British Airways has a new social media policy for employees, which is getting some mixed reactions…
British Airways restricts social media for staff
As of February 2023, British Airways has introduced new social media guidelines for employees. With this, employees are no longer allowed to post photos of them being “professionally engaged” in their jobs. In other words, pilots and flight attendants are no longer allowed to post photos from onboard aircraft while in uniform.
It’s not entirely clear if this policy change was motivated by one specific incident, or what exactly the reason for this new rule is.
As you’d expect for a company of British Airways’ size, employees took all kinds of different approaches toward social media. For example, Captain Dave is a British Airways Airbus A350 captain (former A380 captain), and he’s probably the most well known British Airways employee on social media, and he has a huge following on Twitter and Instagram.
That’s for good reason, as the guy is awesome. He shares his passion for flying, and is not only an amazing (unofficial) brand ambassador, but probably inspires all kinds of younger people to pursue a career as a pilot. That’s admirable.
He has shared on social media about how he will no longer be allowed to post about his flying. Admittedly on the other end of the spectrum, you have some employees who post content that’s a little bit less… inspiring? The reality is that for a lot of younger people, social media is a really important part of their life, and is even something they might consider when deciding what kind of a job to pursue.
Let’s be honest, British Airways’ starting pay for flight attendants isn’t exactly generous, and I think one major motivation some people have for taking the job is being able to “show off” their career on social media, the planes they fly, and all the places they go.
Content among many British Airways employees mirrored other trends we saw on social media, ranging from “what I eat in 24 hours” (during a layover) or “help me get dressed for work” (down to the underwear).
My take on British Airways’ social media policy change
I think there’s nothing wrong with creating very clear guidelines about what is and isn’t acceptable to post on social media. However, essentially doing a blanket social media ban for employees onboard aircraft seems bad for morale, and isn’t something I’d expect from an airline based in the UK.
For reference, Emirates and Etihad both allow pilots and flight attendants to post pictures from onboard aircraft, and those airlines are known for having fairly strict rules. Interestingly Qatar Airways doesn’t allow that, and I recently saw an Etihad cabin crew on social media mention that she chose to work for Etihad over Qatar Airways for exactly that reason.
Personally I think a ban like this is one step too far. The company should be happy that people take pride in working for the airline and want to post photos on social media. By all means hold people accountable if they violate rules or take their content too far, but this seems extreme. British Airways is never going to be able to control its image through all channels, and this seems like a strange way to try to control that.
Sure, social media is a mixed bag, but British Airways had some really great employees posting quality stuff, in my opinion.
Bottom line
British Airways employees are no longer allowed to post on social media about them being “professionally engaged” in their jobs. In other words, pilots and flight attendants can’t post pictures of themselves on aircraft, which is the content that was most frequently shared.
Among airlines in the West, British Airways now has one of the strictest social media policies for employees. Heck, the airline has a stricter policy than you’ll find at Emirates and Etihad.
What do you make of this new social media policy at British Airways?
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