Originally Posted by
Albief15
My advice on this one (this far in) was stick it out and see what the new contract looks like. Take the extra money, the (soon) free parking, etc and simply decouple a bit from the job emotionally. Its hard when you have spent your life identifying with the military gig to look at going to work as "just a job", but sometimes it is. I actually like the fact the success or failure of my company doesn't always hinge on me flying a sortie or finishing my TPS reports. Still--most of us have been programmed for a long time to get emotionally invested in our jobs. I didn't share this to crap on a guy, but instead to get some discussion going amongst the guys starting off or 1-3 years into the gig that are getting other offers.
After my first CA displacement coupled with a pay concession, multiple base closures, CH11/furlough/shutdown and having start all over at the bottom somewhere else 10+ years ago and experience a few of those things again, "emotional" coupling/attachment went away long, long ago........
The words of a student of mine 20+ years ago started to resonate. He was retired, had a lot of life experience. Typical of a man that was successful, he had lots of failures before he was successful. He was learning to fly because it was simply something he always wanted to do and now had the time and money.
The words were this; "keep you passions and hobbies separate from you J-O-B and you'll often be happier".
As others mentioned in this thread, it's a JOB. As others mentioned, you didn't have that great insurance because FX gave it to you our of the goodness of their heart. In your time as a block rep and other duties you probably saw more than one case were a pilot was being treated crappy by the company and you had to rep him/her. They weren't treating him/her good, hence the need for union representation. As others have mentioned, any airline (FX or other) wouldn't hesitate to treat you like the line item cost we are with the biggest target on our backs due to the highest (outside management) labor cost. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
Coming up on 2 decades in the 121/airline game. The pilots that go around talking about how great the "job" is often never got to endure the post 9/11 poop storm. Or, if they did, they lost pay and other things, but usually not their seat/domicile, etc etc etc.......
It's great that guys/girls getting hired either did a (relatively) short stint in the regionals and went to the legacy or were able to separate and go right to a legacy and have a great view of this career. But I'd love talk to them if (WHEN) another down swing happens and see how their perspective changes. And as others have mentioned, the "drama queens" that suddenly think DAL "sucks" because of management's proposal really crack me up. The guys that are now mad that SW has rather lengthy upgrade but went there thinking they'd get the (not expected to last for everyone) short upgrade crack me up.
Set/manage expectations REALISTICALLY and you'll often be happier. Because, AGAIN, it's a job......
I STILL love flying planes, I STILL love being an airline pilot. Despite the career crap sandwich I had to eat I STILL consider myself lucky I didn't have it worse, that I was still "young" and able to recover. I STILL love the crews and having fun at work, discussing hobbies and passions OUTSIDE of this J-O-B. I'm NOT the poopey pants guy to fly with raining on everyone's parade and rosy glasses.
I'm simply a REALIST about this J-O-B.