Originally Posted by
Cubdriver
Agreed. I work in an office... I am late for the door by 5:30 no matter how busy we are. I witness the health of those who do the 7pm-plus-Saturday thing, they look completely miserable and they describe their private lives as wastelands. One of them tells me he can't sleep most nights for taking his job home with him. Balance in life means you work all day and then you play, each and every day, plus you are off on the weekend. A manager prodded me into doing some business socializing for him on a Sunday afternoon so I purposely showed up half-drunk. I have not been prodded like that since and have no regrets.
You have the option to work late if you wish or go home and possibly miss a promotion. As a pilot when the bid comes out you are stuck. Whenever management decides to put in 4 hour lay overs into your favorite line you have little choice about it. If your day runs long as a pilot you can not claim "
no, I am going to skip the last two legs tonight. American Idol is on in 45 minutes".
Pilots work very hard in most cases. Days are long and often intentionally made difficult in order to keep the troops adequately frustrated. On top of that there are plenty of daily delays and changes that add to the mess until on your last leg it is often difficult to stay awake.
Once you reach the hotel it is a struggle to see if you can get to sleep amongst the screaming of the trucker couple in the next room or the train that shoots by every 4 hours. All this to be followed by yet another day of delays setbacks and unending layovers. No fun !!!
SkyHigh