Step out of the aisle.

We all know the announcement that most Flight Attendants make when boarding-

"Please step into the aisle when you arrive at your seat to allow others to board."

The airlines do not give Flight Attendants a lot of time to board up a plane, make sure everyone is going to the correct destination, change seats, hand out blankets, get all the bags in the overheads and all electronics turned off. Being on a smaller aircraft it really doesn't take that long to board up 50, 70 or 76 passengers and get going... but imagine a 747.... thats a bit more time!
(However, Flight Attendants- at least myself- would not really like a longer time to do this... you do know that we aren't being paid during boarding right??? That is why we rush you to your seats... who likes to work hard and not be paid?)

Anyways, something I see everyday working on the planes is a passenger gets to his or her row carrying all their 5 bags, plus a starbucks coffee, a few magazines and a newspaper. They look up and see that the overhead bin right above their seat is completely full. Stuffed full with other peoples bags. They sigh, throw down all the things they want to keep for take off and walk down the aisle a couple of rows to stuff all their bags above someone else's seat. Completely normal. It is what happens next that boogles my mind.

The person behind them always and I mean ALWAYS follows them down the aisle. Why? They saw them throw half of their life they are carrying around with them on a seat, they can obviously tell that they plan on coming back up the aisle once the bags are safely in the overhead. My planes are small and the aisles are even smaller. So, why not wait? It is just a few seconds... it would save that person, who is likely already a little flustered or ticked off, the hassle of then having to fight their way back to their seat like a fish swimming upstream.

I don't get it!
Commuting to JFK yesterday this happened to me. In uniform. Honestly I just don't get it. I know everyone is in a hurry... trust me on this Flight Attendants may not act like it, but are in the biggest hurry to get off the gate but we all might benefit from paying attention to the passenger in front of us during boarding so we aren't fighting our way up and down the aisles.