I am a former airline employee (FT), air cargo executive, and frequent passenger. I travel about 600K a year in the back of the bus and ride a couple times a year on freighters. I also happen to hold a pilot certificate with numerous privileges listed on it and fly one of the greatest airplanes ever built. I try to limit my responses on this forum to areas where I can contribute. In this case I do so as a person who manages hundreds of professionals and as a passenger.

My expectation as a passenger is varied but what you are wearing or what type of luggage you carry is the least of my expectations. Bob Hoover wears a straw hat and I would wager he can fly circles around everyone on this forum.

My doctor wears no coat and my AME wears a blue coat (he also smokes in his office). I picked my regular doctor because he has excellent professional credentials and references. I picked my AME based on the fact that if you can find his office he will pass you, he has a rather healthy 121 client base as a result.

I am glad we can agree that wearing a hat doesn't make you a professional. I mean I can see a cap in baseball, you need it in football, but come on who wants to see Michael Jordan with a hat on?

If I had pancreatic cancer and he was the best guy around, I would be thrilled that he could save my life. In fact I would be so happy I would buy him some hair gel, snap a selfie with him, and use it as my profile picture on Facebook.

We agreed that uniforms don't make you professional, so not sure what the argument is.

Insulting and belittling colleagues isn't a sign of professionalism it is a sign of being TOTD.

 

Excellent ^^^^ point.


TOADs (Tool of Any Day)

Anyone who uses the term "Sonny", "Son", "Sonny boy" or the like in a transparent attempt to belittle someone they don't like or disagree with. Psycologically speaking, it's actually a very revealing sign of immaturity and insecurity as well.

Examples...

 

Sometimes the maturity level of a poster merits a nickname, that's all.

 

Mod Note:

Packrat and SayAlt,

You two can knock it off bashing and picking at each other's zits and nits. Or I'm happy to do it for you. It would ruin my vacation, but I'm determined to keep the Forums free of nonsense.

 

AC560 has it exactly right.

 

You are evidently much more educated and qualified than the "unwashed masses" who are comforted by the outward sign of professionalism a uniform implies.

There are a few posters on APC who are not "colleagues" and are in obvious need of education. The moniker "Sonny" is a term of endearment usually applied to children who are, through no fault of their own, uneducated.

I've noticed that fact doesn't prevent them from posting, though.

 

Interesting you take so many life lessons from movies, as opposed to life or actual history.

Walk into any deloyed SOF camp. You'll be surprised at the lack of grooming standards and uniform uniformity. And yet....somehow they do what they do well.

Patton said what he said. He also picked his own uniforms.

 

I have to say that if you accept money from a company and they ask you to present yourself a certain way, then it is "unprofessional" of you not to do as they ask. Or quit, but don't ***** about it.

 

I usually post in different areas of the forum, but this thread caught my attention. As a Regional FO who goes to work looking good and professional it's hard to continue that image when my passengers stand in overcrowded and dirty boarding areas, walk down jet bridges with visible rust, moldy wet carpet, lack luster environmental controls for temperature and sometimes auto leveling alarms blaring with nobody around to fix the situation. The icing on the cake is when they begin boarding my plane one of the first sights they see is a fuesalage with dents, peeling paint and dozens of security seal remnants littered around the door. I don't know about you, but if you saw a car with peeling paint and bumper stickers all over it you may start to judge wether it's warranted or not. Now let's take a step inside the cabin... Most of my observations were when I was flying the CRJ my current planes are brand new and look great for now but the first thing that stands out besides the obvious small size is just how dated it looks. Delta can take a Mad Dog and still make it look modern inside, but our CRJ's have dated seats and hard ware, side wall panels and overheads that are filthy, interior plastic windows swirled and hazed so bad you can sometimes barely see out them and carpet o the carpet need I say more? I guess the point of my long winded post is yes there is Pilots and FA's who just look totally unprofessional but those are the minority... what's not the minority? On almost every leg I've flown I've encountered one or more of those conditions listed above. All of those issues could be fixed with just a little more time and money being spent on running a quality operation. It ticks me off seeing this but what else can you do besides smile and look nice?

 

Guess what, Sput? We're not talking about SOF here. They have a special mission reason to look that way. We're comparing the rank and file pilot to the standard military pilot. And, just BTW, the Navy uses 12 O'clock High as a leadership training tool.

The point of that training is that maintaining standards is one of the keys to maintaining professional performance throughout your operation. But I guess you entitlement babies wouldn't have a clue about anything but your own navel.