In a perfect world, you would want an employee base that supports and wants the company to be successful. i.e. If I work hard, the company does well and I do better. Rising tide lifts all boats mentality. That aint the airline world I witnessed. When times are good the company wants more, so do the pilots. When times are rough the company wants more and the pilots don't want to give when the company wouldn't bend when they were clearing duckets and/or the management peeps are making huge salaries while the company lost duckets.
The perfect interview answer, and a perfect world scenario, is: Both the Management and Labor force should meet on common ground in a position where both sides profit from their shared goal of a successful business. That aint the airline world I witnessed.
It takes one scheduler calling you and trying to coerce/threaten you into extending you duty day to turn you sour. Well that scheduler is calling you because another pilot just called in sick on July 3rd. The scheduler has been lied to and caught short enough times to become calloused, which in turn ... well you get the idea. Kind of like your sister unit sneaking into your orderly room and mopping the floor with red gatorade from the fridge so you put a live squirrel in their CDR's office and the next thing you know an alternatively life-styled male stripper is dancing in front of him at a dining in with 300+ people in attendance. Bottom line, the company had been operating at 80-90% crew levels because hiring more people costs money, so they just pay overtime to the existing pilots. Cold hard dollar logic, gets the same from the pilot group after the second family event is missed for their bottom line. You expect a certain level of sacrifice in the military. In the civilian world they can expect some, but the well runs dry faster.
Some Real life stories.
1. First flight out (0545) has to get out on time or every other flight that plane flies will be late. Imperative. Crew does a preflight for said flight and finds a hole in a fan blade. Not a nick, chip etc. A HOLE through it. OK, easy. Call OPs, get maint. They are delayed. Base manager walks out a yells etc pressuring them to go. Yes, W T F !? Manager was getting pressure from HQ to end the late first flights.
2. FO gets a call to report for a Functional Check Flt and shows up as fast as he can. Gotta get this bird back in the mix to make $$$. Rapidly goes through the report evolution and walks to the designated gate-No Plane. Calls scheduling, on hold- "Oh Yeah, they're working on it. It'll be there soon" It showed up 3 hours later.
3. FO gets a call for a late/gotta get it going international flight. FO races through KATL to the international terminal to the gate with burning shins. No Plane. Awkward pause, looks around, no one. Find a gate agent and find out it was cancelled and the plane tugged away. Scheduling couldn't call me an hour ago while fighting to get there, after they had me moving towards a 'dropped ball'?!? During my prior life I spent a good deal of time sitting QRF for a TIC, etc - real life stuff. Call comes down, I'm moving out with a purpose towards whatever is threatening 'Joe' on the ground with an angry heart. No place for that dedication when the company pulls that.
4. There was an aircraft with a bad APU that was deferred (delayed fix so it can continue to make $$-Not moving No $$). With no APU there is no power for A/C. Sitting on black asphalt in July, the cabin temp goes to 36*C+ . Crew refuses it. Walking to the next bird, we find out we were the third to do so. We board the elderly, infants, infirm etc on a regular basis and that cabin condition is No Bueno. Heck, a paying customer deserves a good product. I hated being embarrised by the nominal standard for success in the industry. Who wants someones Grammy sitting there for 30 min's in a 36*C environment?! Maint. gives it to the next crew flying in to that base. They refuse it. Rinse Lather Repeat until the CRTs upfront over heat and the company has a big bill to replace them. Seriously, they tried to get 5+ crews to take it. It was at a base with Mechanics there. It was too easy to do the right thing and fix it there, or repo it and fix the APU. With no union, you're told to fly it or walk. ( In the military, 'OK this sux but it comes with the territory-get some bottled water.' N/A for an 80 y/o woman)
5. FO reports for a Functional Check Flt. He looks at the write up and fix and doesn't feel comfortable. He wouldn't fly it and was fired. He fought it and got back on the line, made CAPT and then took over the union. Not me, but I definitely supported him getting elected. Awesome leader. He even set up a committee of pilots who volunteered their time to work with schedulers to help generate the next month's schedules to maximize airline&pilot profit within the crew rest guide lines.
I was very fortunate with my base manager. If you saw him, he talked to you like you were a friend. He wanted to make sure you were doing well. He set goals, we achieved and he got us a Kuerig coffee maker before they were mainstream. A simple team building exercise that worked and cost, what, a couple hundred dollars. If you screwed up and were defiant, bad day. If you were right and someone came after you, no worries. 'Fly your trip and I'll take care of it.' 'If you screw up, tell me so I can call them before they call me so we can get in front of it.' Extremely simple methodology that just works. I guess at the macro level it falls apart. Dunno.
Non-Union story. Part 135 OPs. The schedule was Two weeks on/Two weeks off. Pilot has finished a two week hitch and the next pilot is delayed coming on. Chief Pilot says that the pilot needs to extend. Someone says, 'she can't her parents are flying in today and she's spending a week with them.' "She WILL fly until I say so or she will be demoted to a smaller POS aircraft and moved to the worst base there is."
Long post. Sorry, but I figured that you should see enough scenarios to realize that the unfortunate state of the industry is there for a reason. I doubt it will change.
Take Care
Hobbit