An F/Os lament...
Being one of the F/Os directly effected by the DECs and having no other forum to voice my frustration, I thought I would put my dirhams worth in...
There are many high hour, high experience pilots in EK who left good jobs to join with the promise of early commands. Indeed the initial interviews were geared toward selecting high hour/experience guys because of the rapid expansion...so they knew it was coming. By high hours I mean 7 to 10,000 hours, widebody, command time (albeit on 'soft' aircraft types), but never the less, relevent experience to offer a command opportunity. Successive PPC and line checks together with valuable route experience also reinforce the suitability of those of us who feel that the policy of DECs has shafted us and will without doubt delay any prospect of a command.
In an effort to 'find' suitable candidates amoungst our own ranks a pre command interview board was set up. It turned out to be a superficial, and in some cases demeaning, exercise from people who should have known better and served only to pave the way for the current announcement.
It comes of no surprise that DECs have been imposed with no discussion, explanation or concessions to those who will be directly effected...although our full support and understanding will still be requested during this 'exciting period'. Standard airline policy issue: rumours followed by a memo published in the early hours of the weekend, advert in Flight to follow.
DECs and the implimentation has been a swift and hard blow to the stomach. It is a short term solution to a longer term problem. Could it have been done better? Certainly. The company must have known that they would need crews for all the new aircraft they have on order. Instead over the past few years they have lost experienced training captains instead of increasing their numbers and preparing the training system to cope.
'Amatures talk about tactics, professionals talk about logistics'.
So what can we do? Square root of FA really...the situation here in particular is like being in quicksand, the more you struggle the deeper you sink. Would I have joined if I had I have known all of this two years ago? NO.
As the great philosopher Homer once said, doh!