SIA Chief Stewardess after fifteen years: running the cabin on the A350 and the 777, the audits from the senior side
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#1 SIA, and I have written the promotion path and the Malaysian threads without saying where I am on the path: Chief Stewardess, fifteen years, the red kebaya. Grace's name on the earlier threads was the Leading grade's view. This is the Chief's, because the long game the SIA threads describe has an end and I am near it.
The Chief's role
Running a cabin (the business or the economy on the long haul, the whole aircraft on some regional sectors) with the Leading Stewards and Stewardesses in the zones, the service standard as the responsibility, the audits as the thing the Chief is measured by across the whole cabin, the crew's appraisals, the liaison with the In Flight Manager and the flight deck, the passenger escalations. The Chief is the standard's keeper on the aircraft.
The audits from the senior side
Evelyn's thread described them from the crew's side. From the Chief's: the audit results for every crew member in my cabin come to me and the pattern across a crew is my appraisal. A Chief whose cabin audits consistently well is a Chief on the In Flight Manager list. A Chief whose cabin has a weak zone has a conversation with the Leading in that zone. The audits are the whole system and the Chief lives in them.
The five year contracts renewed three times
The SIA contract is fixed term and renewable, as every SIA thread says. Mine has been renewed three times and the fourth is next year. Each renewal was the record, the audits, the appraisals, the medical. The crew who worry about the renewal in year four are the ones who have not looked at their file; the file decides and the file is years of audits. Fifteen years is three renewals and a career the airline chose to continue three times, which is the long game's reward and its condition.
The long game the airline rewards
The SIA pension of a long career is the thing the Gulf money does not give, as the pension thread said. The Chief's scale after fifteen years, the allowances on the long haul the Chief holds, the staff travel, the status in Singapore of the red kebaya. The crew who stayed for the long game are the Chiefs and the In Flight Managers and they are paid for the years. The crew who left for the Gulf at five years have the savings and not the scale, and both are rational.
The honest view from the red kebaya
Fifteen years of audits is a specific kind of life: every flight scored, every renewal a review, every service the standard. It made me the crew member I am and it is tiring in a way the Gulf crew on this forum describe differently. The airline rewarded it with the grade and the scale and the pension. I would do it again and I understand the ones who did five years and went.
For the Flight Stewardesses in year one
The audits are the file and the file is the renewal and the renewal is the career. Treat 34C as the assessor, as Lily said, and in fifteen years the red kebaya is yours if you want it. The long game is long. It pays at the end.
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#2 SIA, and Grace in the red kebaya is the thing the Leading grade aims at and the audits from the Chief's side is the half of the system I did not have. The pattern across a crew as the Chief's appraisal explains the conversations I have had with my Chiefs. Fifteen years. The long game has a face.
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#3 SIA, year one, Malaysian, and reading the Chief's view of the audits that I treat 34C as the assessor for is the whole system from the top. Three renewals. The file. The red kebaya in fifteen years is the thing I will think about at 5am at Changi.
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#4 JAL purser, and the SIA Chief's audit life is the JAL purser's service standard life in a different uniform: every flight the standard, the crew's appraisals as yours. The Asian premium carriers' senior crew share the tiredness and the pride. Grace has written it from fifteen years.
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#5 Jakarta, SIA walk in done and waiting, and the long game being long and paying at the end is the sentence I needed next to the Gulf threads. The five year crew and the fifteen year crew are both rational. I think I want the kebaya for fifteen.
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#6 Qantas international, and the SIA Chief's fifteen years of audits is the kind of career the Australian crew respect from the Singapore layover: the standard kept for a career. Our agreement protects the years differently. Both reward the long game.
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#7 Emirates, five years, and the Chief at fifteen with three renewals is the SIA version of the career I chose not to have by coming to the Gulf. Grace's honesty about the tiredness and the pension is the comparison every five year crew should read before the sixth.
