Managing expectations

[Monarch Man]

Originally Posted by harry the cod

MM

Fundamentally, this is where we disagree. I AM realistic to know that my time here is only as good as my last landing. That though is true of many airlines to be honest. However, the big difference here is that it involves moving house, school and family very quickly. The effect on immediate family and friends will be stressful and profound but, we all knew that anyway before we came, right? Yet we still made that all important first move abroad. In that time, things change. Factually, overall T&C's have declined along with wages relative to the ever increasing cost of living.

So, we now have a choice. Do what you do, commit as little as possible financially and emotionally, do your job professional to the best of your ability and take the cash each month. Fine, many do that and it may work for you. But, and here's the rub, your family is invested here too, especially children. They settle at school, make friends and your wife too develops a social network of friends. Damn, I'm sure even you have a few chums to drink beer with! So, when you detach yourself fully, you send a subliminal message to the family that this is not a long term proposition. That in itself creates uncertainty and I know of many wives who've left because they never took the time to engage with Dubai or make friends here. Why would they, they would not be staying long after all? Further, their pilot husbands spent hours at home and at parties whinging and moaning about their jobs and the Company. After a while, even the most loyal spouse will find this tedious and depressing. Why stay in a place you're not happy?

Personally, if you can't ever accept the things that can't be changed, life will become unbearable, for you and your family. If, or when it reaches a point where the lifestyle is not providing what you be attained elsewhere, you leave. Embracing the positives will always make your life and those around you better. Focusing on the negatives achieves little. Because of that, I look at all the good that Dubai and EK can provide, both for me and my family. On the whole, it's much better that I was able to achieve elsewhere. That doesn't make me a kool aid drinker or management troll.

My only concern is where this Company is now heading, especially with the dire results from our colleagues South of here. The style of leadership is not conducive to open feedback within management. Senior management meetings with STC are one way. There are too many filters and management do not like being realistic if it involves bad news. An environment that encourages open dialogue is the only way forward and while it's starting to work at the CiF courses and fleet briefings during RTGS, that same philosophy must be applied at the very top. Then, and only then, will we see a positive move to improve conditions, particularly for pilots. If nothing changes, which is likely, I see the problem only getting worse. Historically, change here is slow. The analogy of the lumbering tanker changing course is often used. However, STC has previously dictated some policy changes overnight, the 2 in a the cockpit being just one example. He needs to grasp the gravitas of the current situation and act accordingly and without delay.

Failure to do so makes him complicit in the current debacle of parked planes and insufficient pilots.

Harry

Harold, where to start? Perhaps its more succinct and pragmatic to say, ostensibly that I find my thoughts in alignment with your post, the real difference is a philosophical one rather than a simple perspective or outlook.
Most of us have family or kids in school, most of us also loathe the idea of having to uproot and disrupt merely for the sake of a bit of personal self satisfaction. Notwithstanding all of that, my disengagement from Dubai is nothing to do with the individuals and persons that I and my family socialise and interact with, the disengagement manifests itself in terms of being beholden or tied to the place in a financial or emotional sense. Ask yourself Harold how many of your friends or fellow expats once they leave maintain anything other than a cursory level of contact with the region or the people in it? In my experience the very reason for being here is the very reason that when most leave they seldom look back.
Now whilst you may disagree with my outlook, I’m fairly certain based on past experience and a healthy level of cynicism that those above us couldn’t give the foggiest as to our welfare, our aspirations, our families, our health or our opinions, they are for the most part bound by their sociopathic tendencies or worse, so why should I or more to the point why should we give them the benefit of our emotional intelligence, its far better in my view to base your decision making process on remuneration, just like them.
ATC can do what he likes, and he will continue to do so, like it or lump it, but make sure you laugh all the way to the bank first.