What's with the thread revival? I don't recall any regional start ups since 2009. Guess there wasn't room after all. :D

Don't forget Employee C:
-Shows up for work on time
-Spit and polished
-Few sick calls
-Has a poor on time performance because MX usually does line checks before he takes over the aircraft.
-Flies on the back side of the clock and weekends (the lines most pilots hate). So, the day pukes never see or hear of the guy; and as a result, he gets passed over because Chief Pilot CA Schmuckatelly doesn't know who he is.

What do you think this guys chances are?

Here's a question for you, beyond date of hire, why should a person get promoted?

Let me share with you what happened on my very last trip. I fly a large cabin business jet. Our normal crew complement is 2 pilots/1 flight mechanic/up to 5 cabin crew. Now, we took over from an inbound crew who had this full complement and ferried the plane to base as it was needed for another long range mission. We only had 1 cabin crew and 1 flying mech. To make matters worse, we received a late departure slot, plus we had to de-ice. Furthermore, we didn't have time to get the cleaning done on the ground as we always do. So what happened? During the flight back, the FA and the mech washed all the dishes, dried them off, cleaned the cabin and the galleys, restocked all items, put together a resupply list for the next crew. Did they have to do it? Nope. The FA could have simply said, sorry, I was alone so I did the best I could - not much. Mech could have zonked out in the back or watched movies. This was DEFINITELY not in his job description.
Mind you, both of these people stay the hell away from the office and off the radar.

I wrote a report to Director of Maintenance and Head of Cabin Crew about what these two did with cc to upper management, and both received appreciation letters.

Would I have said anything if they didn't do anything beyond the barebones minimum? Nope. Would the company say anything? nope. Would the following flight be more adversely affected? Yes. Was there a valid reason/excuse? Yes. Yet these two shined. Why? Perhaps because they care about their fellow crew/mission? This is the biggest problem with strict seniority system - no incentive to do anything beyond the mandated minimum, and in turn, your product won't be anywhere near what it could be. Not to say that seniority shouldn't be a factor, but end-all-be-all? I don't think so.

That's not your decision to make, my man.
p.s. why is this in the "majors" forum? and why do I care? :D

-- got trolled.

holy necroposting, benny!

No good dead goes unpunished, esp when it is "favor" for crew sked.

Yeah it's necroposting, but I have to add employee D on top of the others for merit based promotion.

-Shows up for work on time
-Spit and polished
-Few sick calls
-Well liked and respected; good pilot
-Takes care of customers
-Unfortunately, he is one of over 8,000 pilots, of whom 6,000+ do a great job on a daily basis. The list is so enormous, it's impossible to stand out from such a herd. He is lost in the huge mass of excellent employees who do their job very well.

The only way to get "merit" in such an organization is either gross sycophancy, or "knowing" somebody.

syco-what?
I think I know what it means by the context but I'm gonna have to google that and get back to ya!

K, I'm back.
Alternatives

• apple-polishing
  EDITED FOR PROFANITY.
• bootlicker
• brown nosing
• crawler
• fawning
• flunky
• grovelling
• hanger-on
• kowtowing
• lackey
• lickspittle
• sucking up
• toady
• yes man

And I agree.
And I learned a new word. Who says APC isn't educational.:D

It also takes getting on the bad side of one wrong individual to scuttle your chance of advancement. In a cockpit I'd rather have both pilots think about flying the plane safely than having one think about how he can message the other pilots ego to get ahead. Thats is a slippery slope. Think about how a new-hire feels when he flies with a Chief pilot or other mgmt pilot. More than 5 times outta 10 the new-hire is gonna probably just go along with Captain Mgmt pilot even though Capt Mgmt pilot doesn't fly the line regularly. I think most captains appreciate a first officer that is gonna do the right thing, not follow the captain down the wrong path. And everyone here can tell me that being told you're wrong is always a great feeling. Perhaps everyone here can tell me that they have never been wrong either.

Of course that's just my opinion...man.

Is brown-nosing really the only way you can think of?

So let's say there are 1,000 dirtbags in front of him. Should his career be held hostage by them simply due to date-of-hire? I personally don't think so. There is no accountability in a union shop.

Are you familiar with how Emirates does the upgrade selection? Or how they bid for schedules? Or how is seniority applied there? Read up a bit about it... it's interesting and innovative for sure. What's even better... Emirates doesn't devalue a pilot, very much unlike airline pilot unions in the US.