I got canned!!!

[capt. megadeth]

Iceman,
Forgive me for being rude here, but what the hell are you doing having another baby if you are instructing and short on cash? Another thing? Does your wife work? Other than that, sorry about being let go.

 

[TonyC]

Forgive me for being rude here, but what the hell are you doing having another baby if you are instructing and short on cash?

It never ceases to amaze me that total strangers feel so comfortable offering family planning advice.

 

[capt. megadeth]

Tony C.,
If he didn't want us to comment, maybe he should have not posted this on here.

 

[blueridge71]

I would suggest that you go to your local Department of Economic Security office and get signed up for health care, food assistance and your local WIC office for your wife since she is pregnant. This is not a time to have pride. It is a time to take care of your family.

I agree. I have a three-month old son and we qualify for WIC as a second-year regional FO. You pay in so don't feel bad about taking out.

I'd also suggest applying for Medicaid and food stamps.

Good luck. I'm sure you'll find a job soon.

 

[Iceman21]

Alright, I will try and go in order here.

First off, as to why I was "let go".

The answer was left unclear. I was given no warning, never got written up, etc. I will first go through what was said and then I will go on to speculate as to the real reasoning.

What I was told was that it was brought to my boss's attention that there was a degredation in my performance. Specifically, that day. (To break it down, we had a team approach to instructing. Anyone instructor could work with the student on any day. So, they keep records of what the previous instructor did the lesson before so the next instructor had some place to base the student's next lesson on.) That day, I was working with a student who was at the end of getting the solo requirements met and was beginning on prepping for the checkride. Our director of operations came to me and told me to make sure I had a plan for the student because he had already called and wanted to cancel. I was sitting at the lunch table at the time and I told I already had a plan for him and we were good to go. So the student comes in and I told him to get weather and tell me whether or not we would be able to fly or not. (I already knew we were going to fly but I wanted to test his decision making.) So he got on the phone and I went out and had a smoke. Halfway through the smoke the Director of Ops takes a look out the door, at me, and then goes back inside. I finish the smoke and go back in and have a very productive lesson with the student. We even had to change our flight up a little bit to avoid some convective cells and thunderstorms. Good experience for a private student. To shorten the story, the Vice President didn't like the way I handled that situation, he felt I didn't get a plan ready when the Director of Ops specficially told me to, and he took me going out to have a smoke as unacceptable because the student was sitting there waiting for me, which as I just stated was not the case, the student was given a task that didn't require my being there at the time. Those events told the Vice President that I had a problem engaging the client and that I couldn't possilbly stay an employee there.

If you ask me that was not enough reason for me to get canned without warning. So, I can only assume that there is more behind it than I was actually let on to.

Now here's what I think.

About 4 months ago, they cleaned shop because of dwindling sales. They fired the Sales Director and Director of Operations and brought in 2 new guys to revamp the place. As of right now, the Vice President of the Company is the acting School Director while the new Sales Director and Director of Ops are in training. The new Director of Operations is the very much the best friend to the management side of the company rather than the friend of the employee side. With the dwindling sales of the company, what students we do have in daily, the instructors are heavily pushed to keep them in and training as much as possible, nothing wrong there if you ask me, but last Saturday I had a student who called on Friday to get the schedule all day Sat and Sun (8 hours a day). I was working with in on Saturday, we got through the groud portion of the lesson, filed the flight plan, took a break and started talking about home life for a bit. He goes on to tell me that his life is in shambles (23 years old, has a 5 month old daughter that he has not seen yet, wife is serving him divorce papers, he just got demoted from a supervisor's position at his company, etc.) and he didn't feel like he was all there today. What was I supposed to say? I told him that I agreed with him that he was not all there (when asked about something I just went over with him, he didn't know the answer, this happened about 5 times). We talked some more about it and he wanted to know if it was in his best interest to take some time off and stop training for a 2 weeks to get everything in order. I couldn't help but agree with him, so he went into the Sales Director's office and they started to talk about it. In the meantime, the Director of Ops came up to me and asked what was going on with the student, I told him he was going to take some time off. I was asked why, and I replied "He's got some family issues he needs to deal with right now." That answer was not enough for him and he pushed for some more info, and I told him to wait to speak to the Sales Director about it, and that it was not my place to say anything further. This didn't sit well with the Director of Ops, so he went and got on the phone with the Vice Pres because he didn't know how to handle the situation. I ended up overhearing, the conversation between the two of them and basically the Director of Ops told the Vice Pres that "an instructor precipitated the student to leave." So now, I am sending student's home, instead of keeping them there so they can spend their money. I merely agreed with the student, and I felt that if he stayed for the day and the following day his progress would have digressed even more than was already apparant. I told the Chief Instructor about what happened and he aggreed my suggestions and felt I did no wrong.

None of this was mentioned to me when I got the boot, but I really have a feeling this is why I got the boot.

Okay secondly, both my son and my wife are on public aid, we have food stamps, and we will be getting on WIC in the next few days.

By huncowboy
Is "pick me up" like when you want someone to get you out of your bad mood... like being able to talk to someone kind of like venting except you are more like sad, rather than pissed?

Yes

capt megadeath, I am not going to justify my decision in having another child when I am instructing. My family is taken care of, and money in not what is going to make my family function correctly. However, thanks for your "concern"

Fourthly, I never went in and asked my boss for an advance, not once. That is not what I meant by "pick me up". If I wanted cash from them I would have asked, believe me I spent enough money there to keep there doors open for a few months there, when I was a student.

 

[dmspilot00]

I think he did you a favor in firing you. It would suck to work or be a student at that school!

 

[bart]

Iceman,

Pick up the pieces and move on. The only advice I have for you is look back and get clear on where you might have handled things to get a better result for you. The guys are jerks, nothing changes that, but you can learn from the difficult situation and come out the better for it.

Good luck with your leads.

 

[Av8trxx]

Iceman- Your going to need Cobra if you had medical insurance with your past employer.

COBRA will probably be your most EXPENSIVE option, if it is even available to you. It should be your last option, but somehow I get the feeling this guy didn't give you benefits like that anyway. For coverage on myself alone COBRA was going to cost me $300 per month! Blue Cross offered me $68/mo. Find out about insurance ASAP with that baby on the way, plus a toddler. You could get turned down by many carriers since she has a 'pre-existing condition', so start looking soon.

 

[pilotman2105]

You seem to be handling the situation well given the circumstances. You are to be commended for that.

In regards to the comments of the company "doing you a favor" by firing you, I would agree with that if the situation is as you describe it. When management steps in and tries to tell an instructor/employee how best to do their job, it's both degrading to the employee and a horribly inefficient use of their resources. If this continues, employee moral is going to go through the floor (especially if word gets out about your termination) and customer service will soon suffer. Accordingly, I do not think that this is a place that you would want to work.

In keeping with what Resume Writer said, I would ask them if you could resign or quit rather than being terminated. It looks better. If not, chalk it up to experience and move on.

Best wishes to you. Hope those leads pan out.

 

[bobbysamd]

The Rest of the Story

Thanks for writing the full version. As I understand unemployment compensation law, your termination was not your fault. Therefore, you would be entitled to a full award of benefits. Once more, you understand that I am not an attorney licensed to practice law. What I know about employment law comes from experience, school and self-study. To that end, I'd suggest you pick up the book I recommended.

What happened is complete and utter, 100% pure, unadulterated bull$hit. I reiterate my earlier comment about the whole lot of those ba$tards deserving impalement through the groin.

I wish you well and will add more if I have some more ideas. All suggestions above about getting COBRA, etc., which is required by law, are excellent.

The school wouldn't happen to be the 141 outfit that was publicized recently in a Chicago newspaper, would it?