Buffett Bites Back at NetJets Pilot Complaints

[realityman]

Gosh. I never realized how heroic we pilots are...

Which is why you're willing to settle for less.

I know exactly what we do for a living. I do it every time I go to work. I'm good at what I do. I'm a professional. That means that everything I do comes naturally and easily these days. The benefit of experience. However, I try to not let the fact that what I'm doing feels easy blind me to the fact that what I do is very difficult, requires a lot of training, is enhanced by my experience, reduces the quality of my family life at home, and is totally disrespected by our current management team.

We are heroic. Just the fact that we continue to operate nearly accident free with the tools we're given and the way we're treated requires a certain level of heroism.

Maybe you've been lucky enough to slip by under the radar with management so far. Good for you! Let me know how you feel about it after you've done nothing worse than come off a vacation with the flu or something, did the right thing and called in sick, and then was brought to CMH for a third world interrogation about why you called in sick right after vacation and then being left NQC for months being left to wonder what your fate will be when they get back to you with a decision.

Heroic? Hell yes!

 

[realityman]

You do realize "parked airplanes" means furloughed pilots, right?

I park airplanes every time I go to work. They're falling apart. I don't see any furloughs happening. Quite the opposite actually. Stop being so afraid.

 

[realityman]

Not enough pilots available for that to happen, hopefully.

Doesn't matter. They're doing it anyway. Common sense and facts haven't stopped them from doing stupid things so far.

 

[G4dude]

And pilots are still not showing up for class, and initials are being cancelled.

That is great news, if true. How do you know this?

 

[G4dude]

Yeah....that's just hearsay.

People often say what they think you want to hear.

Let's just say I'm skeptical of both your perception and that this is a true representation of owner support.

However, I'd be happy to see concrete evidence that you are right.

My conversations with owners mirror what Diesel is saying.

 

[gunfyter]

That is great news, if true. How do you know this?

I just did recurrent. The FSI guys said initials were canceled for May. They said they'd been working very hard and it seemed like a good break for them and we were lucky to get the bankers hours in the sim instead of the night shift.

It can't be because we a fat on pilots ... did you see how many Falcon and Gulfstream guys left last month?

 

[G4dude]

I just did recurrent. The FSI guys said initials were canceled for May. They said they'd been working very hard and it seemed like a good break for them and we were lucky to get the bankers hours in the sim instead of the night shift.

It can't be because we a fat on pilots ... did you see how many Falcon and Gulfstream guys left last month?

Wow. Great news for us, gives us leverage to get better compensation.

 

[NJAowner]

We are heroic.

Heroic? Hell yes!

Realityman -- I hate to burst your bubble and have you return to reality .. but that is not heroic. Getting shot at while you fly like Semore Butts, Gunfyter and countless others on here is heoric -- and thank you guys. In flying passenger jets you are just doing a darn great job which I truly appreciate -- but you are not a hero to me.

 

[G4dude]

Doesn't matter. They're doing it anyway. Common sense and facts haven't stopped them from doing stupid things so far.

I think the marketplace in general and the pilot shortage in particular will force them to stop being stupid eventually, maybe very soon. Not getting new pilots will focus their minds wonderfully.

 

[G4dude]

We are heroic.

Heroic? Hell yes!

Realityman -- I hate to burst your bubble and have you return to reality .. but that is not heroic. Getting shot at while you fly like Semore Butts, Gunfyter and countless others on here is heoric -- and thank you guys. In flying passenger jets you are just doing a darn great job which I truly appreciate -- but you are not a hero to me.

NJAowner, you and gutshotdraw and gunfyter make flightinfo a pretty good place to be.

 

[pilotyip]

Which is why you're willing to settle for less.

I know exactly what we do for a living. I do it every time I go to work. I'm good at what I do. I'm a professional. That means that everything I do comes naturally and easily these days. The benefit of experience. However, I try to not let the fact that what I'm doing feels easy blind me to the fact that what I do is very difficult, requires a lot of training, is enhanced by my experience, reduces the quality of my family life at home, and is totally disrespected by our current management team.

We are heroic. Just the fact that we continue to operate nearly accident free with the tools we're given and the way we're treated requires a certain level of heroism.

Maybe you've been lucky enough to slip by under the radar with management so far. Good for you! Let me know how you feel about it after you've done nothing worse than come off a vacation with the flu or something, did the right thing and called in sick, and then was brought to CMH for a third world interrogation about why you called in sick right after vacation and then being left NQC for months being left to wonder what your fate will be when they get back to you with a decision.

Heroic? Hell yes!

Isn't just as Heroic, that I load cargo at 0300 at CYHM, in a driving rain where you are soaked head to toe in 40 mile an hour winds. I do this to keep the assembly lines in North America from shutting down, so that workers do not lose pay because of factory shutdowns. So the that stock holders can see their investments maintain value, so NJ owners can continue to lease airplanes. Isn't that just as heroic?

NJAowner, you and gutshotdraw and gunfyter make flightinfo a pretty good place to be.

Well said, lets put heroism where it belongs

 

[G4dude]

Isn't just as Heroic, that I load cargo at 0300 at CYHM, in a driving rain where you are soaked head to toe in 40 mile an hour winds. I do this to keep the assembly lines in North America from shutting down, so that workers do not lose pay because of factory shutdowns. So the that stock holders can see their investments maintain value, so NJ owners can continue to lease airplanes. Isn't that just as heroic?



Well said, lets put heroism where it belongs

YIP, I forgot to put you on my favorite list. Sorry!

 

[pilotyip]

YIP, I forgot to put you on my favorite list. Sorry!

no worry, it was understood, keep up the good fight

 

[gutshotdraw]

no worry, it was understood, keep up the good fight

The good fight here is the one against our idiot CEO and the damage he is doing to our brand, our customers, and our colleagues.

It's about time for the Dude to JOIN IT.

 

[realityman]

Guys, relax. You folks take things way too literally. Another poster here gave a description of one of our worse type of days here. Dude made a snarky comment about him not knowing we were so heroic. The original poster didn't say we were heroic. He said the folks sitting in their climate controlled offices don't have any real clue about what we do or how difficult it can be at times. My response was simply meant to point out that what we do, by comparison, to what some folks think our job is like is heroic. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

As for what heroism really is, I wasn't aware heroism only involved bullets and/or saving lives.

Yesterday I decided to dig up a small patch of my yard and plant a small pumpkin patch because I knew my daughters would really love that. It wasn't very large, but a lot of work. After I finished, my oldest daughter helped plant the seeds. At the end she looked up at me and said, "Daddy, you're my hero.". What a great thing for me to hear! I'm sure most of you here will say, "Meh, what does she know, she's six!". I don't believe for one second that creating and planting a pumpkin patch is anywhere near the heroism of saving a life or doing your job while being shot at, but for one little girl it was still a small act of heroism.

NJAOwner, I get the sentiment, but you honestly think nothing we do even rises to a small level of heroism? How about when your catering doesn't show up, we have very little time to get anything before departure time, but still manage to get you what you want. Couldn't that be construed as going above and beyond normal duty and against the odds? Maybe it doesn't matter much to you or anyone else around you, but perhaps to owner services it's one small act of heroism.

The point is, we absolutely are heroic. Not every leg, and not every day. But we go way above and beyond, against the odds plenty in the course of a year.

And the bigger point of all this is simply that if Dude doesn't see how what we do is, in fact, difficult and challenging, especially beyond what our counterparts at the majors do, then he will never be motivated to join the fight. You have to truly BELIEVE we are worth more in order to get more.