Jerry.... Brad... what ya got?

[Splert]

Rat in the bucket...

Leaders must create a climate of hope if they want the people they lead to stay motivated and energized. James Kouzes and Barry Posner put it this way in "The Leadership Challenge": "The climb to the top is arduous and long. People become exhausted, frustrated, and disenchanted. They’re often tempted to give up. Leaders encourage the heart of their constituents to carry on."

Recently, a study was conducted by psychologists at Duke University. In this study, they put rats into containers with water that was too deep to stand in and far enough from the top to keep the rats from escaping. The rats had to either tread water or swim to survive.

The researchers put one set of rats in the water and allowed them to swim until they drowned. This apparently took about 17 minutes. Then they put another set of rats in the water and removed them at about 15 minutes to rest. The second set of rats were then put back in the water and continued to swim for 36 hours.

The researcher’s conclusion?

When the rats had the hope of rescue, they fought for survival much longer.

It sometimes seems easier to threaten and push and prod people than to encourage, to create rewards, and to inspire hope. The natural order of things tends towards negativity. Creating a positive, hopeful environment takes work and focus. The benefit is that people, like the rats in the story above, will hang on longer and work harder if they have hope in a bright tomorrow. Remove that hope and you have nothing but fear and intimidation to drive behavior.

You are the rat and rebranding and 500 aircraft and 5000 pilots is the hope.

I bet you calculated your seniority in 1/1000th of a split second when the rebranding story was told to you and you got a small rush from just thinking of it.

You are swimming even harder now.

 

[livin'thesim]

When I saw "rat in the bucket" I thought it was going to be another post about crew meals. You're right though - pilots will put up with an amazing amount of misery for the hope of growth.

Maybe management should get rid of sim rides on the interview and instead use a big tank of water. I can just see the letter now:

Dear Mr. Smith-

We are pleased to offer you an interview at ABC airlines. Please complete the enclosed PRIA documents and return. Our HR department will be contacting you shortly to set up an interview time.

For the interview, please bring your logbook, certificates, a small paper cup and your swimsuit. The interview process will consist of three elements:

1) An interview with HR and a line captain.

2) You and the other applicants will then move to the cafeteria where you will be tested on your ability to drink kool-aid in sufficient quantities and at an acceptable rate.

3) You and the other applicants will then be placed into a deep tank where you will tread water continuously while being shown photographs of a CRJ900 at random intervals.

At the conclusion of the tank test, all conscious applicants will be awarded a class date.

 

[JumpersAway]

You sound very, very hopeful.

Hope planted by management is a very powerful tool.

Keep swimming.

Reference: "rat in the bucket".

My hope isn't planted by management, it's common sense based. I'm failing to understand why it is thought that due to the lack of action now, that there will be no action at all. Timing is just as critical as the plan itself. Just watch- it ain't over yet, and I'm inclined to believe this is just the start.

 

[enuffalready]

My hope isn't planted by management, it's common sense based. I'm failing to understand why it is thought that due to the lack of action now, that there will be no action at all. Timing is just as critical as the plan itself. Just watch- it ain't over yet, and I'm inclined to believe this is just the start.

the point of this whole thread is that you don't come out and say 5000 pilots and follow it up with 4 700's from horizon. The arguement is that you become the boy who cries wolf. when you promise something so grandiose, you had better have something in the works, because trust starts eroding fast...

 

[JustaNumber]

the point of this whole thread is that you don't come out and say 5000 pilots and follow it up with 4 700's from horizon. The arguement is that you become the boy who cries wolf. when you promise something so grandiose, you had better have something in the works, because trust starts eroding fast...

True enough, but I agree that it would be extremely foolish to tease with the 5000 airplanes or whatever and not have some kind of real plan in the works. Maybe I'm being naive, but I believe they still have a plan for more market share. And since Mesa's future isn't looking so bright these days, more changes are definitely still coming for the industry. I'll give it a chance.

 

[JumpersAway]

the point of this whole thread is that you don't come out and say 5000 pilots and follow it up with 4 700's from horizon. The arguement is that you become the boy who cries wolf. when you promise something so grandiose, you had better have something in the works, because trust starts eroding fast...

I agree with what you say, to an extent. All I am saying is to be patient. There wasn't a timeline on this "vision". Even if we merely doubled in size, that would be substantial. This "vision" wasn't going to happen overnight. It has only been a month since it was announced.

 

[wms]

Pinnacle paid $62M and TSA paid $20M. There are no airplanes involved in those deals, DAL still has the leases on them. It's money for the business and certificate, ie flying contracts.

JA wants airplanes and assets along with the flying for them. DAL owns a few of the airplanes ASA operates, but ASA and SKYW have the leases on most of them.

It's not stupid to pass up a deal that does not include tangible assets.

 

[wms]

Has BH ever failed to deliver since coming here? I suspect there are deals happening that have been in the works since before the vision statement came out. It'd be counter-productive to the corporate culture to state such lofty goals if one wasn't sure they could deliver.

 

[Abernathy]

Has BH ever failed to deliver since coming here? I suspect there are deals happening that have been in the works since before the vision statement came out. It'd be counter-productive to the corporate culture to state such lofty goals if one wasn't sure they could deliver.

Have you been coming to work work or living under a rock? Since BH took over we have lost 12 aircraft, found flying for the others that we were going to lose but could not hold on to and furloughed 150+ pilots.

I could look past all that as "the natural cycle of business," but what I can't look past is the atrocious staffing situation, purposely spreading us thin to the point where we work our butts off yet get paid min guarantee for it. The result of which has not only affected our quality of life, but also created a situation in which we are cancelling flights due to low staffing beacuse the lack of foresight his adnimistration has had, blinded by the desire to squeeze as much out of us as possible.

BH is better than others, but he has definitely failed in certain aspects of the business. He just paints a rosy picture. Let's not be naive.

 

[damnflyboy]

SkyWest Inc buys Mesa's assets/flying in fire-sale. Most goes to 00 (40ish planes), who will take Phoenix flying for US Airways. Charlotte US Airways flying goes to EV (30ish planes). Remaining Mesa lift is flown as United. EV and 00 remain separate entities, union/non-union problem solved...for now. Company diversified. Jerry purchases with the money in his change drawer. Brad's mustache puffs in excitement, then smokes a cigarette and flicks it at a fuel truck. Booyah! It's going to happen. The talking vomit bag in the 5B magazine pocket told me so.

 

[sayrejm]

ASA furloughed 136 pilots... but point taken.

 

[Freebrd]

BH is better than others, but he has definitely failed in certain aspects of the business. He just paints a rosy picture. Let's not be naive.

Wholeheartily agree! The way some people at ASA say and feel about him is verrrry scary, verrrry scary indeed!

 

[sniper]

SkyWest Inc buys Mesa's assets/flying in fire-sale. Most goes to 00 (40ish planes), who will take Phoenix flying for US Airways. Charlotte US Airways flying goes to EV (30ish planes). Remaining Mesa lift is flown as United. EV and 00 remain separate entities, union/non-union problem solved...for now. Company diversified. Jerry purchases with the money in his change drawer. Brad's mustache puffs in excitement, then smokes a cigarette and flicks it at a fuel truck. Booyah! It's going to happen. The talking vomit bag in the 5B magazine pocket told me so.

Not a chance unless you integrate Mesa pilots

 

[777forever]

Have you been coming to work work or living under a rock? Since BH took over we have lost 12 aircraft, found flying for the others that we were going to lose but could not hold on to and furloughed 150+ pilots.

I could look past all that as "the natural cycle of business," but what I can't look past is the atrocious staffing situation, purposely spreading us thin to the point where we work our butts off yet get paid min guarantee for it. The result of which has not only affected our quality of life, but also created a situation in which we are cancelling flights due to low staffing beacuse the lack of foresight his adnimistration has had, blinded by the desire to squeeze as much out of us as possible.

BH is better than others, but he has definitely failed in certain aspects of the business. He just paints a rosy picture. Let's not be naive.

Not only are you extremely pessimistic, you're also an absolute moron! They can give your idiotic behind a crystal palace and you'll find something to complain about.

Lost 12 aircraft?!? Can you not count? Since BH arrived, lost 12 ATRs, gained 10 CRJ 900s, 4 CRJ 700s, and 2 CRJ 200s. Last time I checked 10+4+2 equals 16 which is greater than -12!

150+ furloughs? You're either misinformed or you seriously can't count. Last I checked 136 is not 150+

Work our butts off and get paid min guarantee. A few maybe getting min guarantee but most aren't. I've checked the ATL reserve list. Most are crediting in the mid eighties. There was one guy in there that wasn't CMF and he had 99 hrs of credit. Last time I checked 85-99hrs are not 75hrs.

Staffing surely has been an issue. But the disastrous weekend was mainly caused by the 700s not completing 1st class mods on time and those 700 flights being downgraded to the 200. As you can see flights are not cancelling left and right anymore as they were that weekend.

You've only been "living under a rock" if you don't believe this place has made a change for the better. Things could have been much worse for ASA but because of a proactive management we had at least enough growth to get all furloughs back in a very very tough economic environment. This place isn't perfect but its sure as hell better than most, if not the best regional in the industry.

If you're going to complain about stuff around here at least make legitimate complaints based off FACTUAL information rather than skew your numbers for the worse trying to make your opinion stronger. Never once do you have a positive post. All you do is whine like a little girl in the corner. Take the panties and skirt off, put some pants on, and act like a man, JUNIOR!

 

[777forever]

Wholeheartily agree! The way some people at ASA say and feel about him is verrrry scary, verrrry scary indeed!

Oh Please..............