PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - If your FO puts you down in subtle ways...
Old 7th Aug 2004, 11:06
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chuks
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Germany
Age: 76
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You might have a point...

People who need to use 'putdowns' in the cockpit often have a point. I usually recommend one of those silly-looking wooly caps.

If you leave the other crew member feeling put down, even if that wasn't your intent, then you are having some sort of CRM problem that needs sorting out from at least the side of person feeling put down. Otherwise you have created a barrier to cross-crew communication that can often lead to some serious problem. For instance, someone is going to need to tell you something which you may ignore, feeling that 'It's just another put-down,' when it turns out that this time they were really serious about a real problem. When you read a bit of history about this sort of thing you come across many accidents that resulted from, basically, insecurity, hurt feelings and such trivial problems that were left unresolved.

I operate in a multi-racial, multi-cultural environment, one that is a real minefield for some misunderstood throw-away comment creating real trouble. Jokes are to be avoided at all costs, usually! It can be like the tale of the princess with a pea under her mattresses: a tiny irritant (to your mind) can create great discomfort in the mind of your other crew member. If you add to this someone deliberately using put-downs then you are definitely creating a CRM disaster-in-waiting.
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