QFO, I don't work for Qantas either. I did work for Ansett. I have no shares in QF. I fly light aircraft and I've also worked in a variety of companies in senior management positions, including the CEO's chair, and I'm afraid I have to disagree with you about the staff and management of Qantas.
You are perfectly correct about the daily challenge to your existence as a senior manager. Two, perhaps Three, bad judgements will see you out the door and a takeover most probably will. That is why you receive a large salary and perhaps a bonus and a golden parachute as well. But that situation only applies in a well managed organisation with a Board operating under a good system of corporate governance.
Judging by the quality of management decisions at Qantas, it is arguable that the management of Qantas has been dysfunctional for some Eight or so years, or to put it another way, the inmates are running the asylum. Bad judgements have been rewarded, not punished.
Then there is the matter of the management principle I was taught at business school and still subscribe to: the job of management is to ensure that the people they manage can succeed at what they must do. This is often regarded as the 'inverted pyramid" school of thinking. Geoff Dixon specifically rejected this notion saying that "The Board and senior management" delivered QF's successes in the past. This is demonstrably not true since "the Board and senior management" cannot fly or maintain the aircraft.
But wait, there's more...
If you peruse the QF threads here on Pprune, you will discover very quickly that 99% of employee criticism of the company is to do with the barriers management have instituted that stop employees from succeeding at what they are supposed to do; deliver first class cabin service, provide an operational aircraft and deliver you in comfort and tranquility to your appointed destination at the appointed time.
As for your comments about salaries, etc., you are simply ill informed, and have no idea about the hoops you have to jump through to obtain these salaries.
and a P.S. Watch very closely how QF handle the redundancy issue because the process they adopt is going to be very telling about the quality and culture of its management. Will it be slow and clean, or quick and dirty? Both methods are acceptable depending on circumstances.
The bad alternative - slow and dirty, maximises the pain and uncertainty that surrounds redundancy, saps employee morale and destroys value, but that is the way the narcissistic management of QF have proceeded in the last Eight years.
"Legacy Airline" my @rse!