That's the spirit!

Miserible Father
 

My father was miserable too. I thought that the answer was to run away like peter pan to a career where you can remain a kid forever. The problem is that it takes a grown up to support a family.

You don't have to hate what you do. If you want to be a family man then It is time to make the sacrifice, grow up and get a real job. There are more careers out there then just being a pilot. Not all of them are miserable.

Skyhigh

Lots of pilots have families, and a good family life at that. Lots don't as well. Guess what, people in my office cheat on their wives/husbands and get divorced as well. Some work 70 hour + weeks and don't get home until 10pm or later that night. Consistently. All for less than 100 grand a year. I think you are upset that you didn't stick with it. Why else would you be hanging around these forums full of pilots?

Hang Around
 

Most of the people who hang around here are either laid off pilots, furloughed pilots or pilot wannabes. It is a way to stay connected to something that we are passionate about. I dedicated most of my adult life to my aviation dream. Now all that I have left of that massive personal investment is this forum.

People can be unhappy at anything in life. My point is that aviation makes it much more difficult to be able to fulfill the needs of a full and of a normal family life. It is not impossible but becoming more so every day. After being laid off from my last airline job, and forced for the first time in my adult life to try another line of work, I am here to say that success is much easier on the outside.

I am upset that aviation did not live up to my needs and expectations. I expected to have a better life after making all the sacrifices. My advise to you is that if you think that aviation will save you from the cubicle, and the rest of whatever is making you unhappy, then my suggestion is to keep looking. Now that the recession is here aviation will be in the dumps for a long, long time. It will be nearly impossible for most anyone to break in let alone someone with a family to support.

Skyhigh

I've been working in IT for 4 years now. It has been nothing but exhausting, annoying, and mundane. The way people are in this corporate office world really made me bitter about the whole thing. Just to ice the cake:
We had a bunch of layoffs last thursday. Lots of good people put on the street - even people with more than 10 years in the company... Since we are publicly traded we can see how much money the Exec's make. A quick math problem determined that we could have saved every one of them if their average pay was 55 grand a year (more than most made anyway) if they just would have sacrifyced their 300K plus dollar bonuses. They kept going on and on about how it isn't a company to lay people off, so don't worry about the drop in share price. In other words telling people not to plan for the future, and laid them off anyway. So in the midst of all this, IT is busy changing file permissions, disabling user accounts, backing up, transferring files, email folders, blah blah. you get the point. We get an email THAT DAY from somone requesting if they can get so and so's LCD monitor (so and so just got laid off an hour ago from the time she requested this), because she has a CRT which takes up too much space on their desk. This is the same person that *****ed and *****ed to get a new computer a while back. We replace PC's every 4 years, its company policy and standard procedure. Anyways I stop by her office and say "You know what, this isn't our priority right now, and frankly I'm suprised you actually had the nerve to request it during all of this." She responds by saying "If I wanted your opinion, then I would have asked for it." so I respond saying "This has nothing to do with my f'n opinion (angered at this point), it's the f'n company policy! If people go switching around monitors to different PC's, then the serial numbers won't match up when one of them crashes and needs a warranty replacement! Company gets charged for that, IT gets BLAMED." her : "I don't appreciate your f'n attitude, why are you still here?" Me: Walked away.


That kinda bull**** is just ICING on the cake too. It's DAILY, and worse most of the time. If dealing with this every day sounds better than flying planes around, then I guess I don't know anything about life. BTW I make just over 40K which gets taxed away. another 4% city wage tax on top of the regular 30 or whatever percent, plus 401k, plus benefits which I pay for. This is my 2nd IT job, and they both have proven to be the same.

Imagine earning half of what you are getting paid now, having much less job security and being messed with twice as much by management. Aviation has all the same BS only it is much worse and you get paid way less. Maybe you need to work for yourself?

Skyhigh

You only get paid less until you get captain... less than 5 years? Then you are making at least 10 to 15 grand more than me???

And yes, I have thought about the self employment thing for a while too. BTW I love reading your posts... you did rope me in. I find humor in your negativity, and I think you do as well. =)

Hey, Sky. Be aware. Pro-aviation career activity in your geographical regional area. Check this thread....

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/fl...pen-house.html

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to go to this meeting and report back. This tape will self-distruct in 10 seconds.....

Hey Thanks
 

Thanks man !!

Skyhigh