Glad I'm not at NJA now
 

Due to the usual airline/employee relationship that now festers itself at NJA, I can now safely say I'm almost glad NJA gave me the boot last year.....

I was very fortunate to get another job, so it comes a bit easier to say that.... But I've noticed that over the last 2 days my mind is much more at ease planning a non-Netjets future.... with no regrets... . and no "what-ifs"...Gimme a good corporate gig and it's good bye seniority # if necessary. Even a mediocre airline job will suffice:D

Like my family always said, worrying about your job is almost worse than the actual day you lose your job. And I wouldn't want to be the new "junior" class at NJA...Looks like DS is fishing for more efficiency:mad:

Where'd you end up? Must be a hell of a corporate gig to beat out NJA and avoid the airlines. Good on ya for finding that one!

Not at a career place but it'll get me by, get my bills paid and allow me time to get "that corporate gig"..I'm eyeballing one very close to my hometown..Of course it's a small charter dept. with nice equipment...I plan on being very persistant and patient until something opens up.... I've def. got the time/experience on my side, just a matter of getting in.:eek:

Not sure if your from NJA, but that place is taking a turn for the worse and although still a quality job, there will be much better or equal places to work in the future.. They have a very good 401k plan/contrib. and good medical... But being an SIC for eternity vs. getting paid to fly large cabin equipment as a captain will more than make up for the lesser bennies... Plus a lighter schedule is always a plus at charter jobs...

Or just keep trying for the usual suspects..JB, SWA...but the heart isn't in going back to 121...

Either way, the current environment at NJA makes trying to put them in the rearview much more plausible and worthwhile.

Kingairfun,

I cannot imagine what it was like to be in your shoes 12 months ago. That's great to hear that you found a good place to work for. From the new junior guy, I'm sick to my stomach when I think of the way that you all were treated last year.

IP

It wasn't the getting furloughed part that was bad (like most it wasn't my first)..

It was the 9 months or so of rumors, and then the voluntary stuff. (I took 2 outta 3 and it killed us financially for the time it was offered. All the while I really thought I would make the cut.)

Then the Santulli summer, followed by 4 months of waiting for the final decision in Nov. '09.....The actual looking for employment wasn't that bad. Send out a billion resumes and hope something sticks. Actually kept me busy! Even the non-aviation resumes were time consuming....Best part was having the city police dept. turn me down because I had speeding tickets like 15 years ago..

But all in all life has been somewhat less stressful not having to deal with NJA. Of course I loved working there and wish nothing had ever changed. But seeing what is going on now, I'd much rather be where I'm at than having to still worry. (Like I'm sure a bunch of SIC's are doing still).

Good luck to everyone. For myself I'm planning my next couple years towards the goal of getting a nice charter gig back home. In the meantime enjoying the job I have now. Too bad I can't see myself making a career out of it though.

I guess I missed something. I have no stake except for friends there, but has there been some iron fisted cultural change there that has reduced net jets back to just another flying job, like it was fifteen years ago?

so much for keeping company issues "confidential", but I guess if you're not planing on coming back- the hell with it

You're right about the "iron fisted cultural change that has reduced the NJ job to just another job".... But I do understand where Sokol is coming from, his mandate is to produce good financial results, this is a for-profit organization... I also understand Kingairfun's frustation, i've been there before

Most ex-airline and corporate guys that I fly with (myself included) still like Netjets better than the job we had, but we didn't have the misfortue of getting furloughed, otherwise I'm sure we'd be singing a different tune.

We'll see what happens when Sokol turns us right-side up

As far as I know, the letter has not been leaked. I have not seen one sentence from it. But it is obvious it exhists. NJASAP has already stated that as fact.

Merely stating its exhistance in no way breaks any coinfidentiality. There is a 4 page thread on it on other msg. boards that grew to 4 pages in one day.

Sokol's apparent goal is to be able to outsource as much flying as possible without triggering the sell-off language recall provisions. And at the same time possibly be able to reduce staffing even further. It won't be just furloughees frustrated because there will be a whole other round of furloughs. And after that the "new" junior guys will start to be the junior captains.

DS will have his hand in NJA for a long time, and the more ways he finds to eek out profits the more in danger NJA (pilots) will be. And any new CEO/Pres. will be under the same pressure to perform up to DS's standards. It may never get any better at NJA (for pilots). Atleast the airlines have their ups and downs, NJA could be on a long downward slide (for the pilots) driven 100% by how much greater margin they can get. NJA will be profitable, but that won't help the pilot workforce at all.

Buffett usually buys a company that has "that distinct competitive advantage". Unfortunately for us these companies are publicly held (brk,A) and the focus in fy 2010 was that of pleasing the stockholder by showing him a huge profit. Airline businesses made
record profits last year at our expense.NetJets nets $207 million, praise from Buffett | The Columbus Dispatch

KingAir....I'm glad you are happy at the moment...but I have bad news for ya. NO JOB is secure in the good ole USA anymore, not NJA, not the airlines and not the one you have now. 3 years ago I sold my business and sent out 5 resumes. 4 of those companies called me. Of those same 5 companies, 2 went out of business, 1 of them furloughed a crapload of their workers, and the company that I decided to fly for ended up stopping all upgrades and their 3rd year FO's are making 42K per year on an 8/6 scheule that was 7/7 when I hired in.

I was smart enough to bail after my training contract was up and go back into business for myself. THAT is the best way to guaruntee success. I understand your frustration in giving yourself to NJA and getting the boot. Again, I hope that the gig you have now works out for you. Good luck.