My airline's manager has a big spreadsheet with all the business costs recorded. Towards the top of all the costs sit the pilots so unsurprisingly they sit permanently under the microscope. The more he reduces the airline's costs the bigger his bonus will be. With another one of his big smiles he says (yet again) that pilot costs are too high and need to be brought down, he also needs productivity improvements. He may throw the odd statement away to emphasise that mental well-being is important for his employees but in reality his priorities are simple. (If he can't save the company some money this year there seems little point in employing this manager because he is ineffective.... think about the repercussions of that!) How does that potentially affect my mental health?
A few years ago airlines went to a lot of trouble selecting trainees for cadet pilot schemes. Strangely the successful candidates were quite sharp, well balanced and rarely had problems in training or passing check rides. Then the manager discovered that pilots were so keen to get into that seat that they were willing to pay for their own training and self-selection was born. Fantastic says the manager....... The financial risk of course failure falls to the individual and the airline still gets to pick and choose who they want. Sadly the pool of candidates was not quite as plentiful or quite as sharp as before but..... Hey! We are short of candidates, they have a licence so they must be safe right? And the we started reducing seat time..... Progress?