Alaska Airlines Flight Attendant Fired For Making ‘Inappropriate’ In-Flight Video Launches GoFundMe

• A former Alaska Airlines flight attendant was fired after her twerk video went viral.
• She insists the video was harmless and has started a GoFundMe campaign to support her.
• A growing debate about where employers should draw the line when policing personal social media content is now raging.

A now former Alaska Airlines flight attendant, recently identified as San Francisco native Nelle Diala, is seeking financial support through a GoFundMe campaign after being dismissed from her job for posting a viral twerk video on TikTok.

In her own words, the 15-second clip that was filmed at 6am on a Boeing 737 while she waited two hours for the pilots to arrive was simply “a little twerk before work.” And yet, perhaps unsurprisingly, the resulting backlash, combined with allegations of breaching the airline’s social media policy, led to her swift termination.

The Viral TikTok

According to reports, Diala had only been with Alaska Airlines for around six months and was, in a wonderfully ironic turn, celebrating the end of her probationary period when she recorded the offending video. She originally captioned the clip “ghetto till I die, don’t let the uniform fool you”, but for many viewers, this statement alone was enough to call for her dismissal on the grounds of unprofessionalism.

Whether it was the caption, video, or, most likely, both, the airline took fast and furious action, with Diala later claiming she was fired without a formal opportunity to defend herself.

In a recent reposting of the video, she used the hashtag #discriminationisreal and expressed frustration at her loss of income as a result of, what she considers, mere personal expression. Critics have come down hard on her for cut-and-dried poor judgement, while others argued that the airline’s policies give employees too broad scope to determine whether content could negatively impact their image. Either way, the end result was the same: Diala found herself unemployed almost as quickly as her video had gone viral.

Personal Expression or Something Worse?

Most airlines maintain strict social media policies that forbid any content potentially damaging to the brand from being posted by their employees. More often than not, these policies contain open-ended language requiring employees to [we’re paraphrasing] “avoid posting anything that could reflect negatively on the company.”

Unsurprisingly, Diala insists that her video was harmless, explaining that she never linked her “performance” to Alaska Airlines by name. However, her official uniform and the aircraft cabin backdrop likely made this a difficult defence to stand on…

While flight attendant roles typically carry heightened standards of professionalism compared to similar and, indeed, similarly paid jobs, the jury of public opinion is out on whether the consequences were too severe or entirely justified. Diala’s situation has prompted a widespread debate around how far employers should go in policing personal social media content and whether certain creative expressions automatically violate professional guidelines.

Diala’s GoFundMe: A Slow Start

Diala has now turned to GoFundMe in an effort to raise $12,000 to help fund her “blossoming lingerie and dessert business”, operated under the handles @cakezncake and @figure8.lingerie respectively. Unfortunately, as of mid-January, she has only accumulated about $180.

Things have only gone from bad to worse for Diala, with the unexpected passing of her two beloved English bulldogs and a rocky personal relationship adding to her difficulties in recent months. Nevertheless, she maintains that she loved working as a flight attendant and is in good spirits.