Niobe

To answer you question,
Yes, places like this will and should fail. Great companies have happy, well taken care of employees, numerous studies have shown the happy employees are productive employees. I am now witnessing captains I fly with actively subvert the companies best interests because the just don't give a rats ass anymore. I believed the lies and even more lies just to watch Alaska subvert the very company they own. Thank God I was not there long. I don't know how the lifer Captains are handling this. I plan to go the Spirit and will laugh the entire time when Alaska looses their prized JD Power Award to Delta because they failed to give 2 cents about Horizon

gazoo34

I don’t work there but I have a lot of influence teaching young pilots that want to go there. I’m sorry I can’t in good conscience tell these motivated young pilots that Horizon is a good place to work. I would rather have Horizon burn to the ground than recommend these pilots come work in an environment I worked in while I was at depress jet. It is well past the time pilots as a whole stood their ground and received the pay commensurate with the responsibility of lives in their hands.
If you are at Horizon now I’m sorry you’re dealing with a bad management but as stated all ready the time to fix it was a year ago when the contract negotiations were being conducted.

snackysmores

Horizon is forcing all of its employee groups to attend mandatory kool-aid sessions in an attempt to brainwash the collective.

They force the pilot group to attend, often placing "Qx Factor" sessions (a 2 day event worth 8 hours of pay) in the middle of a 4 day trip. The pilots will have to pick up extra trips just to cover this low credit waste of time.

The sessions include brainstorming sessions and group presentations. This is just one poster (a true work of art IMO) that was promptly taken down and thrown away by management) HAHA



Morale at an all time high!

Petethedog

Ah man! It is hard to watch this... I don't work at Horizon, but I grew up in Seattle and always felt a vicarious measure of pride regarding Horizon. There was so much to admire: craft beers, lots of leading edge tech improvements, efforts to be more sustainable, great customer service, decent pay for crews, etc.
I wanted to work there for so long and was offered a position 2 years ago. But, I took another offer b/c of what I was reading on here at the time and observing the company track record regarding base opening/closing and work rules.
So, I want to thank the public service work of snackysmores and the like (though I thought it seemed excessively negative at the time). It seems to have played out as predicted. Luckily for me, I went another direction. I sincerely hope AAG rights the ship soon for you all. There is so much good stuff to work with (dominance in the PNW, lot's of love from the general public, great employees, major profitability). Really hoping this somehow turns around. Godspeed!

snackysmores

Only 2 new hires showed up for class today, one is a few years away from mandatory retirement. Guess people have been reading this thread after all.

They are handing out the bonus on the first day of class, before you are issued your ID badge. "Here is your 10k bonus, pre employment, because you don't work here yet -hands badge- now you work here."

Now that is how you negotiate with the union!

block30

Wow.

Sad. I used to think Horizon was worth a PITA commute because you were one of the better regionals. Didn't end up pulling the trigger on that one, I guess good for me now. Sorry for you dudes.

Rotors2Planks

Not surprising whatsoever, I would bet nearly everyone reads threads on places they're thinking about working for these days. As long as the main discussion about Horizon is about how terrible it is, they aren't going to get new pilots, it's very simple. What is surprising and difficult for me to comprehend, is that your management doesn't realize how powerful the forums are in this hiring climate. I guess they could be trying to pull strings with the site admins to close the thread or something? The only other option would be improving pilot's contracts but sounds like that's off the table. It's just hard to believe they would let this wound fester until it becomes fatal unless that's the plan. Maybe they're going to squeeze as much out of Horizon as they can while moving flying elsewhere before they shut it down, that's the only way it makes sense.

snackysmores

I still don't think that is their plan. If they shut us down they will have no one to whipsaw against Skywest, who would then gain huge leverage over air group. Our new contract has us so underpaid it's ridiculous, there's no one who can do our feed cheaper than us at this point.

I thought Alaska had a game plan or a strategy, I didn't think management was that stupid but they are proving me wrong every day that goes by with dozens of flights cancelling for lack of FOs.

I know management reads every post I make, so I'll make this brief: Flying and living in the PNW is just not good enough anymore to attract pilots into this low paying airline, as much as you want to believe it. 10k is not going to work. Swallow your pride and work with the union to offer new hires an industry STANDARD pay package. Give the Q400 pilots who are stuck in the trenches taking grenades a reason to stay with a retention bonus. Make QOL somewhat manageable with a daily min guarantee of no less than 4 hours NOW, not in 2020. Oh, and stop violating the status quo of our contract when you can't staff the airline.

I come off on this forum as very aggressive, cynical, and negative to many but believe it or not I DO want this airline to be a destination spot. I will not, however, give false advertising which could cause someone else to make the same mistake I made coming here. We could be something great if Alaska is willing to spend an extra dollar. If you treat your pilots well we will go the extra mile to make the company a lot of money, treat us like sh*t and we will end up costing you a LOT more.

Klsytakesit

Snacky.....Alaska cannot whipsaw Skywest....Skywest is 3 times the size of Alaska....They do not dictate to Skywest...They are happy when Skywest is willing to provide lift for them....Skywest has more airplanes in maintenance at any given time than Horizon operates....You guys have been played by Horizon leadership.....They are on there way to bigger and better things...

Klsytakesit

You guys need to quit worrying about Alaska or Skywest and start focusing on where the problems are.....With Horizon leadership...They may be puppets but they are your puppets.....No one from Alaska is going to come fix your problems....