While that was a series of very unfortunate events that happened to you, OO is very tolerant of commuter issues. While I'd like to see something more concrete in writing, I'd hardly call what we have terrible. You are the only person I've ever known to get fired for a commuting issue. Sucks I know, but seems like you're in a much better position because of it.

 

Thats one way to say OO has the worst commuter policy because there isnt one and you can be fired for not making a commute

 

Nobody has ever been fired for not making a commute (the guy in question was on probation and had poor reliability for other reasons).

 

Yeah his issue was more complicated than this particular post let's on. He definitely got a raw deal. Like I said, series of unfortunate events that led to his firing.

 

I agree with this, then again that was over 3 years ago, but never had any problem calling them up and telling them I wasn't going to make it. Always have myself 2 tries, never abused it. So sounds like this other guy probably had more going on then he let's on. Agree though that something needs to be written out.

 

Yeah you’re right, I am unreliable. I didn’r take my job seriously at all and am so thankful that SkyWest taught me that lesson.....

If two sick calls while on probation is showing a reliability issue, then the company you work for sucks and you need protection. If you miss your commute for the first time and management throws two previous sick calls in your face, then the company you work for sucks and you need protection. If every single pilot at the company you work for tells you that you should have just called in sick instead of calling in honest, then the company you work for sucks and you need protection. If your BCP tells you that you that back in his day one would have to be close to their death bed in order to call in sick then the company you work for sucks and you need some protection. I don’t care how long you were there or what you heard, the situation isn’t a reliability issue, it was an issue of management that can do anything to a pilot group because there is ZERO protection, simple as that. Without writing stating what the definition of an honest effort is, then it’s up to management to decide what is considered honest. And honestly, management got that one wrong and that is why I continue to bring this story up. I told the company on my way out that I would for the rest of my career make sure that people knew all the details of this story

Not trying to come across as a p**ck, just getting sick of people saying “there is more to the story, or he had other issues”. This is a small industry, last thing I will let happen is my name to be run through the ground because of SkyWest and I guess I do get more and more defensive as time goes on

 

He already explained what lead up to it in another thread. That's commendable because it may help others avoid the same pitfalls.

 

Man o man.. I done trying to explain what happened.. so here is the bullet points

-Hired Oct 2017, made it through training with no issues and well within the footprint.

-Commuted to ORD, LAX then SEA while living in PDX

-Had two sick calls while at SkyWest, one dated in Feb and the next was a week earlier in May, these were legit sick calls that I truly felt that flying a plane wasn’t the right and legal thing to do. How I gauge that is if I bend metal, will I have done explaining to do on my health at the time...

-Mid May, I gave my self not 1, not 2 but 4 options to get from PDX to SEA. See I drove when possible, but on a whopping 1800 a month take home gas money wasn’t abundant. All QX flights were hosed, the OO Delta flight I missed due to a listing issue that is well documented. A flight that had open seat BTW, a situation that management didn’t take into consideration at all. Then another SkyWest CRJ that was late.

-The missed flight was a CDO that I had been given 12 hour call out. I was called at 845am for an 845pm show. I had proof being at the airport by 430 trying to list on that first Delta flight. Doesn’t sound like an unreliability issue to me

-Originally fired, although I didn’t just roll over. I reached out to SAPA and other resources, then was allowed to resign.

Those are the big points... Full story is buried back in another SkyWest Page.

 

If you have zero protection then yes it’s terrible man. Just because everyone wants to take the last flight possible and if that doesn’t work they’ll just call in sick. Its not even my situation I’m trying to hammer into the discussion, it’s the lack of writing and knowing what constitutes a solid try from the company perspective. This can vary from base to base depending on whose your BCP, that isn’t solid protection... Do you partly agree with that??

 

I do, which is why I said I'd like to see something in writing. The problem is there are a huge group of pilots who live in places that would require coming in a day early if they need to have 2 flight options. I also understand their perspective as a commuter. My time at home is gold. Like I said before, what happened to you sucks, but it is also far from a normal scenario. You had 2 major things not working in your favor, MH being in the CS department as this went down, and your chief telling you to drive and you decided not to. At that point it became more than just missing a commute, it became not following the instructions of your chief. I completely understand your decisions, but the system we have works pretty damn well for the majority of our pilots.