Originally Posted by
Southerner
Good report.
Guys, don't sweat the lodge. You'll like it there. It is far better than staying off-site and having to leave an hour prior to your show time, and waiting for the bus after your lesson. The food is good. The bar is good.
Yes, you have to get a cab or ride with someone to get off property, and there's definitely value in getting away. But overall it is a huge improvement over what we had before. Nothing is perfect.
One thing that I really like is that there's a lot of collaboration that happens at the lodge. There are generally instructors eating lunch or grabbing a drink at the bar, and you can talk with them if you have a question. Plus, all of your classmates are nearby, including the classes ahead of you, so you can talk with them as well.
Don't let the Debbie Downers fool you. Most everyone likes working here. It's a good place to work, and will only get better once we get a CBA.
I guess I'm a Debbie Downer (or just playing this game too long). I can't imagine staying more than 3 days at the Lodge for recurrent.
I couldn't care less about "collaboration." If I wanted the "rah rah yay everyone's a winner!" teamwork I would have gone to the "college of inflight." I come to work, I do my job (or learn at JBU), I go home and I try to think about other things than flying and jetblue. Yeah it's nice to talk to your classmates, I'm not saying you should slam-click, but we had that at the extended stays hotel around the pool with free beer and snacks provided by said hotel. Not an average priced beer at a company owned facility.
Everyone raves about the food but I think it was just so-so. Not to mention, who can eat restaurant food for 6 weeks straight? I hope you bring elastic band pants. Yes it was nice to once or twice a week go with the class for dinner at Ruby Tuesdays or something around the old hotels, but, what was really special was the full kitchens. Having the ability to purchase your own food and drinks at much reduced prices and store them in your own room and cook after class and have lunch prepared for the next day is worth it. Plus, the free breakfast in the morning really cuts cost down.
As far as waiting for a van to/from the training center, most classes had local guys with cars staying at the hotel and rides are easy to grab. I'd much rather wait for a van or a ride from a classmate than be on company property, on company internet, with company people around watching you all the time without a fridge/stove/microwave and being forced to eat company provided restaurant type meals (that I have to pay them for) all the time.
To each his own, but, I say (along with every other line guy I've asked who has stayed there) for recurrent it's nice, for anything longer than a 3 or 4 day training event it sucks.