I can't judge what is justifiable or not. The company isn't very public about what what they have on these guys either, so I presume neither one of us knows everything. I would say that if you're going to call off to go hunting, don't post on a public Facebook page something to the effect of "sorry NetJets, I have better things to do" with a picture of yourself wearing camo and holding a rifle the day you call off sick.
Sure, many rules hadn't been enforced for years, but that doesn't make it ok either. I don't know if these were first offenses either.
There are the 3%ers, then there was one dooshbag. The only one I could truly say was a dbag in my 14 years with the company. He was the guy that caused his brothers / sisters to work harder nearly every single day he was on duty in addition to the few things I mentioned. I don't want to see anyone of you guys out of a job, but I was elated when he left.
Back to the original point many posts ago. Less than a dozen terminated is hardly a management campaign. I Don't know what tactics are being played, or why. If you're telling me that you believe there aren't a few that have the intent to truly hurt the company, you're lying to yourself.
How can you look at the number of firings from '03-'13, and the number fired in 2014 and NOT conclude it's a management campaign of fear and intimidation? The number of firings in the past year has exceeded the number of firings in the past DECADE! It's very easy information to look up. Heck, some of our own guys on our boards have even done the work for you, some even with graphs to illustrate the point. Talk to the stewards, the ones in the trenches with these guys, they'll explain, and what's worse, tell you about the line of pilots the company has in que right now who may be fired. The trend has literally skyrocketed, but you don't see anything sinister?
As for details, yes, I actually have some on a few of the terminated pilots. Once again, with some of them, the information isn't hard to acquire. For starters, if you call a steward and ask a little, they are more than happy to give you the details they're allowed to. For example, they will tell you if the hostages have multiple offenses they were disciplined for in their files. No, they won't tell you what it was for, but in almost all the cases it's a moot point because most of them hadn't received any previous discipline before being fired. In addition, some of the hostages made it known you could call or email them for details (well, at least their side of the story). That info was posted on our boards. Have you spoken directly to any of them? It's very enlightening. The ones who can be contacted are very forthcoming about their transgressions. They don't try to hide that they screwed up. They will also confirm what the stewards said about not having other discipline in their files. I think if you take the time to do a little research you'll discover that in most cases discipline was deserved, but being fired was way beyond what was needed to correct the bad behaviour.
Going back to being sick. I tend to agree with you that if you call in sick it's not a good idea to post pictures of yourself on social media having a good time during a sick day. Bad form and likely to cause you some problems with your employer. That being said, there are plenty of illnesses that would keep me out of the flight deck, but not preclude me from participating in other activities. For example, an inner ear infection would prevent me from flying, but I could go out and compete in a marathon, or take the family to an amusement park, or go hunting. Doing what you described is not necessarily evidence that a wrong was committed. A comprehensive investigation would easily reveal what was really going on. Once again, take the time to talk to the stewards and find out about the company's "comprehensive investigations". You may be shocked to learn what evidence the company is choosing to ignore and proceed with the firings.
If, after you've done the research I've suggested, you can come back here and still tell me you don't think it's a management campaign of intimidation and fear, then maybe your perspective will seem more reasonable.
By the way, I enjoy your posts and ability to discuss without insults and name calling. And I don't think your perspective is necessarily wrong. I just think you haven't learned enough about the firings to have a fully formed perspective.
