Huggy, Calm down.
I say again, We are talking here about the 1% of CC who do not play ball and treat CRM as a vehicle to screw the system.
Perhaps it would help your thought processes if we could differentiate between personal respect and professional respect. Away from the aeroplane, on a night stop we all start with the same level of personal respect, - fine, no argument there I hope.
However, Do you really have the same amount of professional respect (admiration for the extremely difficult training, financial hardship etc etc) for someone who was sitting on the checkout in Tescos 3 weeks ago as you do for your own position.
I am not saying that the CC are not deserving of respect, but at the end of the day if they could do our jobs they wouldn't choose to do theirs would they.
There are many ways of measuring respect, one of them is your company's salary structure. Your company, I hope, respects your professional contribution with a salary substantially greater than the CC. If you wish to give the same amount of professional respect to your CC, why dont you go the whole way and share your salary with them as well. This is not intended as a facetious comment, but to highlight the fact that you carry a lot of responsibility as an airline Captain (in my case public liability insurance for 2 BILLION US DOLLARS). Now contrast that with the responsibility of CC. I,m not saying that they dont do a valuable job, or that the vast majority of them aren't good to work with, or that we as pilots should in any way look down on them. BUT, they haven't had to work anywhere near as hard for anywhere near as long as a pilot to get where they are. That is why a Captain is due respect and should NOT have to earn it on each and every flight. He can certainly lose that respect if he behaves like an overbearing plonker, but initially it should be given freely. He/She has far more important issues to consider. It is also why your company values your services higher than CC and you see this every month in your salary. Tree Hugging does not work with people who are solely out to take advantage and, as the Captain of a passenger transport aeroplane you do not have the option to turn the other cheek. That would lose respect....fast!
BTW Huggy, if you look at my previous post on this thread you will see that I complimented the post that you seem to think is critical of me. This isnt the 1950s anymore, I do not expect the CC to stand up when I enter the room, I do not view pilots or CC as "a bunch of jerks" but I damn well do expect the CSD to call me Captain until I,ve told her she can use my christian name and I sure as hell expect her to keep me informed of anything going on in the cabin that effects flight safety. Look thru some previous postings, more than one relates to smoking in toilets and the Captain not being informed until the aeroplane is on the ground.
Strangely enough I dont have any of the problems referred to on this thread, neither am I aware of any problems within my company.
Is it co incidence then that we run CRM courses with pilots and CC together and always run thru the chain of command and who is in charge of the aeroplane. We also labour the point that teamwork is important but every team needs a leader and every team member must know his/her place (standing?) in the team.
Thats not poor CRM, its not lack of respect, its explaining to people what their job and responsibilities are and who ultimately is in charge of the aeroplane. And that commands respect. If some people choose not to give that respect, they tend to be ostracised by their fellow CC which soon sorts the problem out.
We also try to get CC into our simulator sessions for NITS briefings etc. You should see the look on their faces when they see the warning panel lit up like a christmas tree, hooters and bells going off, and smoke filling the flight deck. Perhaps you dont have the luxury of a sim, but if you do I suggest it is singularly the biggest factor (short of a genuine serious emergency) in showing CC why we are really sitting up the sharp end.
End of Sermon!
[This message has been edited by THINALBERT (edited 02 May 2001).]