Things you should know BEFORE joining Emirates (EK)
The following information is based on my personal experience. Although much has been written on the subject I was unable to clarify this before I joined. I wish I'd known earlier.
Emirates is an english managed company. What does this mean?
1 Strict, conservative and authoritarian leadership style using bullyboy tactics to intimidate and humiliate people. They aim to control you totally and it will affect your private life. You have to ask for permission to leave Dubai on your off days. If you live in an apartment the door security is advised to check the time your visitors come and go. They will frequently check your apartment without notice by pretending an 'Air Conditioning or Fire Extinguisher check'.
2 Steep hierarchy with a noticeable number of management postholders. In key positions you will find mainly Brits or Australians.
3 Checking, reporting and grading policy leading to a fear culture among the flightcrews. The FOQA program which is intended to increase safety is misused for performance monitoring. Every flight is QAR taped. If predetermined limits are exceeded, i.e. you fly through gusty winds in a rainshower on final approach there will be a follow-up. Generally the captains authority is overemphasized in such a way that any form of CRM is practically nonexistent.
If you're new on type you do a ground course. You will encounter lots of intermediate tests to keep the pressure up. Later in the simulator every event will be graded with a system 'developed by the Emirates Training Department', which means grades from 1 to 5 will be applied. In my point of view this means nothing else than misusing the training system as a checking system. If the time for a recurrent sim event has come this practice continues. One can imagine that the achieved grades are very important for future developments i.e. for upgrades or converting to the A340 if you're on the Airbus. This empowers the trainers enormously and it means if you have a bad day with the wrong person your career will be delayed or destroyed.
4 After you've joined you have to deal with a lot of admin work and bureaucracy, which is normal. However what is not normal is the total absence of any common sense, tolerance or flexibility in the Indian- dominated mid admin levels of EK. A good example for that is when you arrive in Dubai on joining day you don't get prior information as to your whereabouts. They all like to use the element of surprise! You can be lucky but as already mentioned in a different post if you're eligible for an apartment you may have to live in very low quality housing. No flexibility: swapping or changing not allowed.
5 As a First Officer your life will be even more difficult. Although most of the line captains are fine you will sometimes be treated as an underaged subordinate who has to keep his mouth shut and say 'Oh I see'. What has really p..ssd me off all those years is the pedantic way of work those people have and this always creates a tense atmosphere on the flight deck which in turn leads to more mistakes. If you're Pilot Flying and you do anything the other person wouldn't do the same way there is immediate interference or at least there's some comment to follow: 'We are doing it this way!' Certain people didn't let me do an approach the way I thought. They always had to interfere by determining the time the airplane should be configured etc.! I even had a few occasions where the guy thought he must help me doing my flare! Yes, I only have 10000+ hours with half of them in command so I need to be treated as a schoolboy! And all of this has absolutely nothing to do with increasing flight safety! If you complain to the wrong person about anything, whether you're right or wrong, they will immediately come up with the universal argument: you have the wrong attitude! Afterwards the threat of employment termination will be issued very quickly.
6 Side effects from the totalitarian UAE regime: generally low standards – high prices. Access to decent beaches only for payment. Traffic very stressful - poor planning. Censored internet access. And again lots of bureaucracy without any flexibility.
7 Positive points: well equipped airplanes. People and atmosphere on normal line flights are generally ok.
Conclusion: I haven't experienced a more disgusting working environment in my many flying years. I found two commonalities with other english managed companies:
- The general arrogant attitude: 'We've always done it this way and we continue to do so!'
- The definitive inability to organize.
A little less command-and-conquer/stiff-upper-lip attitude could improve their reputation.
I am very glad I left and I that can't recognize any of the above mentioned points in my current employment.
Stopped discovering.