If your mates aren't happy they can always leave . . . . oh hang on, there's no jobs out there! In that case wind your necks in and get on with it as there will always be plenty of folk out there to take their place . . . .
This time last year Atlantic could not find any experienced guys who wanted to work for them. They had several aircraft sitting on the ground with nobody to fly them. Our beloved management pilots were asking us why everyone was leaving. Now the economy has taken a dive normal service has been resumed and they are treating us like dirt. Electra Captains and FO's are paid better but there is more uncertainty on our fleet. When things went slack earlier this year management played the points based redundancy stunt and fired anyone that was not a smelly relative of the DFO or was complied with MEL's. The ATP guys complain about pay, are worked harder and moral is obviously bad. This seems to be where the growth in the company is though. For all pilots there was no inflationary pay increase and our allowances have been frozen i.e pay cut.
I would suggest you don't apply to Atlantic. When the economy gets moving again you will either have to work harder than you've ever worked before to make up for the waves of resignations or pay back the hefty bond, 45k on the Electra! The only people who will be left will be our management pilots who let's face it; are never going to get/hold down jobs elsewhere