ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the challenges that crew face when they try to combine a healthy social calendar with the demands of their job. Crew often spend up to 20 days per month away from home. Such lengthy absences obviously put pressure on social relationships. Crew must come to understand the formalities and requirements of the airline they work for and fit in to its culture. The irregular patterns of work and the frequent absence from home can make it difficult for crew to develop and maintain social relationships at home. When this is compounded by pressures of managing one's sleep pattern as well as the constant changing crew composition at work, crew are often left with the complex task of dealing with a multitude of simultaneous stressors all at once. Though spare time should provide ample opportunities to build new social relationships, irregular work patterns make it more difficult for crew to meet new people.
