Since when has well defined criteria mattered? They just do what they want and the Union watches until it is too late to change anything! (ie.. Accepted fares, FDA residency, purple nugget screw job, etc)

Sounds like a good idea!

One small correction, that's not how a doctors note works NOW. Now they just ask for one any time they f*cking want. Or at least, that's the way I read the post on PFC.

Agree with the sarcasm for the first 2, but I'm on board with them doing this. Let Mx figure out what the problem is and what MEL applies. Lessons our liability. We've been doing their job for years. Nothing says you can't have an idea what would apply and if the 2 don't match, call them on it. Think how long it takes now just to get a control number, now think how long it will take for a diagnosis.

I personally find it humorous that they are shocked about sick leave going up. I truly hope that all of the doctor notes say the same thing. "pilot is under my care". Specifics are none of their business and illegal. Same for mil leave, calling a unit to ask for orders to be cancelled is harassment. USERRA, allows them to send a letter in writing. HUGE difference! Kinda confused but I don't think the military takes off for the holidays so why should our soldiers just because our company can't forecast properly.

My plan is simple since the consequences of calling in sick early and calling in sick at the last minute are now essentially the same. Expect my sick calls to go straight to the duty officer about 20 min before show time. After all I wont really know I am sick enough to need a doctor until the very last minute or I wont really know if that Tylenol he prescribed has an adverse effect until I wake up at the crash pad. Maybe they can talk about some new metrics at the next quarterly meeting.

All for letting the MOC know as soon as possible, but waiting to open the MEL until they tell me to turn to page 17-111 and 17-111 only? Kind of like waiting to look at the taxi chart until after you get the taxi instructions.

Maybe those of us with Doctor neighbors can get one of those under my care letters to cover the whole year. Should be easy if he is a shrink.

I've heard there's been an increase in Go-arounds at FEDEX because the culture has changed and we no longer accept unstable approaches

Perhaps, the supposed broad base increase in sick is due to a change in culture --- where flying sick or with cumulative fatigue is simply not accepted

Hopefully, management continues to encourage all cultural changes which increase safety

It's amazing that they've looked at scheduling and it is not the reason for increase sick calls, fatigue, tiredness, accidents or anything else.

It's not amazing to me ... they cranked up the sodomizer so that it looks like the Negotiating Committee did a great job when they get us the "normal" minor contract improvements and our annual 3% pay raise :eek:

I'm just surprised that it takes so long to negotiate the 3% raise that everybody suspected we were going to get in the first place?

How profound.
If we are not professional enough to decide for ourselves when we are fit to fly and always need a doctor's note, we are not professional enough to determine when to give our employer the most prior notice to help the mission.

New guidelines says tell them prior to opening the book, not that you can't open it until they tell ya to. We will have more than enough time to then pull out the book and come to a possible conclusion, so when they say turn to page 17-111 in your hymnal, I can say did you mean 117-11? While my systems knowledge is descent, they are the systems experts. I know a couple of guys that did the legwork and told mocc the mel, got time and inits and pressed. A couple of days later, there's an email stating, the wrong email was applied and that the FAA was notified. Nice! So their way takes an extra 5-10 minutes after pushback(ok, 10-20), is right now when we really need to be leaning so far forward? Remember, don't use mil and you guys are abusing sick!

As far as the doctor's note, I think I might just try to keep a doctor on retainer. Mine 3 doors down prefers Macallan.