A few weeks back, I described the ARSE Test here, a 24-item "self-rating" survey taken from The No Asshole Rule . The ARSE has been completed by more than 100,000 people since we launched it on Guy Kawasaki's blog in February. There is also a sequel to the ARSE Test, called "The Flying ARSE." I developed this 24-item self-rating test to help answer the question, "Do you make air travel miserable for everyone else?" Take it at www.flyingarse.com .
Here is the cute and silly logo that was developed by the folks over at Electric Pulp :
The Flying ARSE was inspired by the stories that people told me after they read the section in The No Asshole Rule about how Southwest and JetBlue have banned persistently nasty passengers. I had a lot of reaction to the story from Ann Rhoades about a loud and rude passenger who was hurling insults at Southwest employees. Ann was the Executive Vice-President for People at Southwest for years. When I interviewed her for the book, she relayed to me how a fellow Southwest executive walked up to the irate passenger, told him that Southwest people didn't deserve such treatment, and walked the brute over to the American Airlines counter and bought him a ticket. As Ann put it, "People who work for us don't have to take abuse."
When I blogged about rude air travelers and asked for suggestions for survey items, I received dozens of emails and comments. The worst was from a woman who was groped by 70 year-old religious zealot AFTER he had eaten a can of tuna fish with his fingers. Gross! Most flying arse's do their dirty work in much more subtle ways. Consider a few sample items from the test:
You are skilled at multi-tasking -- walking on the plane, dealing with your luggage, talking on your cellphone all at once. Sure, you sometimes stand in the aisle a little longer and bump into people, but it is a good use of YOUR time.
You have a lot of miles on the airline and make sure that every employee understands that you deserve superior service.
You put your elbows on both armrests, even if there is someone sitting next to you.
Join Pam Slim over at Escape From Cubicle Nation and Diego Rodriguez over at Metacool and the other 6,000 or so people who have taken the Flying ARSE. Pam scored a 2 and Diego got a 3. I scored a 4; my biggest weakness is that I am overly aggressive about getting out of the plane. I try to stop myself, but I can't help unbuckling my seatbelt too soon.
Take the test for yourself, or with someone else in mind. And if you have stories about flying arses you have encountered or if you have ideas for additional items that we might add to the Flying ARSE, I would love to hear from you.
