There are conventional ways to make a public statement, and then there’s Ryanair’s September 21st approach. In a post to Twitter, the airline published a job posting for a “Junior Cert/Transition Year Student who will have sole responsibility for compiling Ireland’s Green list on a weekly basis.” Clicking on the link will take ‘potential applicants’ to a spoof job posting, which criticizes how Ireland has handled its list of countries deemed safe to travel to.
Details of the job posting
The job posting was made public via a Ryanair Twitter post on September 21st. The post takes on the appearance of being entirely serious, as can be seen below:
We have been exclusively retained by the Irish Government in their search for a Junior Cert/Transition Year Student who will have sole responsibility for compiling Ireland’s Green list on a weekly basis.
You can apply here: https://t.co/3OVxhWEjR5
— Ryanair Press Office (@RyanairPress) September 21, 2020
Those interested by the real workable.com link posted in the Tweet will be taken to the job posting. The job advert is reasonably concise but satirically points out the seemingly random nature of Ireland’s Greenlist as shown below:
Job Responsibilities
Compile Ireland’s Green list based on the following games:
- Bingo
- The Lotto (Euro Millions)
- Pin the donkey to the tail (in this case, the country)
- Scrabble
- Darts (each number represents a country and you only have 6 darts each week)
- Snap
- Charades
The post is also critical of how the government has thus far analyzed data, saying:
“No prior experience is required and preference will be given to applicants who have attention to detail and are very good at analyzing data, this is something we are lacking in the team at the moment.”
What is Ireland’s Green list?
On September 15th, the Irish government agreed that moving forward, it will have a ”Green list” that will be updated every week. For all arrivals into Ireland not on the Green list, the following restrictions are in place for 14 days:
- Do not go to work.
- Do not use public transport.
- Do not have visitors at your home.
- Do not visit others, even if you usually care for them.
- Do not go to the shops or pharmacy unless it’s absolutely necessary – where possible, order your groceries online or have some family or friends drop them off.
- Do not meet face-to-face with older people, anyone with a long-term medical condition or pregnant women.
Countries on the Green list are those that have “a 14 day cumulative number of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 of 25 or less, based on the latest data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).”
Ryanair’s frustrations
With all arrivals into Ireland (not on the Green list) facing 14 days of near-total quarantine, the market for international travel is severely hampered. The list of restricted movements would discourage not only international visitors from entering but also prevent Irish holidaymakers from heading to warmer climates for a short vacation. This is because they would face 14 days of not being able to work or go out upon their return to Ireland.
Ryanair believes that this is influencing travel and the economy as noted in this part of the job advert:
“This is a fantastic opportunity to join an organization where you will be given responsibility from day one and your actions will have a big influence on travel for our citizens and the wider economy.”
What do you think of Ryanair’s publicity stunt? Do you agree with the airline’s assessment of how the Irish government has been handling travel restrictions? Or is Ryanair failing to recognize the government’s process? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Simple Flying reached out to Ryanair’s press team requesting an official statement to accompany its spoof job posting. We also contacted Workable to comment on their platform being used to make this unconventional statement. At the time of publication, the airline nor Workable has yet to respond.
