Well, it looks like some LOOOOOONG overdue changes might finally be on the way for airline flight time and duty time restrictions. Rumor is these will come out in September and airlines will have 6 months to change their scheduling structures to comply.
Currently, domestic flight time is limited to 8 hours per day and duty time is limited to 16 hours per day. What does that really mean? Well, it means that you can only spend up to 8 hours each day actually flying. Yes, when you are sitting at the gate with the door open, all the passengers boarded up, waiting for maintenance to clear some issue, you are considered to be on duty, but you're not flying, so it doesn't count against that 8 hour limitation. Same applies when the passengers are trying to get off the plane, but you're stuck sitting at the gate waiting on someone to pull the jetway up to the plane.
Those of you that have read my previous post titled Compensation will remember that pilots are only paid their full rate based on "block time." The 8 hour restriction is applied to that "block time." You are "owned" by the company when you are "on duty" sitting around an airport somewhere. I've sat around in an airport in the middle of a day for up to FIVE HOURS between flights on more than a few occasions. However, you're not being paid your flight rate. You are technically being paid, however, it's just a per diem rate. This rate is about $1.50hr. And, you can legally be on duty for up to 16 hrs in a day. SIXTEEN. That's a double shift, and only really being paid for less than 1/2 of your time.
If the new regs come out as they are projected to, they will allow MORE domestic flight time (block time) in a day. HOWEVER, they will restrict duty time to 12 hours in a day. I think it's very interesting proposal. Most of us agree that if we are going to be at work, lets work. I don't know anyone at my company that loves to sit around. Everyone hates mid-day, multi-hour breaks. You can't really go anywhere as you're owned by the company, but they're not really paying you either. You're just kind of incarcerated. Allowing an additional hour of flight time isn't that big of a deal. Hell, if I'm going to be at work (on duty) for 12 hrs, I'd like to make 9 hours of pay, rather than 8.
What makes these proposed regs clever is that the company has far less flexibility to bend you over and give you these 5 hour productivity breaks (airport appreciation time, management training, whatever you want to call it) where they have full ownership of you. They can make you just sit there and rot or change your schedule as they see fit. However, they only pay you $1.50/hr for that time. With the duty time limitations changed to 12hrs per day, from 16, the airlines themselves will have to get their heads out of their asses and be more efficient in how they utilize flight crews. And, if they do it right, they can use us for an additional hour each day to actually "do work" and generate revenue.
Would the CEOs like it if we made them show up to work at 0500, attend a meeting, then had them go sit in a room for 3 hours, paying them $1.50/hour for their time. No work, just sit there. Then, maybe let them back in their office for a few hours. Then, more time back in the room doing nothing for $1.50/hour. Let them go home around 9pm. So, they had to sit be "at the office" for 14 hours that day, And, we'll only pay them for about 8 hours of work. Something tells me they would go ape shit over that, saying how it's unfair treatment, not productive, not fair to the company, and they never see their family, they're too tired driving home after sitting around all those hours, only to do 8 hours of actual work. They get home at 10pm, but they better be the hell back at the office by 0500, or their fired! They themselves would never tolerate such treatment.
Personally, I don't mind the odd hours and stretches of time away from home. As long as I get stretches of time to be home in between, I'm fine with that. But, when I'm at work, I'm far more happy to just be working. If I've got 3 legs to fly that day, lets go and get them done. Bam, Bam, Bam. 6 hours of flying, maybe 8 hours of duty time with extra time in there to load and unload passengers. Working like this means I'm more alert and safer. This isn't to say that I don't mind having an extra 20-30 mins of time between flights to leave the plane, stretch the legs, get something to eat, etc. However, stretching 6 hrs of flying over 14hrs of duty time, that drags my ass something fierce!
I've not heard anything on rest time changes with the proposed regs. Even if not, I just hope these new flight/duty time limitations as discussed here get put in place. I'll be happier and safer for it.
Next time: "Rest" Defined.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Good Days
I first thought of this making this blog entry while walking around my aircraft during a preflight one morning after a good night's sleep. It was a nice calm, cool morning. The hotel even had a nice little free breakfast for us. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the sun was just breaking over the horizon. I could see a couple of large birds sitting on various airport signs and lights. After all, the big open fields at an airport are a great place to hunt for rodents and the like. On climb out, the brightening sky was just incredible and the air was nice and smooth. Even ATC wasn't very busy that morning. We were cleared direct to our destination. I had a nice warm cup of coffee in my hands and I got to thinking, "Man, this job isn't so bad sometimes..."
With all the bad news that's going on all over the world, I figured it's about time to report some good news. Sure, there are lots of downsides to the job I have, but sometimes things are pretty good. The last couple of trips I've been on, most things really did fall into place rather well and it made for quite the enjoyable time at work.
When I was ready to start my last trip, I was at my local airport trying to hitch a ride on a mainline flight to my base. The flight was pretty full, so I was planning to hitch a ride up on the jumpseat. Usually, this isn't a very comfortable seat, but it's a seat nonetheless. I waited for everyone else to get on board and then I brought up the end of the line. At the last minute, the gate agent handed me a boarding pass. It was for an open seat in first class. Fantastic. A nice big seat, leg room, not to mention a free breakfast on the way to work. It was hard to be upset about my job that morning.
After we flew a few legs that day, it was time to head to the hotel. We shut down the plane, packed up, and headed across the airport. I was expecting to stand around for another 15-20mins waiting for the hotel shuttle. However, we walked outside and the shuttle was right there waiting for us. We just walked right up to it, got on, and headed off to the airport. That was a very nice surprise.
One morning, there was a maintenance issue with the aircraft we were supposed to take. It wasn't expected to be a big deal, so I put all my stuff away, and did my walk around. Then, I started going through all the paperwork. I knew that if I didn't have everything done and ready, the maintenance guy would show up, fix the issue and send us on his way. If I wasn't ready to go, then we would take another 20mins to get ready before departing, and then chief pilot wouldn't be pleased with me. I also knew that if I did take the time to get everything ready, and we did swap planes, I'd have to do all this work over again. Sure enough, after I got all of my tasks done, maintenance said they wouldn't be able to fix the issue at the gate and we'd have to swap aircraft. I sighed, accepted the fact, and began to pack my stuff up. It was at the moment where maintenance indeed was able to fix the problem. He signed us off and we were on our way. I really couldn't complain about that little turn of events.
Anyone that has taken a few airline flights in their life would know that delays are just a part of this business. Sometimes it's for a broken plane, a late plane, other times it's weather. Just before boarding the passengers up for the last leg of our trip, we were told by ATC that we would be looking at at least an hour delay. I grabbed another cup of coffee, and just relaxed in my seat. I'm not 100% sure why, but I had left the clearance delivery frequency up on the radio with the speaker on. Maybe just to have something to listen to. Then, they called me back. I replied. They said, "The ground stop has been canceled. You are released when ready!" Fantastic!
As a last little reward, when I commuted home at the end of this trip, I went to hop on the train. I knew that my card didn't have all that much money on it. So, I knew I would have to stop and add some money to it before I hopped on the train. I popped my card in and I had over $24 on it! I was sure I didn't have enough to make a trip, but as it turned out, I had more than plenty!
Sometimes, things can really suck. Sometimes, you just can't catch a break anywhere. However, statically speaking, a streak like that can't last forever. Looks like I have been on a good streak lately. Alas, I also know that it won't last forever, but it sure has been a nice change of pace and I've remembered just how much I really do enjoy flying for a living.
With all the bad news that's going on all over the world, I figured it's about time to report some good news. Sure, there are lots of downsides to the job I have, but sometimes things are pretty good. The last couple of trips I've been on, most things really did fall into place rather well and it made for quite the enjoyable time at work.
When I was ready to start my last trip, I was at my local airport trying to hitch a ride on a mainline flight to my base. The flight was pretty full, so I was planning to hitch a ride up on the jumpseat. Usually, this isn't a very comfortable seat, but it's a seat nonetheless. I waited for everyone else to get on board and then I brought up the end of the line. At the last minute, the gate agent handed me a boarding pass. It was for an open seat in first class. Fantastic. A nice big seat, leg room, not to mention a free breakfast on the way to work. It was hard to be upset about my job that morning.
After we flew a few legs that day, it was time to head to the hotel. We shut down the plane, packed up, and headed across the airport. I was expecting to stand around for another 15-20mins waiting for the hotel shuttle. However, we walked outside and the shuttle was right there waiting for us. We just walked right up to it, got on, and headed off to the airport. That was a very nice surprise.
One morning, there was a maintenance issue with the aircraft we were supposed to take. It wasn't expected to be a big deal, so I put all my stuff away, and did my walk around. Then, I started going through all the paperwork. I knew that if I didn't have everything done and ready, the maintenance guy would show up, fix the issue and send us on his way. If I wasn't ready to go, then we would take another 20mins to get ready before departing, and then chief pilot wouldn't be pleased with me. I also knew that if I did take the time to get everything ready, and we did swap planes, I'd have to do all this work over again. Sure enough, after I got all of my tasks done, maintenance said they wouldn't be able to fix the issue at the gate and we'd have to swap aircraft. I sighed, accepted the fact, and began to pack my stuff up. It was at the moment where maintenance indeed was able to fix the problem. He signed us off and we were on our way. I really couldn't complain about that little turn of events.
Anyone that has taken a few airline flights in their life would know that delays are just a part of this business. Sometimes it's for a broken plane, a late plane, other times it's weather. Just before boarding the passengers up for the last leg of our trip, we were told by ATC that we would be looking at at least an hour delay. I grabbed another cup of coffee, and just relaxed in my seat. I'm not 100% sure why, but I had left the clearance delivery frequency up on the radio with the speaker on. Maybe just to have something to listen to. Then, they called me back. I replied. They said, "The ground stop has been canceled. You are released when ready!" Fantastic!
As a last little reward, when I commuted home at the end of this trip, I went to hop on the train. I knew that my card didn't have all that much money on it. So, I knew I would have to stop and add some money to it before I hopped on the train. I popped my card in and I had over $24 on it! I was sure I didn't have enough to make a trip, but as it turned out, I had more than plenty!
Sometimes, things can really suck. Sometimes, you just can't catch a break anywhere. However, statically speaking, a streak like that can't last forever. Looks like I have been on a good streak lately. Alas, I also know that it won't last forever, but it sure has been a nice change of pace and I've remembered just how much I really do enjoy flying for a living.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Getting "Plutoed"
To "pluto" is "to demote or devalue someone or something," much like what happened to the former planet last year when the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided Pluto didn't meet its definition of a planet. (From an article by the Associated Press)
In case you hadn't noticed, the economy is in the crapper. So people say it's getting worse while others say it's starting to get better. What's the truth? I have no idea. I'm a pilot, not an fortune teller. We'll just have to wait and see. However, many folks have been laid off in the last couple of years and airline pilots have certainly not been an exception. For most people if you lose your job, you are pretty much just on your own. An upside is, if you've gathered some decent experience from the company that let you go, you might be able to land another position similar to, or maybe even better than the one you had. Things are slightly different when an airline pilot gets "Plutoed." This is largely because of an ancient artifact that is the seniority system.
When a regular company goes through tough times and has to lay people off, they get to chose who to let go based on what projects lack funding, who doesn't get their work done when they should, who routinely comes in late, etc, etc. When an airline lays pilots off, they don't have the luxury of separating the wheat from the chaff. Who gets laid off is based purely on their date of hire with that airline. Those who have been with the company the least amount of time, will be the first to go.
I must say, this certainly makes things easy on management. No tough choices have to be made of who stays and who goes. There are no awkward meetings with sad employees begging you to reconsider. No one is sobbing while telling you about their mortgage and kids. In fact, airline pilots are laid off with one of the most insensitive vehicles of communication that exist in corporate America: A Memo.
Pilots aren't completely cut loose when this happens either. This is why you don't really hear of pilots being "let go" or "laid off." Technically, we get "furloughed." Yes, there is a difference. Having been furloughed, you could go to another airline if they are hiring, but you'll start at the very bottom of the seniority list all over again. While your company doesn't want to pay you to work for them, they still want to keep you close by for when things get better. They do this by holding your position in the seniority list while you're gone. When times improve, they start to hire again and you can come back and be right where you left off. Airlines have a very enviable position here. A regular company might not want to lay off a good employee for fear that they might go to work for a competitor. Airlines might not be able to chose who they cut, but they have a great deterrent against them going elsewhere.
This is the evil carrot which airlines have dangled in front of pilots for decades and decades, and not just in time of furloughs. A pilot's quality of life and pay scale are solely related to that pilot's place on the company seniority list. For the most part, you start out making the least amount of money, flying in the right seat of the smallest aircraft with the crappiest schedule. As you move up in seniority, you will get better schedules, and work your way into the left seat, bigger planes, and a bigger paycheck. This is what allows company's to crap on flight crews to the extent they do. Sure, things might suck, but if you've been with a company for a few years, you are going to be willing to just put up with things rather than starting all over.
Let's say you've worked your way up to something like left seat in an Airbus 320 or Boeing 737. You could be making somewhere in the neighborhood of $150,000/year. Your company has really been pissing you off in terms of crappy schedules, horrible procedures, stupid policies and idiot bosses. After all, you've got years and years of Part 121 experience, Pilot In Command experience, several type ratings, and a great safety record. However, leaving for another airline means you will be back in the right seat, in a smaller aircraft, perhaps making $35,000/year. And, since you have a mandatory retirement age of 65, you might have enough time left to work back up a new seniority list to where you were at your old company. How much will an airline pilot put up with? The answer is: an awful lot.
Lets say you are a captain and you survived a furlough. Plenty of people on the seniority list below you. This doesn't mean you will be unaffected. You could be downgraded. This means you'll either find yourself flying a smaller, lower paying aircraft, or worse yet, back in the right seat of something. This means a HEFTY pay cut. Usually this is somewhere on the order of 40-50%. How many people out there would struggle if they all of a sudden got their paycheck cut in half? How many of those people would be looking for another job? An airline pilot would like to as well, if not for that damn carrot still hanging there.
In case you hadn't noticed, the economy is in the crapper. So people say it's getting worse while others say it's starting to get better. What's the truth? I have no idea. I'm a pilot, not an fortune teller. We'll just have to wait and see. However, many folks have been laid off in the last couple of years and airline pilots have certainly not been an exception. For most people if you lose your job, you are pretty much just on your own. An upside is, if you've gathered some decent experience from the company that let you go, you might be able to land another position similar to, or maybe even better than the one you had. Things are slightly different when an airline pilot gets "Plutoed." This is largely because of an ancient artifact that is the seniority system.
When a regular company goes through tough times and has to lay people off, they get to chose who to let go based on what projects lack funding, who doesn't get their work done when they should, who routinely comes in late, etc, etc. When an airline lays pilots off, they don't have the luxury of separating the wheat from the chaff. Who gets laid off is based purely on their date of hire with that airline. Those who have been with the company the least amount of time, will be the first to go.
I must say, this certainly makes things easy on management. No tough choices have to be made of who stays and who goes. There are no awkward meetings with sad employees begging you to reconsider. No one is sobbing while telling you about their mortgage and kids. In fact, airline pilots are laid off with one of the most insensitive vehicles of communication that exist in corporate America: A Memo.
Pilots aren't completely cut loose when this happens either. This is why you don't really hear of pilots being "let go" or "laid off." Technically, we get "furloughed." Yes, there is a difference. Having been furloughed, you could go to another airline if they are hiring, but you'll start at the very bottom of the seniority list all over again. While your company doesn't want to pay you to work for them, they still want to keep you close by for when things get better. They do this by holding your position in the seniority list while you're gone. When times improve, they start to hire again and you can come back and be right where you left off. Airlines have a very enviable position here. A regular company might not want to lay off a good employee for fear that they might go to work for a competitor. Airlines might not be able to chose who they cut, but they have a great deterrent against them going elsewhere.
This is the evil carrot which airlines have dangled in front of pilots for decades and decades, and not just in time of furloughs. A pilot's quality of life and pay scale are solely related to that pilot's place on the company seniority list. For the most part, you start out making the least amount of money, flying in the right seat of the smallest aircraft with the crappiest schedule. As you move up in seniority, you will get better schedules, and work your way into the left seat, bigger planes, and a bigger paycheck. This is what allows company's to crap on flight crews to the extent they do. Sure, things might suck, but if you've been with a company for a few years, you are going to be willing to just put up with things rather than starting all over.
Let's say you've worked your way up to something like left seat in an Airbus 320 or Boeing 737. You could be making somewhere in the neighborhood of $150,000/year. Your company has really been pissing you off in terms of crappy schedules, horrible procedures, stupid policies and idiot bosses. After all, you've got years and years of Part 121 experience, Pilot In Command experience, several type ratings, and a great safety record. However, leaving for another airline means you will be back in the right seat, in a smaller aircraft, perhaps making $35,000/year. And, since you have a mandatory retirement age of 65, you might have enough time left to work back up a new seniority list to where you were at your old company. How much will an airline pilot put up with? The answer is: an awful lot.
Lets say you are a captain and you survived a furlough. Plenty of people on the seniority list below you. This doesn't mean you will be unaffected. You could be downgraded. This means you'll either find yourself flying a smaller, lower paying aircraft, or worse yet, back in the right seat of something. This means a HEFTY pay cut. Usually this is somewhere on the order of 40-50%. How many people out there would struggle if they all of a sudden got their paycheck cut in half? How many of those people would be looking for another job? An airline pilot would like to as well, if not for that damn carrot still hanging there.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
The Blame Game
Airlines spend a lot of time worrying about blame. I don't see it quite so much with the mainliners that I jumpseat on, but it's still there to some extent. Here in the regionals, it's excessive to the point of utter stupidity.
Sadly, this really isn't anything new to the business world. This is one of the reasons I left the "cube-life" of a large corporation some years back. So much time and effort is spent just trying to find where to put blame. I see little time actually put towards addressing the root cause of problems that plaque our daily performance. Some people just think that all problems can be solved with memos.
Here's a classic case and point. In the morning, after a long overnight, our crew arrived at the gate on time. No gate agent was in sight. But, the inbound flight was late anyways, so no big deal. We we would be a little late getting our day started since we couldn't take a plane that hadn't arrived yet! Of course, this isn't the first time a flight has been late. Flights get delayed for a multitude or reasons.
The gate agent did show up a few minutes later, obviously stressed due to pressure from his boss, and asked us to really push to try and get it out on time. Now, sure, we can try. However, there is a bit of a conflict of interest there. We have LOTS to do when we get to an aircraft. It's not like getting in a car, starting the engine and driving away. In this case the inbound aircraft was about 10 mins late. It takes time to get everyone off the plane. Then the crew needs to pack up all their stuff and get off. In a larger airliner, perhaps there is space to be able to have two crews switching places simultaneously. A little regional plane, well, they're damn small. One crew needs to get off, then the next can get on. If you try and do it simultaneously, there just isn't enough room and you get in each others way, taking even longer. Then there are the cleaners. Now, don't get me wrong, I love seeing them, as passengers can be a messy bunch. But they also take up space and get in our way if we're trying to do our preflight stuff at the same time they are cleaning the cabin.
The inbound crew got off the plane and then the cleaners got done. Then we finally got on the aircraft and got to work. No less than 60 seconds later the gate agent is barking at us saying he wants to board the passengers. The flight attendants said, "We juuuuust stepped on! We need 5 mins... " There are things that the flight attendants need to do before having passengers aboard, by law and company policy. Some gate agents don't seem to understand that. The agent let us down to the plane 10 mins ago, but he didn't understand that we had to stand on the jetway and wait for everyone else to finish their tasks before we could step aboard. Not only that, but he didn't even have our paperwork for the flight yet. We can't leave without it or start getting things set up and programmed either. The agent was quite unhappy with us and stormed off saying, "Well, this delay is going on the crew!"
Once we got all our preflight stuff finished, passengers boarded up and finally got our paperwork, I noticed that in the middle of the blame storm, the fuel truck didn't give us all the fuel that we needed. So, back open the door had to go, and longer we had to sit to wait for the fuel truck to come back and finish fueling us. Even more delay.
So, as you can guess, this delay indeed went down as a "crew delay." And funny enough, after the gate agent stormed off blaming the crew, he was no longer in any rush at all. He didn't care about actually getting the passengers where they were going, he was only concerned with not having the blame finger pointed at him. Once that was taken care of, he didn't care much about anything else.
Even under normal circumstances, the flight crew has quite a large responsibility, as we all know. Having the crew caught in the crossfire of all this push, push, push, go, go, go, serves only as an added distraction and increases the likelihood of us missing something. Could be something small, might be something a bit larger. This is when, as we are taught, you need to step back, and slow things down. That's how to trap an error and not let it grow. This is for safety. However, by the flight crew resisting pressure from the gate agent means the finger of blame swings around to us. Blamed for doing what we are taught and expected to do. Good times...
Now, this isn't unique to any specific location. This is part of the culture in the regionals. We're small and we're cheap. We've got "big brother" constantly looking down at us like chess pieces. Depending on whether they like us or not, they can either give us more flying (which pisses off the mainliners, since it means flying gets pulled away from them...) or they can take it and give it to another regional company. So, the brass up top of each regional just scramble trying to make their numbers look as good as they can.
Sure, there is a need for accountability and reviews of where the company is struggling are necessary. I'm not saying otherwise. But if I saw just half the effort that we spend pointing fingers placed on actually fixing root causes, I bet the brass would see numbers and figures that they would love.
Unfortunately, much of the culture I see is built on fear and blame. It doesn't matter that we are all on the same team, in the same company, serving the same customer. It's just about keeping the blame away from your department. How can you have people with water buckets standing in front of a burning house and argue over who set it on fire rather than actually putting out the fire? That is just plain wrong. I don't care what you can make your numbers and metrics show. It's wrong and the customers, the flying public, end up paying the price in delays, lower levels of service and compromised safety margins.
Sadly, this really isn't anything new to the business world. This is one of the reasons I left the "cube-life" of a large corporation some years back. So much time and effort is spent just trying to find where to put blame. I see little time actually put towards addressing the root cause of problems that plaque our daily performance. Some people just think that all problems can be solved with memos.
Here's a classic case and point. In the morning, after a long overnight, our crew arrived at the gate on time. No gate agent was in sight. But, the inbound flight was late anyways, so no big deal. We we would be a little late getting our day started since we couldn't take a plane that hadn't arrived yet! Of course, this isn't the first time a flight has been late. Flights get delayed for a multitude or reasons.
The gate agent did show up a few minutes later, obviously stressed due to pressure from his boss, and asked us to really push to try and get it out on time. Now, sure, we can try. However, there is a bit of a conflict of interest there. We have LOTS to do when we get to an aircraft. It's not like getting in a car, starting the engine and driving away. In this case the inbound aircraft was about 10 mins late. It takes time to get everyone off the plane. Then the crew needs to pack up all their stuff and get off. In a larger airliner, perhaps there is space to be able to have two crews switching places simultaneously. A little regional plane, well, they're damn small. One crew needs to get off, then the next can get on. If you try and do it simultaneously, there just isn't enough room and you get in each others way, taking even longer. Then there are the cleaners. Now, don't get me wrong, I love seeing them, as passengers can be a messy bunch. But they also take up space and get in our way if we're trying to do our preflight stuff at the same time they are cleaning the cabin.
The inbound crew got off the plane and then the cleaners got done. Then we finally got on the aircraft and got to work. No less than 60 seconds later the gate agent is barking at us saying he wants to board the passengers. The flight attendants said, "We juuuuust stepped on! We need 5 mins... " There are things that the flight attendants need to do before having passengers aboard, by law and company policy. Some gate agents don't seem to understand that. The agent let us down to the plane 10 mins ago, but he didn't understand that we had to stand on the jetway and wait for everyone else to finish their tasks before we could step aboard. Not only that, but he didn't even have our paperwork for the flight yet. We can't leave without it or start getting things set up and programmed either. The agent was quite unhappy with us and stormed off saying, "Well, this delay is going on the crew!"
Once we got all our preflight stuff finished, passengers boarded up and finally got our paperwork, I noticed that in the middle of the blame storm, the fuel truck didn't give us all the fuel that we needed. So, back open the door had to go, and longer we had to sit to wait for the fuel truck to come back and finish fueling us. Even more delay.
So, as you can guess, this delay indeed went down as a "crew delay." And funny enough, after the gate agent stormed off blaming the crew, he was no longer in any rush at all. He didn't care about actually getting the passengers where they were going, he was only concerned with not having the blame finger pointed at him. Once that was taken care of, he didn't care much about anything else.
Even under normal circumstances, the flight crew has quite a large responsibility, as we all know. Having the crew caught in the crossfire of all this push, push, push, go, go, go, serves only as an added distraction and increases the likelihood of us missing something. Could be something small, might be something a bit larger. This is when, as we are taught, you need to step back, and slow things down. That's how to trap an error and not let it grow. This is for safety. However, by the flight crew resisting pressure from the gate agent means the finger of blame swings around to us. Blamed for doing what we are taught and expected to do. Good times...
Now, this isn't unique to any specific location. This is part of the culture in the regionals. We're small and we're cheap. We've got "big brother" constantly looking down at us like chess pieces. Depending on whether they like us or not, they can either give us more flying (which pisses off the mainliners, since it means flying gets pulled away from them...) or they can take it and give it to another regional company. So, the brass up top of each regional just scramble trying to make their numbers look as good as they can.
Sure, there is a need for accountability and reviews of where the company is struggling are necessary. I'm not saying otherwise. But if I saw just half the effort that we spend pointing fingers placed on actually fixing root causes, I bet the brass would see numbers and figures that they would love.
Unfortunately, much of the culture I see is built on fear and blame. It doesn't matter that we are all on the same team, in the same company, serving the same customer. It's just about keeping the blame away from your department. How can you have people with water buckets standing in front of a burning house and argue over who set it on fire rather than actually putting out the fire? That is just plain wrong. I don't care what you can make your numbers and metrics show. It's wrong and the customers, the flying public, end up paying the price in delays, lower levels of service and compromised safety margins.
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