For The Record- 10. May. 2025

This is my scenario. Phonograph and radio.

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Earlier this week, I learned that two-sided mounting tape and plaster are a bad combo. Or rather, they work really well together. On a wall in one of our back offices, there are plaques for everyone who has completed twenty-five years of service, and a coworker and I were trying to take one down.

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A system seniority list is stratified; it looks like a sedimentary rock with dates that echo the ups and downs of the American economy and, by extension, the health of any given airline. You learn where you fit in very fast. Your date means everything, from what shift you work to whether or not you’ll get a seat on an airplane. You start at day 1, but each shift builds a little more equity until, before you know it, you've got some juice. You have more than a couple of shifts to pick from. You might get a holiday off. And you might get a seat on a plane to a place you actually want to go. With time, those layers above yours peel off; you work your way up, an hour at a time.

The blocks—or lack of them—tell a story. Sometimes that story is the downfall of another carrier. There are a lot of 1989 and 91 hires at my airline, for example. There are relatively few people with 2002, ‘05, or ‘08 hire dates (owing to 9/11, a bankruptcy, and the Great Financial Collapse, respectively). To make it this far means you’ve seen some things. You've survived.

But behind all those dates are real people putting in the work. Countless days, nights, evenings, weekends. Christmases at work. Thanksgiving with coworkers. Missed softball games and school plays. Countless predawn mornings, white knuckling it to work on what you hope is still the road. Afternoons in humidity so thick you swear you could carve chunks of it out with a knife. You build a skill set and acquire a lot of institutional knowledge. You make some friends. With time, the bonds grow sticky. If there’s a tip or trick, eventually you learn it—ideally from someone who came before you…like affixing things to walls in a heavily trafficked area with two-sided mounting tape so people won't hit them with their backpacks.

If you’re well-liked, you pick up a nickname or two.

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Thanks for being here! The rest of the story, some fantastic long form articles and a playlist are just on the other side of the line.