Originally Posted by
dalad
“As soon as a guy’s captain bid comes out, he and his wife start looking for a captain’s house,” Dennis Higgins observes wryly. “Lots of guys were financed to the hilt, particularly those with second wives and new families. The wife would, in the privacy of the home, ask, ‘Are we going to have to move out of the house, take the kids out of the private school, deliver a car back to the bank?’ A pilot’s got to carry the uncertainty of the strike home to her and be able to justify it when the phone rings and she says, ‘It’s Frank Lorenzo!’”
That's not unique to airline pilots as much as it is a self induced reality of the way most people live these days. While you occasionally read one off stories like a librarian that retired making 35K a year her whole life with over a million in the bank (or matress), the truth is our entire economy is based on spending tomorrow's money today (and then some).
You bet that savvy managements know this. Even blue collar union bosses in bed with their managements know this. They will truffle sniff their membership, getting a feel for each worker's "monthly nut" and then, knowing what they earn, they know exactly how dependant on the job they truly are. Today you can add in the self induced artificial crisis of education costs, as today's parents dump near or even above 6 figures per "26 year old kid" for worthless degrees they know for an iron clad fact will produce zero ROI in the long run. Even worse is how emotionally attatched they become to the concept. The pressures of keeping that captain's house or the boat is massive, but its nothing compared to keeping daddy's little girl in school dropping 40 large every year to extend her childhood and delay her inevitable still entry level job.
This is a key element of unity that we're missing. If you can't walk away, they own you.