Originally Posted by WHOisHMSHost

I have had trips lately where I have started to worry about our ability to communicate to ATC and to each other in the cockpit.

Since we have so many people from all over the world with many different backgrounds I'd like to say this thread is about opening a dialog on safety and not a personal attack on an individual or group in particular.

I don't know if there are ATC professionals on this board as I'd be very curious to know if they've had a hard time recently communicating with our crews. Not just that but if there has a been a noticeable change.

I have no suggestions on how to address this problem. I don't even know if this is a problem on a national scale. I'm not losing my hearing but I must sound like it by how often I need things repeated in the cockpit. While I don't have proof it feels like ATC is asking people to "say again" when anything other than a frequency change happens. Sometimes I have no idea what the guy next to me said to ATC and ATC responds to him with a "roger".

This communication safety issue is not only an issue for people with accents or English as a second language but for new hires too that have next to zero real world experience.
I feel like our new hires need a better foundation on proper phraseology. There needs to be a CBT or better yet actual ground time devoted to keeping Skywest from sounding like amateur hour out on the line.
As always our captains continue to guide and gently nudge the uninitiated into line but I feel like we have been over run. I will gladly continue to help those who want to communicate properly and efficiently if they are interested. We also have an issue with people brining really low quality microphones to work. Some of these microphones need to be readjusted every time they talk because it has ether fallen away or they have to shove it in to their mouth to make them audible. I appreciate us not needing TSO'd headsets and being free but at some point we need to be able to say -this is not acceptable-.

Does anyone else see this as a safety concern?