Trimotor is right: the majority usually are silent. I don't post often, but some stuff on this thread makes me feel like injecting a few words into the forum.
EKWIFE - Thank you for your input in this thread, it is not only healthy for people to hear a different perspective on a subject (whether one agrees with the view or not), but it is a necesary part of any balanced discussion.
MENSA & ALLURU (and some others whose names escape me) - Your posts have been relevant, eloquent, and objective. Well done! Not an easy thing to do with emotion running so rampant in a thread.
Almost every post on this thread has relevance and meaning to the subject, and most cetainly does to the person writing the post! The only request I would make is to those who are so quick to cut down the views of others.
If you feel that strongly about something it is your responsibility to do what you can as an individual to try and change it. Sitting here and saying "what's the point, it won't change anything" or "I can't; it'll have an adverse affect on my upgrade" are excuses...nothing more.
You don't have to go into the office with guns blazing and fists banging on any horizontal surface. Doing that (and people do!) achieves nothing, other than "changing nothing", and possibly having an "adverse affect on your upgrade".
Putting together a structured, well thought out, accurate case, and presenting it to AS personally is the ONLY way you can have an effect on policy. (Depending on the depth of your feeling and the size of your Kahunas, you may want to go higher, but I would do that only after you receive no response from AS.....i.e. respect the chain of command and give each person in it a chance to do their job before going over their heads)
Whether the policy you seek to change is rostering related, upgrade related, housing, education or anything else related, you MUST put forward a balanced case , with evidence, and without emotion.
I've said this before on a previous thread. I know one person doing it will make little or no difference, but 100, 200, or more pilots doing it WILL make a difference. And if it doesn't, you can look in the mirror and know that you did what you could. I guarantee you will feel better about yourself for the experience, and you might even find your views changing once you have to justify them with evidence and sound argument.
Remember, the way to win an argument/discussion is to change the other person's point of view to your own, or at least make them WANT to see your point of view. You can ONLY do that by understanding the other person's point of view to start with, and where it comes from.
I have my opinions about this subject, as does any pilot (and their families), but the reality of any expat job is that when the bag of s&^&t weighs more than the bag of gold, it is definitely time to revisit your reason for staying. No place is perfect: there will always be that bag of s&^&t to balance the bag of gold. I think the secret is to always, somehow, keep the scales tilted toward the bag of gold, and sometimes the quickest and easiest way to do that is to find a way to lighten the bag of s&^&t.
I'll just rush off now and put my kevlar t-shirt on before the replies roll in!
Cheers to all.......and remember...you woke up today...a lot of others didn't.
CTOAN