TheBaron said:
Honestly.... yes, I would have left because FedEx was my ultimate goal. I agree with JL's policy. If FedEx wasn't good enough for you back then, we must not be what you really wanted. JL wants to hire people that want to spend their entire career here. When you get to be the man at the top...you can do what you think is fair.
In case you missed it, no one ever said life was fair.
I will agree, however, that the meet n' greet policy is not the way to go.
Thanks for an honest response Baron - finally someone agrees that the policy has nothing to do with some corporate "reach-around", but everything to do with "the man" , his thoughts about us legacy guys and a big sweeping assumption about us. Yep, you are correct life isn't fair - but it case
you missed it, there has been a big change in the airline pilot career since 911. Is it not possible for one's career aspirations to change based on a changing work and economic evironment? After the tech bubble burst, should corporate America have collectivelly turned it's back on all those that chased the "dot com's" because "obviously company XYZ wasn't good enough for you when you went to work for company 123.com a few years ago, so we're not going to hire you now that they 'dot bombed.'" Times changed in the last 6 years Baron. Reasonable man theory would recognize this.
It's not that FedEx "wasn't good enough for us", but the airline gig was pretty good back then too. Now it's not, but that doesn't seem to matter. If we wound up at a major, then the assumption - by you and JL, is that FDX was not good enough for us back then, so you smugly thumb your nose at us. What about those that didn't meet FedEx mins back then? What about those like me that had our app in for 3 years with no call from FDX until on line somewhere else, and also others like me that were already on our 2nd or 3rd airline job, and chose to settle in.
So, good for you with the reverse crystal ball and you would have quit Delta to go to FedEx back in 1999, but I still say if you polled your purple crowd, most guys would have stayed at that point too. When did FedEx become your "ultimate goal" by the way - before or after 911?
I'm glad JL wants to hire pilots who want to spend their whole career there. They only way we could even start would be to resign, unlike the furloughed guys who burned FedEx when recalled 10 years ago. I would argue that we would be even more loyal employees than those from many other civ/mil sources. We've seen the good days, and seen it all go away. I think we as a group would be pretty motivated to work hard to help FedEx contintue its success, since we've all seen the "other" side.
Hoping for a Jack Lewis retirement party soon,
Ben