Flight attendant makes most of time off the job
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Barbara Goya never got to finish her Kane'ohe kitchen renovation after she was furloughed from her job as a Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant. That annual ski trip to Whistler, Canada? Out of the question. So was a planned family cruise.
Goya, 39, found herself collecting $380 a week in unemployment and decided to face her fears about college.
"I thought I'd suck at it," she said. Before enrolling at Kapi'olani Community College, Goya's education consisted of a diploma from Castle High School.
And yet Goya is grateful for the chances she has gotten since Hawaiian laid off 430 employees. Goya was one of the thousands of Hawai'i workers whose job took a traumatic twist after Sept. 11. And she was among those determined to find the positive amid the negative.
Her father has Alzheimer's disease and now she can help her mother take care of him. She volunteers for Jehovah's Witness Bible studies and has otherwise tried to reinvent herself.
"I'm the kind of person who looks for the blessings in life," Goya said. "This has made me stronger spiritually and emotionally. I'm a better wife (to her husband Milton, a Hawaiian Electric Co. meter installer) because I have the time and I'm not all stressed-out like everybody else."
But Hawaiian sent Goya and 131 other flight attendants notices in March that it was recalling them as of June.
Goya had worked at Hawaiian Airlines since high school — in accounts payable, as a catering supervisor and in-flight supervisor. She wanted to see more parts of the airlines operation, though, and in November 2000 took a 40 percent pay cut to start over as a junior flight attendant.
The pay is only a couple of hundred dollars more per month than she takes home now in unemployment benefits. But the money wasn't the most important part about being furloughed.
"It wasn't just a job," Goya said. "It was a family. I felt a real loss."
And so even though she's glad to go back to work, Goya feels blessed for the time she has had off.
"I spent my time well," she said. "Now I'm ready to go back to work."
Reach Dan Nakaso at 525-8085 or dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.
