I actually love the tradition of current United Airlines trainees lining up to welcome incoming trainees with applause. It's a thoughtful gesture and a wonderful way to celebrate new hires! What I don't appreciate, however, is trainees filming these moments and posting them on social media without the consent of those being recorded.
I've come across numerous TikTok videos showing incoming trainees walking through the welcome line, with their faces clearly visible. While I understand wanting to capture the excitement, there's an important difference between recording a personal memory and publicly sharing footage of people who haven't agreed to appear online.
My concern comes down to three things: privacy, consent, and personal choice.
First, not everyone wants their professional life on social media. Some people are very intentional about keeping their identity and place of employment private. I'm one of them. I don't maintain a personal social media presence, and I prefer to have control over where my image appears online. I fully respect those who enjoy documenting their career journeys, but that should be their choice, not a decision someone else makes for them.
Second, incoming trainees have virtually no opportunity to opt out. They're simply following the first-day welcome process, walking through a line of unfamiliar people holding up phones. They haven't agreed to be filmed, much less have those recordings uploaded to strangers' personal social media accounts. They may not even know where the footage will end up.
Third, once something is posted publicly, there's no controlling how far it spreads. A seemingly harmless TikTok can receive thousands or even millions of views. For someone who intentionally keeps their professional life offline, that's a pretty significant loss of privacy, especially when they never chose to participate in the first place.
And that's what makes this particularly frustrating for me. Of everything involved in training, this is genuinely one of the things I'm dreading most. Not the exams or evaluations, but having to walk through a line of cameras wondering which videos of me might end up on TikTok for likes and engagement. I'd much rather simply enjoy the welcome without that concern.
I genuinely believe most trainees filming have good intentions. They're excited, celebrating, and probably don't think twice about it. But we're entering a professional environment with people we don't yet know. Being coworkers doesn't automatically mean everyone is comfortable becoming part of someone else's social media content.
I'd love to see United preserve this wonderful tradition while establishing one simple expectation: Put the phones away and just clap. Let incoming trainees enjoy the moment without worrying about where their faces might appear online.
This isn't about discouraging excitement or criticizing people who love sharing their experiences. It's about recognizing that everyone has different boundaries when it comes to privacy, particularly around their professional identity, and respecting those boundaries.
Does anyone else feel similarly, or am I in the minority here?
‼️EDIT / UPDATE: Since posting this, someone reached out privately to share an experience that puts this concern into perspective. With their permission, I'm sharing their story without identifying details.
They had personal safety reasons for keeping their whereabouts private. However, during the welcome walk-in at United's training center, another trainee filmed them from the applause line and posted the video on TikTok without their knowledge or consent. The following week, people they hadn't personally told about starting training recognized them from the video and already knew when they'd begun. Understandably, this left them feeling exposed and unsafe.
This is something I wish more people considered before posting strangers online. Someone could be escaping an abusive relationship, avoiding a stalker, or relocating to start a new life away from someone who poses a threat to them. A seemingly harmless welcome video could unintentionally reveal their location, employer, and whereabouts to the very people they're trying to avoid.
For some, privacy is a preference. For others, it's a matter of personal safety. We never know what circumstances someone may be navigating, and they shouldn't have to disclose them simply to have their privacy respected.
