Mana, welcome to PPrune, as you can now see it can be a brutal place at times where some posters like to eat their young. I am sure your comments were meant to be genuine but they portrayed an ignorance of the current situation. Our management (you), have detailed access to what makes the pilot group tick. Files and files of data gathered from our recruitment, from the psych interviews we complete each time we change a position. So I have to ask, knowing all this, why are you so surprised by our reactions to the forced negative changes over the recent years? Didn't anyone think to ask the army of HR staff what will be the reaction?
Another pilot at a meeting I attended last year made an interesting point that I will try and correctly recall . He noted how the pilot group are infact not part of the EK community at all. They are more an "absent workforce" who come and go through the basement of the bouncy castle (EGHQ) with little if any interaction with the rest of the company. They interact more with station managers down route than with their own Fleet Managers. Pilots are told that their positon is an integral part of the company management structure when this is simply not the case. A pilot takes no part in any management process outside his cockpit. This work environment (absent) leads the pilot group to mistrust and resent their managers. This is brought about by the isolation and lack of involvement in anything that has to do with their continued employment conditions. How can you not see this? Is this not taught at Airline Management 101?
You are right about one thing, this is not unique to EK, it is common with other airlines as well. Would'nt it be encouraging if EK managment actually did something about it. So now you have all the negative posts on PPrune, but it wasn't always that way. As a new Ppruner you will not remember that pre circa 2003, negative comments were few and far between and this Forum was a great recruitment add for EK. If a pilot asked what EK was like, the reply was quite simply, "no one leaves". I don't like the negative comments, I want to feel some pride when I tell another airline pilot that I work for EK, but I'm afraid to say that they have a bit of a laugh at me these days.
So the next time you are overlooking the Atrium to get a glimpse of your favourite Bollywood star, or a sponsored Premier League football team or to see if there is a free table at Costa so you can chat with other collegues in the EK community, have a thought for the worker ants passing through the basement to and from their aircraft 24/7.
Community? I took a 15% pay cut last year to help the company, how much did you give up?