Originally Posted by
Itsajob
This guy gets it. Even prior to deregulation furloughs and setbacks were just part of the deal if you wanted to be an airline pilot. The generation before us rode out seasonal furloughs, deregulation, strikes, bankruptcies, and liquidations. Braniff, Eastern, Pan Am........ all gone. I was aware of all of that when I started, but went ahead regardless. In my career I have experienced most of what previous generations have. The downside really stinks, it always has, and it always will. This isn’t the first potentially industry changing event that airlines have faced, and it won’t be the last. Given the history of this industry, the plight of this generation isn’t anything new.
And the moral of the story here is don’t believe all the glitter, unicorn **** and sunshine management pumps up your butt when you get hired here or at the pep rallies. When I got hired here (UAL) in 1997 we got the standard speech, “you’ve just won the lottery, you have a no furlough clause, your pensions can never be taken away.......etc etc etc, blah, blah, blah.”
The people getting hired today “this industry is now being run by professional business people, you are the generation that will create positive change, this is the best time ever to be an airline pilot, spread positivity and happiness to all those grumpy old pilots, you’ll be wide body captains for the majority of your careers, just look at these expansion plans for DEN, SFO, ORD, LAX, what could possibly go wrong!! Etc etc etc, blah, blah blah.”
The longer you are in this career and especially at this company the deeper you’ll become entrenched in the cold hard realities of the business. There’s a reason that we old farts don’t start jumping around in glee and wonderment when we are told about all the growth and advancement they are planning. My standard response to those announcements is, meh....... I’ve been through the sunshine pumping sessions, I’ve been at the meetings where we’ve told about the next “done deal” I’ve seen the bright and cheery growth plans time and time again and invariably they turn into steaming piles of elephant poo.
None of, well, most of us did not enter into this career with a deep seated distrust and wariness towards our management. That has been firmly and honestly earned from the various and nefarious misdeeds and outright lies that we’ve been subjected to from our “leadership”. While many have been lulled into a false sense of security by Oscar, I’ve just been waiting for the other inevitable shoe to drop. I’m guessing Scott and Bret are the other shoe.
Oscar was the brought in as a trust builder, I’d venture to say that all his efforts have been wiped clean as of this post we are back to ground zero.