Originally Posted by
Mr Mac
Asturia56
I agree with you, it would be good to see more CEO,s spending some time at the coal face so to speak, rather than just observing as a gilded passenger if in an airline operation.
Cheers
Mr Mac
One morning in a now defunct but well known and loved UK airline, there was a lot of unusual extra activity going on at 0 silly O'clock when I checked in and started generating the flight paperwork. When I asked, I was told that the CEO was joining us on a flight to Malaga - my duty that day. Cabin crew managers had come in to work in full uniform - on their days off - to make sure everything on that flight was perfect - newspapers, catering, cleaning, etc. etc. And I think a Cabin Crew instructor accompanied the flight too.
When we got back to Luton later that day, the CEO came to see us on the flight deck. I told him about all the extra activity and extra staffing that had been going on to prepare 'his' flight. There was a pause, then he said, "Ah.........Thank you for letting me know". I wasn't trying to get anybody into trouble, but I wanted him to understand that what he saw was not representative, because if he saw a perfect flight with everything just so; he would assume that his staffing policies and Ts & Cs were good. Or even too much.
I watched or read about a factory where a company employed someone to advise on improving productivity. They took the very simple step of moving the boss's car parking spaces from just outside the staircase/lift to their offices; to another location, which meant the bosses had to walk through the factory to get there. So the bosses saw the factory and the workers every day and could pick up a sense of how things were going. And on the way they could briefly chat to the workers, who might flag up problems they wouldn't otherwise get to hear about.
Productivity improved because the bosses could see the workers and the workers saw the bosses and felt that they cared, rather than being in their office, never seen.
I also remember a program about a big shipyard in Glasgow, where back in the day, the bosses had chauffeur driven cars and wooden panelled dining rooms with silver-service meals, etc, but there was not even a canteen for the actual welders and riveters, who had to bring sandwiches to work. Industrial relations there were very poor......