off as a result. Hundreds of people no longer have a job. That's what is the saddest.Yes, passengers are out of pocket, but at least, the credit card companies and the trust funds created for those situations will help them get their money back... The ones at destination will be brought back on their original flight, airlines already confirmed that information yesterday.


But those who lost their jobs can't get any money back. They will go on unemployment and maybe find a job, somewhere, sometime. In this situation, nobody really wins. The company recorded huge losses which lead to them closing, the passengers are not stuck, but are facing an extremely frustration situation, and the employees had to go home yesterday without a job or the confirmation they would even find one later on.


Please, people, be human. Take the passenger's side if you want, but also think of the other people implied in this. This is nothing funny, and there is always two sides to a medal.

1 comment:

verydeterminedin2010 said...

I can definitely see the problem from both sides, but like you say it's the economical climate right now, and people have to start realising that businesses going under etc is going to happen. I work in the tourist/travel/leisure industry too, and it is the FIRST thing to suffer when people have less or no extra money to play with. I got laid off about 3 weeks ago, and so I really do feel for all of those people who have now also lost their jobs. Thanks for your interesting post :)