Maybe he is playing nice because of the class action lawsuit CAL is receiving regarding their hiring practices of military pilots. A close friend of mine was fired, yes fired, for taking military leave. The VA got involved and sued CAL. He received his job back, but they did not want to honor his seniority. He has received everything back, but it took a fight. He will be one of the witnesses for the case. He has a guy on record saying that he would not hire any reservists if he had the chance.
At my CAL interview, I was directly asked how I would handle my CAL job and reserve job at the same time. He said "I want a good piece of you that first year and I don't want you taking advantage of mil leave." Another friend of mine was almost yelled at as the interviewer raised his voice and pointed his finger at him and said "You reservists taking advantage of mil leave aren't pulling your weight." I'm pretty sure the above comments bordered on illegal. For the record, both of us were hired.
This post was not meant as flame bait. Hopefully, it will provide some military guys some heads up for their interviews. I am not speaking about the working environment for guardsman/reservists at CAL, only about the interview experience.