Desk Pilot,
I think you can probably tell from the comments of my fellow pilots that many of us are SO frustrated with the waste of time and money on 2nd or 3rd line staff. Why do we need a Community education Centre at waterWorld with its attendant 'tutors'? Why do we need 'Sustainable Resources Education Executives'? the answer is we don't. We have far, far too many people in BA who do not contribute directly to the job. In case you or your colleagues have forgotten, we are an airline and we aim to fly people from A to B and make money from it. Anything else is irrelevant. We are not a computer company; so let's bin IT/IM or whatever they're called this week and outsource that work (they do enough outsourcing themselves already and it means we can get rid of X thousand salaried staff who cost extra with their 1st class staff travel). We are not a school, nor publishing company; so can the Ed Centres and BA News. I think we can safely say that consultancy agants can go and likewise the hundreds of buyers and purveyors of pencils etc. I could go on and on and on and what wouldn't I give for a few hours of Rod's time and a tour around the company to show him where we can save millions.
It's not all Water World and we know that, but that's where most of the waste is. I further suggest that CSDs are binned from shorthaul aircraft and, since CSDs are, allegedly, being paid extra money to write cabin crew assessments and perform their 'Senior Manager On Board' duties, lets get rid of the MCSessessess. There is scope to reduce the number of cabin crew, but not too much, for very good reasons: (a) thye are required by law according to the number of people capable of being carried, so that puts a definite limit on the big scheme, but more importantly (b)they are front line staff and help make us money. They are as vital to us being an airline as the aircraft themselves, so we shouldn't be looking at too many going there. All that having been said, it's going to be the responsibility of Cabin services to take a long and hard look at all the sickies and no-show commuters etc and put them on the pile of 'not required'.
Engineers. Well I'm shocked at the numbers they reckon are going to have to go. As far as I can tell, that is one dept that is already cut back too much already. If the aircraft can't fly, we can't make money and I reckon we already have too much difficulty trying to get snags sorted when the birds are on the ground and these people are tearing around.
And so, you'll be pleased to know, to the pilots. Well, there isn't an airline without us, unlike 98% of Water World and no matter whether you like that or not, it's the truth. With a certain number of aircraft flying a certain number of routes and, given the limitations on how many hours they can fly, their is a finite number of pilots required. I genuinely don't know how many people we are under/over staffed but judging by the massive recruitment going on at the moment I would estimate being under staffed (especially if you look at my roster). We have got So many people leaving soon that the point is almost not worth writing about. Needless to say, I believe we can make savings and one of the first is to get all the pilot managers out from behind their desks and do the job they joined BA to do-fly aircraft (in case they'd forgotten). A little bird tells me that recruitment is going to come to a very sharp grinding halt in the next few days...well, for DEPs at least...so that should give the 'Executives' as all at Water World are called something to grin about during their next Feng Shui meeting over coffee by the river.
And so, to my solution:
* Huge cuts in non front line staff
* Outsource jobs that are not directly related to flying aicraft and bin the staff
* Bring the routes back into BA proper and stop mucking around with GB/BMed/CitiExpress etc. They do a good job and are great people, but it's not BA and that's what we should be looking at
* Do it NOW and not wait until people can re-invent their positions/titles and remain a waste of time and money
* Sell Waterside and rellocate the sliimed down workforce to the Compost Heap and if they don't fit, then it's off the Newcastle or somewhere similar where it doesn't cost God knows how many millions to sustain a London property.
Here endeth the lesson according to Pontius.
Pontius
Oh, PS: If 'they' think this is going to stop me going on strike to sort out our pay deal they've got another thing coming.