Latest FLOPs FUD

[skyismyoffice]

Vision 2012

What is Vision 2012?

You'll love this...

----- Original Message -----
From: Christine Herchick
To: Michael Scheeringa
Sent: Fri May 23 177:17 2008
Subject: Team Member Update

Dear Fellow Team Member:



Our Go-Forward plan has led the Company to profitability, industry-leading safety and significantly improved customer satisfaction. Now, it is our Vision 2012 that will build upon these achievements and allow Flight Options to lead the industry with the most successful business model.



In preparing ourselves to achieve our next goals, we have concluded the analysis of how best to react to today’s economic and competitive climate, while at the same time reorienting the Company from the Go-Forward strategy of the last 3 years to the Vision 2012 that will guide us well into the next decade.



The Company’s profitability, despite today’s economic climate, demonstrates the effectiveness of our operation. However, the demand for our current products and programs has declined year over year – both in new sales and flight demand by our existing Owners. This decline in demand is due to a combination of factors, including the economy, the price of fuel, the anticipation of next generation aircraft, and the service issues that some of our customers have experienced.



Vision 2012 depicts a vibrant Company; one that participates in all major aspects of the private jet industry, with an international brand, significant profitability, industry-leading safety and unmatched customer service, product and program innovation and value. Over the next several weeks and months, we will begin rolling out the different aspects of Vision 2012 and what it will take to have sustained profitability in each segment.



Today’s restructuring was based upon our determining what the necessary size of the business should be in our current environment. We carefully evaluated the contributions of the people, functions and facilities which will best lead us toward maintaining our profitability in 2008 and the successful execution of Vision 2012.



The decision to scale the business was very difficult and had a negative impact on some of our Team Members’ lives. This was a decision that I wish we did not have to make, but it was appropriate and necessary given today’s climate. For each individual who is now gone, we should be grateful for their contribution to the Company and wish them well in their future endeavors.



We must now face our future with renewed vigor and commitment to the Company, our customers and each other. Vision 2012 can only be successful through our collective teamwork.



We will be holding Company Meetings to discuss our future on Friday, May 30, in both Cleveland and Dallas. Schedules will be announced soon.



Fly Safe,



Michael

 

[skanza]

isn't that a Rush album?!

That's 2112, I think...

 

[EX_CV580FR8Dawg]

That's 2112, I think...

yes it is... a dash of sarcasm thrown in!

 

[RNObased]

What is Vision 2012?

I guess calling it a vision makes it viable.

 

[Galaxy]

What is Vision 2012?

It is the number of employees the company wants in one year. 2000 managers and 12 pilots.

 

[Greaseman]

As a former FLOPS pilot I am disgusted with what has to be the single most back peddled, under-handed stunt that I have witnessed in recent business history.

Tyler and Scheeringa couch the PILOT FIRINGS as "scaling" or "right-sizing" when in the same breath the HR department states categorically that they were "terminations" as a result of poor performance.

Which is it? These buffoons just admitted to the world that 15 percent of the pilot group needed to be fired. What is an "underperformimg" pilot in an owners view? Someone who shouldn't be up front! More pi$$ poor "management" is what the average owner is thinking.


What about the seniority list? Was that just a---list?
Apparently so. Everything that affected a pilot's quality of life at FLOPs revolved around that list. I guess that list was just a convenient way to keep track of who was flying their jets. It was arranged by date of hire but might as well have been in alphabetical order.

Tyler states that to "lay-off" in order of seniority would have proven too costly. I have news for you, you freakin' scumbag---you guys had ample opportunity to run an "at will" company which would have allowed the the out-of-seniority RIF's (dishonorable at the best) but you couldn't do that right either. You don't enjoy the privilege of pretending that there is no seniority. I truly hope that the remaining pilots stand up for themselves.

Bob Tyler is the only thing that should "end up parked in the desert".

The only thing worse than being a scab is being the puppet of one.

Grease

 

[chingaso]

I swear these people believe their own horsesh!t. They live in a bubble in County, and run around patting each other on the back and sending memos to one another reinforcing their version of reality, as if to repeat something makes it more believable and the more times stated brings it closer to the truth.

Didn't Bob send us the same letter a year ago? Talking about the "downturn" in the fractional industry and how fractionals as a "business model" were no longer viable, blah blah...? Well, it was apparent a year ago that the Wizards of Cuyahoga County neglected to get that memo to NetJets and Flexjet, because they just keep on a'growin and a'growin and a'growin.

Maybe they don't have the hemmorhage of money flowing into their executives (and their executive buddies, family members, etc) pockets, flowing into needless union-bustin law firms, and gushing without impedence from their versions of the OCC through idiotic waste and bad decision making.

Bottom line: FX and NJ are doing things right, Options can't. Not 'won't' or 'don't,' but can't. So they blame mean pilots and that pesky downturn for their incompetency.

But wait, didn't Sheeringa himself, just last September completely contradict Bob when he was masturbating over the HIG acquisition? When he said "the corporate aviation industry, and general aviation as a whole, is growing at a rate that is double the US economy...that it has been for the last 5 years and will continue to do so for the next 6?" What happened to the "downturn," Mike? He should have checked with Bob before he said that, I reckon, don't you? They talk out both sides of their mouths until its a mile wide.

"Unprecedented customer satisfaction?" If it weren't such a ludicrous statement I'd piss myself laughing.

Some people, in an attempt to appear even-minded and objective, are chalking the mass firings up to "tough business decisions." This wasn't a good business decision, otherwise their would have been integrity involved, with proper business protocol. If what Bob and Mike would have us believe is true, then what they are talking about is a Reduction in Force (RIF). But they didn't RIF anyone. Sound, competent, and responsible business practices would have resulted in a formal layoff. If what they say is true, they would have gone the layoff route instead of the sleazy way they did it. Layoffs require a 60-day notice, and proper procedure. We all know that Flight Options executives eschew regulations (all that irritating "safety" stuff) and desire to do what they want, how they want. So to skirt the regulations, as usual, they circumvented the proper business procedure a true business decision would have suggested, and took the low-road and hurt a bunch of people. Sure, all businesses are in business to make money, but in the last few years, invoices have taken a higher priority than product, and even more priority than the people needed to deliver the product (or are themselves the product). Proper business practices can cost money, and that's a no-no at Flight Options.

Rick Fuller got fired. I can't believe that. Oh yeah, he was in charge of the safety department. How unproductive of him. But hey, now they don't have to worry as much about those silly safety rules. Boy thats a solid business decision. I want to see the memo touting Sanjays metrics and how much money we saved in "Qs 1 & 2" from the pencil whippings.

They fire all these Union guys, then turn around and have the gall to say that the Union is being adversarial. Oh my God.

If Mike Sheeringa could just get rid of all the airplanes, all the pilots, and all the owners, he'd have a fantastic business model to be proud of. I wish him luck.

 

[simsky70]

Email the Plain Dealer - they are looking for information on the firings and how it impacts CGF. FO is not giving any information to them. ALISON GRANT [[email protected]]

 

[EX_CV580FR8Dawg]

It is the number of employees the company wants in one year. 2000 managers and 12 pilots.

I think you just may have stumbled on to something Galaxy!

 

[jetwash]

Rick F got fired. I can't believe that. Oh yeah, he was in charge of the safety department. How unproductive of him. But hey, now they don't have to worry as much about those silly safety rules. Boy thats a solid business decision. I want to see the memo touting Sanjays metrics and how much money we saved in "Qs 1 & 2" from the pencil whippings.

I am sure gutting the safety department is something all of our owners are in full support of.

Wait until they hear about this, and I am sure they will hear about it!!!!!