Well it is very interesting how many pilots assume that this new FO is completely right, for all we know he may be totally inept, having less than 500 hours on an airplane is completely normal nowadays (but knows the SOP's backward and forward). Mungo, just try and get a bit of experience before you try to turn into an expert at how unsafe up the other crew member is, you may end up learning something from him.
Hmmm, firstly, I am not totally inept, though I am relatively inexperienced - they are different things. Secondly, I didn't say that the guy is unsafe, otherwise I would have taken action by now either by discussing it with him or other. I think you miss my point that by his lack of adherance to SOPs it makes life difficult for me at a time in my career when I least need extra workload.
In my company SOPs are not optional as they have been proven to help deliver safe, efficent and confident operations. Obviously not all eventualities can be covered so good judgement and professionalism is encouraged, but the development of indivualised procesdures is not.
He is on my schedule again and I will play it by ear when I fly with him next. But frankly his attitude comes over as lax and bored compared to other Captains who take much more pride & interest in the flight. What's to be learnt from watching the skipper engage the automatics at minimum height, slide his seat back, arm rests down and get the paper out?