It's well known and mentioned by many authors of books on the subject of airmansbip, this mythical word, that you won't find two pilots who agree on the exact definition of it.
How well one wears the uniform, the fit, cleanliness, proper buttoning, the tie, hat etc. Following the rules, regulations and SOPs. Not following rules, regulations and SOPs when doing so would delay or cancel the flight or otherwise is inconvenient to self, passengers or the company. Being a master in operating the aircraft throughout its operating envelope and phases. Being good at nothing but operating the aircraft in the most fuel/money efficient way. The list goes on.
Some apparently think it means being a chump. If I've learned anything in 30+ years in the airline business, is that unfortunately you'll never get anything you want from any airline unless you hurt them in the pocket book. You have to make it so they come to you with their grievances not the other way around. If you follow negotiations at companies that pay their pilots the highest, work to rule and general slowdowns start before the negotiations have even started. The lesson is learned a long time ago.
The same day contract cancelation and 50% pay & benefits cuts were announced, slow taxiing, not requesting or accepting directs, not starting engines until pushback was complete etc started. Starting that day I never taxied faster than 5-10 knots, never asked for or accepted a direct from ATC, never started engines until pushback complete, planned my autobrake setting to result in longer taxi and more. My financial well being was directly affected by it all.
The reason why airlines implemented block time pay guarantee back in the 60s was not because they liked their pilots so much. It was because a large majority were doing all possible to add every minute to every flight and make sure at le least they don't end up with less pay than their monthly awarded schedule and once they got started down that path it also became a way to make maximum pay as much as possible. It became normalized. Routine requests to hold in the penalty box "due to technical etc issue", requesting random holds "to burn excess fuel due max landing weight" and more were common. The companies tried to intimidate pilots into compliance but to no avail. Afterall if most of your pilots are doing it you can't fire them all. Firing a few at a time was also tried to no avail. It didn't stop them. It costs cathay 20 times more in operational cost of the aircraft in fuel and engine maintenance alone than what a pilot gets paid for every minute, under cos18 FO 1 scale. 10 times in CA pay. But do you think they're smart enough to be able to do the math? Did it take them 2.5 years to finally notice?
The cathay geniuses who decided on cathay being the only airline to not pay block hour guarantee have obviously not read the history of this practice and why it was adopted in the first place. Incompetent management at its worst.
What cathay management is complaining about, taxi speeds and many many other ways pilots are adding time to flights, is obviously very common for them to feel the pain. Whatever they thought has obviously been wrong on this issue. 2.5 years of adding time to flights. How much has that cost them?
But don't hold your breath. Cathay is a colonial outfit. Such outfits chronically suffer from Incompetent management. They never admit to their fkkk'ups. They keep doing what has been proven painfully to be damaging financially and otherwise every day but never correct it because doing so is admission to the Incompetent mistake in the first place. They will ride the sinking ship to the bottom and never admit to being wrong.
Read the book called "Chaos of empire". Its a true history of the disasterous colonialism in British India. You will he struck with extreme similarities of that failed endeavor and how cathay management operates. The language, the attitudes, the behaviors, the beliefs of these people are extremely alike. And what they couldn't achieve via competence and skill, they always attempted to achieve via shear force & violence instead.
Who are the swires afterall anyway? One of the original few pirate families who got mother England to forcefully take hong kong for them so they could keep selling opium in China. Who they are has not changed. They have little or no influence left but still have the same stripes.
They won't change anything back and will ride this sinking ship until it sinks rather than fix what they've broken.
Get off this sinking ship as soon as you can. But while you're still on it, ask yourself a very important question when they're wanting you to operate as money efficient to the company as you can while you're struggling financially and barely surviving at best or are bankrupt already while they seek new ways to squeeze more blood out of you every day with new policies.
Ask yourself if you're a chump.
Others Know the answer by your taxi speed.