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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

MOVIE REVIEW – UP IN THE AIR

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 The movie “Up in the Air” is about the job and life of Ryan Bingham. Mr. Bingham job
is to handle the delicate process of delivering bad news to employees who are about to be layoff
on their job, for companies who cannot do it internally. The process of dismissing people in their
job is something that cannot be fully eliminated in a company, especially during the time of
financial difficulties. This process is typically done internally; however, it is something that will
makes someone feel bad or burden, that is why some companies prefer to outsource this process
externally or because they would like to smoothen the process by letting more experience people
to handle the process.

In the movie, the process of dismissing people is done externally through a traditional face-
to-face conversation, but things start to get complicated in the arrival of Natalie Keener, a young,
bright, and ambitious new employee. Ms. Keener offers new method of doing their business which
is through remote video conferencing. Due to the introduction of a new method the traditional
method is facing a total transformation, and like every other change, this change encounters some
resistance in the personality of Mr. Bingham. Mr. Bingham is against the idea of doing their job
through remote video conferencing, not just because it can affect the way he used to do his job but
also because of his knowledge and experience on the job that made him recognize what are the
challenges in this new method. As pointed out when Mr. Bingham asked Ms. Keener to try firing
him which the latter agreed during their meeting with their boss, Craig Gregory. During the
process of Ms. Keener trying to terminate Mr. Bingham, the latter stand up and acted to leave the
room with the intention to confront their boss, then the former tried to stop him, but Mr. Bingham
said to Ms. Keener “You cannot follow me. You’re on a computer screen, remember?” This is a
certain limitation of dismissing someone through remote video conference, given that you are in
different place, you cannot do anything to prevent things before it escalate to something
undesirable, which is something that your employer is definitely trying to avoid or don’t want to
happen. On the other hand, remote video conference only needs computer, webcam and internet
which is way more economical and more efficient than the face-to-face, since the face-to-face
method entails paying for travel tickets, hotel accommodations, vehicle rentals and fuels, insurance
premiums and most important of all is the time that spent during the travel. It is great that the
movie shows the advantages and disadvantages of both methods so the viewers can better
appreciate the differences of the two methods. Another noteworthy in the movie is the transition
process of employing a new method to the system, the transition from the resistance of the well
experience older generation against the fresh ideas of younger generation to letting the younger
generation experience the in and out of the process through the guidance of the older generation
and then the parallel simulation of the two methods. This can help both sides to better appreciate
and understand one another that can lead towards finding the middle ground. Although the new
method was halted in the movie, we cannot disregard the benefits that could be gain from the fresh
ideas of younger generations, and since the younger generations are the future, the older
generations should guide and support the younger generation towards the development of new
approaches to improve their way of life and to minimize the risk and impact of failure.

Other than the process of dismissing people, the lifestyle of Mr. Bingham is another
intriguing plot in the movie. Mr. Bingham spent 322 days a year on the road for his work and only
43 days in his apartment in Omaha, this is an indication of unbalance work-life style, but then
again the movie also displayed Mr. Bingham’s love, passion and proficiency on doing his job, his
compassion to soften the impact of the dismissal process to the laid off strangers and how his ideas
and opinion matters in his work when Mr. Craig allows him to speak freely and listen to him. In
addition to Mr. Bingham’s job, he is also a motivational speaker who discourage emotional
attachment and commitment which he also applies in his personal life when he disregards his
siblings and avoid serious relationship. Then everything changed when Mr. Bingham started to
reconnect himself and bonded with his two siblings, Kara and Julia during the latter’s wedding,
when he realized during one of his motivational speech that he developed a feeling of attachment
to Alex Goran, a woman who described herself to him as “Think of me as you, but with vagina,”
and when he unknowingly established a connection with Ms. Keener during their travel, which
become known to him after the resignation of Ms. Keener. Although Mr. Bingham press on with
his job after everything that happens, we can see how disheartened he is after what happened with
his relationship with Ms. Goran, that he forgot about his travel miles which he desires so much in
the beginning of the movie or the blank reaction in Mr. Bingham’s face when Mr. Craig announced
that he will back on the air that indicates his lack of motivation. This is how the movie end the
story of Mr. Bingham to let the viewers envision what could happen to someone with love, passion
and proficiency to his job and support from his work environment but with unmotivated and
disheartened emotion.
 To finish, the movie was released in 2009 but the concept or idea of this movie is still very
relevant up to this day, given that COVID pandemic allows the remote video conference to fully
exhibit its advantages during the lock down period and quarantine protocols. However, unlike
other topics that can simply be discussed through remote video conference, the process of
dismissing an employee is very delicate, and was described in the movie as, “What we do here is
brutal, and it does leave people devastated.” Upon watching this movie, you will not be able to
resist the thought of which method is correct? But we cannot be certain which method is better
since both methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, if you are in the
situation that you must dismiss a person the more appropriate question to ask yourself is, which
method will you use? Nevertheless, what really made the movie a real success is the integration
of various interview to laid-off people that can make someone realize how important to have a life
other than work and to make connections to people. The interview lines that impact me the most
are “Without my friends and my family, I wouldn’t have made it” and “It would have been a lot
tougher if I would have had to make it on my own.” This shows how work-life balance is as
important as someone’s love and passion to his/her job or the support and appreciation he/she can
get from work.