Free flight

Further evidence that this darned recession is for real:

British Airways has asked its employees to work for free for up to a month.

That’s right, frequent fliers. BA wants its 40,000 workers to give up those inconvenient paychecks for a month or so.

Now, I’ll admit that economics is not my strong point, but I thought the whole point of work was getting a paycheck?

If a worker works for free, is he really working? Isn’t it more along the lines of volunteering? Or slavery?

And how do you discipline a worker who’s taking one for the team? You can’t threaten to cut his pay because he doesn’t have any. I guess the next step is to force him to pay the company money for the privilege of showing up.

We’ll see how this shakes out. But if you’re boarding a BA flight soon and you see the captain at the doorway with his cap held upside down and asking for tips, well, just make sure your flight insurance is paid up.