Uniform and body: the weight conversation, the grooming check, and how crew actually talk about it among themselves
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#1 South African, Emirates, and I want to have the conversation about bodies and uniform that happens in every crew room and never on a forum, because the candidates ask in code and the crew answer in code and nobody says the actual thing.
The actual thing
Some airlines have a proportional weight standard. It is not a number on a chart, mostly, it is a uniform fit standard enforced at the grooming check: does the uniform fit as issued, are you within the sizes they issue, does it sit the way the standard says. Some airlines (some Asian carriers, some Gulf carriers) are more explicit about it than others. European and US carriers mostly do not have one and have the uniform in more sizes.
How it is enforced
A grooming check by a purser or a grooming officer, at sign on or on a random flight. If the uniform does not fit, you are told. At some airlines you are given a period to 'address it' and a follow up check. It is not subtle and it is not kind, in the sense that it is a standard being applied to a body, and that is a strange thing to experience.
How crew talk about it
In the accommodation, constantly. The pre check diet, the crew who know the grooming officer's rotation and time their checks, the crew who have had the conversation and cried, the crew who have had it and shrugged. There is a lot of shared knowledge about which uniform sizes are the forgiving ones and which are not.
What I think
The standard exists because the airline sells an image and the uniform is the image. I understand it and I do not entirely agree with it, and I have watched it hurt colleagues who were perfectly capable crew. I have also watched it be applied fairly and with warning. Both things.
For candidates
Ask the airline plainly what the standard is. If they will not say, the crew on this forum will. And know that the standard follows you through the career, not just the open day.
For crew
How does your airline handle it, and is the conversation different where you are?
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#2 SIA, and the standard is explicit and the kebaya is unforgiving and the check is regular. It is part of the job here and the crew who thrive have made peace with it. The ones who could not, left. I am not defending it. I am describing it.
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#3 easyJet, and we do not have one, the uniform comes in every size, and reading this thread from a UK carrier is like reading about a different profession. It is the same profession. The standards are just wildly different by airline.
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#4 Korean Air, and it is explicit and checked and discussed constantly, exactly as Sophie describes. The 'timing the checks' knowledge is real. The crying is real. The shrugging is also real, after enough years.
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#5 Delta, and the US carriers have no weight standard and have not for decades, and a candidate reading this should know that if the standard is the thing stopping them, the US majors and most European carriers are open doors on this specific point.
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#6 @cassieatl exactly the reason I wanted the thread to exist. The candidate who is put off by the Gulf standard has a whole other set of airlines to look at.
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#7 Emirates, and I want to add one thing: the standard is applied more gently than the crew room gossip says. I have had the conversation once in five years, with warning, kindly. The gossip is about the harsh cases. The average case is a quiet word.