I know we need the positions, but at the same time, as of now, after being lucky enough to get hired here at UPS (despite it all I still feel lucky), dealing with probation pay and then an ANC displacement a year ago, choosing not to go to management when the paperwork was handed out to us as newhires a few years ago, and now working RDG lines while paying off accumulated debt from the previous furlough, I don't have any warm and fuzzies rewarding those that chose to go to management instead of sticking it out as a line-guy with union protection and then me sacraficing my job for them if we bring them over and the bottom 300 get furloughed. If they want date of hire with a 40 year fence, I may change my mind

The other thing that may come into play is the new possible duty limits the FAA may try to impose. It is only a rumor at this point, but I was told by some friends over at AA that they may need to increase their pilot ranks by 5% if they go to a 12 hour duty day. I know their flying schedules etc aren't the same as ours so I don't know if it would cause us to have to hire/not furlough or not...

We all made our choices over the span of our careers, making the best decisions we could at the time. As much as I have fallen into the trap of doing the same thing myself (saying woe is me), in the big picture it's wasted energy to regret the past, instead focus that energy on family and how you can improve your future. ANC is a shock to the system but you are still much better off than 90% of the other people in this profession. Not sure if you have been furloughed before (I have), but if not consider yourself very lucky, ANC is a pain in the butt bump in the road, but it could (hope it doesn't) always be much worse. Hang in there, and hopefully it will get better.