Gets Weekends Off
Lippy!
I have become privy to a little information at FedEx. Your colleagues have always been so gracious in giving me a ride when I needed it, and we usually get a chance to talk. If Your Boss is doing something, then I believe it is good. It may not seem like much, but consider how things are run over here. I understand that the 4a2b (?) and other issues have caused a few problems, but again I say, consider how things are run over here.
In the past 2 years you have not layed off any pilots, we have 109 on the street with many more to come (so they say).
You have fire suppression, EFB's, full face O2 masks and goggles, hazmat detectors, etc, and are allowed to carry your luggage on board (mine was recently soaked in ICN waiting to be stuck in the tail).
Your catering is delightful, ours is literally crap in tin-foil.
Your hotels are far superior to ours. Our HKG hotel is the Holiday Inn. A HI?????? Are you %$&*&#() kidding me.
You are buying airplanes. Sorry, that was stupid of me. You are buying every available airframe you can get. We bought the #1 prototype of the 74-4 from CargoLux. Oh and we have 27 76's coming which they announced 4 years ago.
You are pursuing every avenue of revenue. Our sociopaths are only interested in????? friend&^*&^&$#^^%(, I have no idea what they are interested in. As of late we are promoting boats and crap we can't fly intra-China.
Your Boss is hard-nosed, aggressive, strong-willed. Ours is a pusillanimous cat, Wall Street loving, bean counting wimp with no foresight, no vision. He just wants it all to look pretty until he retires in 2 years.
You, have "The World on Time". We have something that nobody understands. In Louisville, there are maybe 3 people at UPS that have an idea what "Synchronizing the World of Commerce" means and only two that have an idea what "That's logistics" is.
Even football fans and the networks are laughing as you clobber us with cool ads.
Your operations in MEM, ANC, EWR, etc, etc are maybe not the classiest or newest, but apart from our "Worldport" in LOOOOOville, we operate out of quonset huts.
You have coffee at every gateway, free breakfasts from time to time. We have, NOTHING.
You, generally, are liked by your employer. We are despised!
Your ground personnel seems engaged, friendly, helpful. 90% of ours are degenerate souls who look like crap, smell like crap, and don't care at all. Honestly, they appear to only want the health care and the chance to go to school for free.
If you need help from Ops, you get it. We do to, but there is someone standing behing that person who's only job is to find blame with US. Inevitably, we are guilty until proven innocent.
Finally, and there are many more reasons, we get carted around on our own jets. Commercial tix are fewer and fewer. If you are on company business. Ie, a must ride, you are going! No big deal, right? Well if the Skipper bumps you (Captain's Authority), he will be sitting at home for two weeks, min.......unpaid.
So, whether Fred's planting a garden with plantains, petunias, building another ho house for Angeles City, or whatever, it ain't all bad. If there was ever a case for "the grass is always greener on the other side". THIS IS IT. Brown sucks so badly, when you guys open the window for interviews, check out who will be the first guys in line. I have six years here. I have watched, apart from the first two years, this place go in a downward spiral at warp-speed.
UPS will always make way more money, but to what avail? Mechanics, most drivers, most management, most hourlies, and all pilots despise who we work for.
Having said all this, I am grateful for my employment, I am grateful for my paycheck, but most importantly, I am thankful for 99% of the great folks I fly with and the fun we have on the road.