Unbelievable. With everything that BA has to worry about at the moment (Oil, T5, potential strikes) still we see the old them and us culture that has been at BA for so long.
I am ex Waterside staff.
I was one who volunteered in the past to help out in the Terminals (e.g. terror threats) as well as being part of EPIC and OCIC. Does this mean that I didn't have enough work to do?? Nonsense! It meant that I would volunteer to do either early or late shift to assit my COLLEAGUES (yes we are all one team) in the Terminals. If it was an early shift I would start at 6am, and then at 2pm go back to my office where I would often stay until 22:00. If it was a late shift then I would get to the office at 7am and stay on in the terminals until told to go home (and on occasions this was after 2am). It meant that I sometimes worked weekends either volunteering to help in terminals or catching up on my work. Why did I do this? Because the passengers were essential to me. Without them there was no job.
What did I find in the terminals? Well I was there to cover absence once (I gave up a Sunday). Thie minute I started i was asked if I wanted a tea break, I was shadowing 2 other staff members (permanent T4 staff). I declined, and said I would take a half hour in the middle of my shift if it was OK, they told me no, as that was when they would go and move their cars. They created a tea rota whereby one of us was scheduled to be at break while the other 2 worked. This lasted the whole shift, apart from them both needing 90 mins to move their cars! But did I complain, no, I got on with the job of helping our customers. But I loved it, no other job at BA gave me the buzz that helping out those passengers did. And I dealt with my fair share of irate passengers, including one who was flying to their fathers funeral.....and we cancelled his flight! There were aggressive punters, upset even distressed punters and some of them threatened me. But heleping them get away gave me a real pleasure. I received a number of thank you letters from passengers after these shifts.......which I read while drinking my latte at Waterside
I think it is time (still) for the staff of BA to all remember that, actually, you all have your own jobs to do, but depend upon each and every department to do it. You all need to rally round, remember that first and foremost you should be pleasing your passengers, and make the once great ariline great again.
But what are the chances of that?