I found it hilarious. And ballsy. And, yes incredibly stupid. Not so much for the individual who did it, (I have to assume he is clever enough computer-wise to not get caught) but for the group as a whole. The company must know by now we are pi$$ed off, but putting something like this in writing sets us up for failure. I suspect we'll see something from ALPA denouncing it very soon.
What makes you think they did not anticipate our reactions to their conference call? I would say being pi$$ed if is playing into their plan perfectly.
The company will blame us for a meltdown anyway, pamphlet or not. They won't take accountability for it ever. It will be a convenient excuse, but we'll all know the real cause.
A good defense or argument begins with accurate data...they will not be able to defend their upset over a melt down if we have the evidence which demonstrates their mis-management.
Look back over this thread for past months…all planned by mgt…our reactions, our emotions, our retaliations….all because they understand human behavior. We need to get informed about social control over groups.
Stated briefly, their training in mgt believes that behavior that is followed by reinforcement (positive or negative) has an increased probability of reoccurrence. Behavior followed by extinction or punishment has a decreased probability of re-occurrence.
From our Flight Instructors Handbook on learning, learning is defined by a change in behavior as a result of experience. A teacher must first determine what behavioral change is desirable, then manipulate the consequences to alter the probability of the behavior recurring. Through proper use of shaping, one promotes the development of new behaviors, and extinguishes others.
Spirit’s slogan, FLY IT LIKE YOU OWN IT has targeted something in us to elicit rising to the occasion, to make how we operate, PERSONAL.
Our exemplary behavior Spirit has motivated us to perform, Fly it like you own it, has one major flaw. In a free market economy of trading skill for survival power, we would not tolerate the reinforcement we receive for the high level of performance delivered. Spirit’s juvenile, grade school packaging of catch phrases has had short term benefits for them, that it has elicited a compulsion to collectively strive for a successful operation.
What I, and others, have focused upon however is this…you will receive NO personal reward for your operating outside of the exact job description outlined in our FAA and Management approved manuals. Rather, we will mask, hide, enable, relieve all of MANAGEMENT’s poor execution of this operation.
We don’t react in the plane when distractions appear, we maintain our sight down the runway, directed rather towards the LONG term successful outcome of our flight. We may benefit from applying that same technique to this flight through negotiating our worth with MGT, not just expecting/wishing for it. The CEO…. guaranteed, knew quite well what our reaction to his speech would be…. with full anticipation. PLAYED is a term that comes to mind to see our emotional pendulum chess played into a frenzy. But we can be smarter than this. We can know this terrain from past experiences and make strategic, albeit tempered, choices about how to strategically bring their tactics to a crashing failure.
I’ve posted here before…it’s an unpopular, often ridiculed concept…but this is about human social behavior. They’ve got PhD’s advising them on group behavior phenomena….let’s not be cattle and steered so easily (no pun).
What we need to do is focus on punishing THEIR MISERABLE performance at their job. We need to continually reference our guides (AOM’s) to what our job description entails, and point out every day we are at work….please show me where it says I am supposed to do….
Go get paperwork
Ask rampers to help
Get gate agents to expedite
Relieve agents and cabin crew from performing their jobs by just trying to problem solve every departure.
ACARS dispatch in our anticipation of problems etc….that’s THEIR f*&(*)ing job
Not stop and FAR 117 feed, nourish and rest ourselves for the safety of the flight
When we all start emailing, acarsing, texting management via some means, every time THEIR failures land on OUR plates….then when have built this case, and then when we STOP, not abruptly like the flyer that came out, but when we STOP after unequivocally demonstrating that WE are reason spirit is not failing worse than it is….it will melt down.
When it does, we can shut up…quietly step out of the way of ALL the troves of evidence we gave them that we keep this place running more than any other pilot group out their participates in their airline’s success….and ask THEM to DEFEND how we are low tier components to Spirit’s Industry leading profits. Compared to the job scopes at higher tiers, our participation covers so much more of the operation than majors/legacies, who do much less of the operation of moving airplanes than we do.
Let’s connect their tierism, to their performance….which we suffer from every day. Let’s bombard them every day, as our union duty, to demonstrate our above tier role in compensating for their haphazard, coat tailing efforts which do nothing but hamper our operation. We got to this level in being professionals, by operating on a long schedule of reinforcement…delayed returns on flying lessons, military service, commuters trudging, cargo long haul sleep deprivation. Let’s apply that same diligence to exposing who is the true culprit to our miserable operation…their side of the ball toss, and substantiating our High Tier personal conduct and standards…and then…when they don’t listen….. give them what they call us…and watch it avalanche into another abyss of losing operational control.
If you want a better contract….participate in getting one.