Originally Posted by SkyHigh

I spent time as an FO at four different companies as I moved up the ladder. I was a diligent, alert and hard working First Officer. At one company as a reward for being such a "good FO" by being intentionally pared with the worst captains. Once I reached the airlines I was usually on reserve for a year or two. As a pilot on reserve you are given the trips that everyone else dropped or bid around. Usually it meant flying with the worst of the worst in regards to captains and I was forced to do that trip after trip and year after year. Most of my crew experience was in dealing with the biggest AH's in the industry.

Eventually out of boredom and a desire not to walk off the job I made my position into a research laboratory of what made these Gems tick. I would spend the month listening to their stories, asking questions and putting together the pieces of why these guys were so nasty and what choices they made to get where they were in life. I was like a camillion and would strive to contort my training and personality into whatever they needed or wanted to see in the flight deck. In my experience I was at least 20 to 30 years apart from my captain in age. We had little in common and could not relate to each other very well.

In time even the most difficult captains began to appreciate me and started to request me by name if they could. I went to work with a smile on my face and was very nice but I was not happy in that thankless role. It takes a lot of personal energy to set aside your ego and personal beliefs in order to satisfy a self centered bully. Often these guys have been abandoned by their wife, children and friends. The First Officer is usually the only person that they have in their life who is forced to interact with them by the title of our position and in the interest of preserving CRM. Sometimes I think old crusty captains hold on to their job since all they have left in life is a dog at home who is waiting for his first opportunity to run away. If they did not hace a crew that was duty bound to deal with them then they would have no one else to talk (scream) at.

On the day my airline shutdown it was difficult to be very sad since all I could think about was that I would not have to fly with the next guy I was scheduled to that month. He was another prized individual. Being an FO is a difficult, invisible and thankless job. Usually we all reach the position with significant experience and education behind us. It is humiliating to be treated like a child again. Only aviation has such a tradition.

SkyHigh