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Old 16th Jul 2008, 08:32
  #2624 (permalink)  
chuks
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Germany
Age: 76
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Check out "Dilbert"...

Dilbert is not in aviation but he might as well be. He is talking with his manager about this very thing, "Our Employees Are Our Most Important Asset," when the manager tells him that they did some research and found out that "our people" are not actually the company's most important asset.

No, it turns out that MONEY is the most important asset and that the workers have been shifted further down the list. When asked where, the answer is that they are listed in sixth place, I think it is, just below paperclips.

Another time a visitor to the cubicle where Dilbert lives asks him where he is on the organigram, because he doesn't see Dilbert listed there. Dilbert tells him to see the coffee stain on the carpet because he is underneath that.

The best one from the big Chicken Tetrazzini shootout was being told later that "It was just a one-off." Managers have psychic abilities! Well, that or else it was just too darn much trouble to figure out how to deal with this new problem, I guess.

As long as there is some other sucker ready to come and take your place nothing much is going to change in Nigeria. For instance, I was with Julius Berger for about 4 years, when their politics finally got me. Well, first they got the Swedish engineer, which mattered a lot more, since he was keeping our airplanes safe to fly! Then they got me and afterwards they averaged about six months per pilot as these losers came and went. I had other fish to fry so that I really was not all that chafed, even offering to break in the new guy. It turned out that dear old Pan African had found some guy who had been flying Caravans in the States to come to Nigeria to fly a hot turboprop and this was going to be my replacement, show everyone that just about anybody could do the job (because that is exactly what management really believe). The guy didn't even last a tour before he quit saying that he didn't want to die, since he had bit off far more than he could chew. That just made the Flight Department Manager look good, that he was more capable than his pilots, all he really cared about anyway.

If you have pride, professionalism, standards, whatever... don't let that sucker you into sticking around to sort out the mess, wherever you happen to find yourself. Think "Management," sort out some deal, grab the money and run!
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