Here's what happened to us last week.

Outstation headed to Memphis. We show on time and are asked by the ramp agent in the office if we were aware of the :55 push time (ten minutes early). I told her we were but that there were no guarantees that we would be finished with our pre-flight. I get a blank stare.

We did our pre-flight as we normally do and the ramp gets their work done 20 minutes early from normal push time. I realize at some point that the ramp agent is standing behind me looking over my shoulder waiting for me to sign the haz so he can leave. It's out of my normal sequence, but I grab the paperwork, sign it and he bolts out the door announcing something as he leaves. I realize shortly after that he has closed the door and pulled the stairs. I don't know about others, but I want myself or my F/O to do this task...with the stairs still at the a/c!

Long story short, we didn't meet the early push but were a few minutes early from normal. However, there were a couple of things that I missed on my pre-flight because of being pushed and working out of sequence. I ended up fuming to some degree about the whole process...and the inevitable, "...what else did I miss..."

I get it. These guys are motivated. Bonuses involved? I don't know. However, instead of showing up to work and trying to excel and get out on time, I find myself showing up and at least at some stations, trying to slow the works down. It's a whole different game.