2022
August
09
Tuesday

Monitor Daily Podcast

August 09, 2022
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Sara Miller Llana
Americas Bureau Chief

Watching luggage pile up in airports and delayed passengers pack terminals for months, Australia’s largest airline, Qantas, has come up with a solution to the travel disruptions. It has asked executives to leave office suites to help haul luggage. 

According to a memo written by CEO Colin Hughes, the airline needs 100 volunteers to work shifts of up to three months at the main airports in Sydney and Melbourne, to address a labor shortage that contributed to 8.1% of domestic flights being canceled in June. 

Going from “pushing paper” to pushing suitcases, which could weigh up to 70 pounds each, will hopefully ease the airline’s temporary logistical woes. But the unintended consequence might be more long-lasting: putting management in the shoes of workers.

I have worked at the Monitor for 20 years, mostly as an international correspondent in Mexico City, Paris, and now Toronto. The relationship with “Boston,” as we writers here call the editors, is mostly harmonious. But frustrations sometimes mount. It can sound something like this: “Editor, I stayed up all night to finish this article that you said you needed right away, and two days later no one has even read it!”

Over the holidays this past year, I was asked to fill in on the international editing desk to manage some of our own staffing shortages. On my first day, I didn’t have time for lunch. I was quickly humbled by how many moving parts there are and how much goes into the production of our paper beyond my individual labor. I suddenly understood why, when I file a story, it’s not always read right away or has to wait to be published. Marveling at it still as I take on more editing duties, I have mentioned a “job swap” to our managing editor, as an exercise in understanding others and our collective daily efforts.

My experience at the Monitor applies to the most polarized issues of our day. Support for immigration is always highest among those who have immigrants as neighbors. Even the hardest views against abortion can be malleable when a family member or close friend finds herself in need. 

In this case, Qantas surely has its eye on the company’s bottom line. But the airline may just be providing staff the ultimate training in empathy. 


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

ZINARA RATHNAYAKE
Dial Muktieh prepares lunch at her Mei-Ramew Cafe, which opened in 2019, in the village of Khweng, India, on July 25, 2022. The spread includes native rice, smoked fish, pork, chicken, foraged crabs, and condiments prepared with wild greens and herbs.

Book review

Universal Photo/SIPA/Newscom/File
Josephine Baker, in an undated photo, models a costume created for her show by French designer Balmain.

Difference-maker

Stephen Humphries/The Christian Science Monitor
Chef Brandon Chrostowski (center) teaches trainees inside the kitchen for Edwins Too, one of his two French fine dining restaurants on the East Side of Cleveland.

The Monitor's View

AP
An Imam leads a group of men in prayer at the Islamic Center of New Mexico in Albuquerque, Aug. 7.

A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

A message of love

Chris Symes/Photosport/AP/File
Serena Williams holds her daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., and the ASB trophy after winning her singles finals match against Jessica Pegula at the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, Jan. 12, 2020. On Aug. 9, 2022, Ms. Williams announced that, following the U.S. Open, which begins Aug. 29, she will be stepping away from tennis and turning her focus to having another child and to her business interests. “I’m turning 41 this month, and something’s got to give,” Ms. Williams wrote in an essay released Aug. 9 by Vogue magazine. Over the course of her career, Ms. Williams has won 23 Grand Slam titles.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte and Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us. Come back tomorrow when our Scott Peterson reports on whether the progress made in the Iran nuclear talks is enough to overcome deep distrust and save the deal.

More issues

2022
August
09
Tuesday
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