Originally Posted by freezingflyboy

This has been stewing and simmering and bothering me over the last few years, and this isn't just an ASA/XJT thing but: somehow, somewhere along the line management was able to brainwash every airline employee in America into thinking that their paycheck was the difference between a profit and a loss; the difference between a sustainable operation and a catastrophic shutdown. Now, while that was going on, management pay and benefits, especially at the upper echelons, has skyrocketed to many many many times what your average rank and file employee takes home. And what does that premium get you? Destructive mergers and revolving-door bankruptcies. My issues with this are twofold:

1.) One only has to look at Southwest, FedEx, Delta and any of the large, established foreign carriers to see that this is total BS. Your paycheck is NOT the difference between a profit and and loss.

2.) IF employee compensation is part of the problem, lets take a top-down approach. Cutting pay 2-6% from the top is like cutting pay 50-60% at the bottom. So rather than coming after my pay and benefits with a cleaver, why not go after those at the top with a paring knife?

Now, I think the blame rests squarely in OUR laps for allowing this group-think to fester and perpetuate itself in this industry since deregulation. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us for 40 years, well... The reality is that truly sustainable profitability can only be had from organizational efficiencies. Again, look at the most consistently profitable companies both inside this industry and out. They aren't profitable because they pay their people chump change. They are profitable because they are EFFICIENT. Without getting specific, I think we can all agree that current tactics used by managements do nothing to foster willingness among employees to operate efficiently. So what I say to management is this: Only through efficiency is there profitability. Motivate me to be efficient. The first step towards that end is to keep your grubby mitts off my meager paycheck! What I would say to employees is this: Only when we stop being the low-hanging fruit will the cycle be broken.