Every captain flying an RJ is a de facto IOE guy nowadays. The standard brief now includes, "Oh, BTW, this is just my second trip of OE...."

We've all been there at one time or other, but even I, who am quite tolerant, am tiring of the inability to get a proper ATC clearance, communicate properly with ATC, operate the systems with confidence/competence, etc.

If the airlines are going to hire low timers (not a bad thing in and of itself IMHO) then the FAA needs to make sure they have the basics of IFR down pat. Going from flying around the patch in a 172 to flying an RJ in and out of LGA is a pretty big leap.