Passengers berate you on a daily basis - the worst things imaginable are said to you every single day, no matter how polite you are to them. I have even had people mock me for being nice just because they were in a bad mood.
Media and passengers treat you as a joke. Passengers tell you to your face that "your job is a joke, you should be ashamed of yourself". Media often twists things to make us look bad. Be prepared to feel ashamed and embarrassed of the work you do.
I dreaded going to work every day.
Highly regimented - you literally have to tell supervisors when you have to use the bathroom, and you cannot be even 30 seconds late to work or late from coming back from break. You have to do every procedure perfectly, even when the procedures change weekly and the supervisor forgets to tell you that the procedure has changed.
You can be disciplined severely if you do a procedure incorrectly (hasn't happened to me, but I saw others lose their job on a regular basis).
You are tested constantly. Every day is an opportunity to be covertly tested and potentially lose your job.
We cannot lean or sit for most of the day, and are not allowed to have our hands in our pockets or talk about non-work-related topics in front of passengers (which is pretty much all day). Apparently we are expected to be robots at all times.
No room to get some alone time. You are constantly working with others every second of the day.
Physically demanding job - if you have or develop any long-term disability (that cannot be tied to an owcp claim) and cannot perform all functions of the job you will receive a non-disciplinary removal.
You are basically treated like you need to act like a perfect robot or a mentally handicapped child by management and the public. No room for errors and no room for independent thought or action. I do not recommend this job for creative types.
No holidays and odd schedule - it is hard to get weekends off unless you have been here for years. Seniority rules everything here.
Recent introduction of unions has made things even more regimented and awful.
If you come on board now it is next to impossible to get a full-time job - you will be working a 20 hour week for 4 years before you can be made full-time.
