'Hero Capt. Signs On' was the media presentation.
I have been reading some of the online newspaper articles and before anyone starts ranting I would like to make some comments. I have read various manner of negative comments over the past 18 months and I've had to sit back and simply read but not respond, I feel confident now that I can respond to today's articles.
My wife, Maria, did not approach the press. The local paper found out that I had taken jobseekers allowance and phoned for a comment. Maria confirmed that it was true and they asked if I had a job to go to. She told them I didn't have a job and jokingly mentioned about "no accident/no incident" at Korean Air. We knew I had been rejected for an interview at Korean back in May/June and have accepted that this is their policy.
I "signed on" so that my NI stamp and national pension could be paid. I think I have paid enough tax over the years and surely the least I can ask for is that there is no stop in my NI contributions?
I chose to take VR based on numerous reasons that I will not talk about now, but the decision to take it was always knowing that I wouldn't be walking into a job. I chose to take a year's pay with the gamble that I would get a job within 12 months. I have learnt since Jan 08 not to just plod along but to live and enjoy life, and as a family we decided that leaving BA and having the security of 12 months pay was worth the gamble to find a job.
I have known that EK are not recruiting DEC for a little while now and happily changed my application from DEC to F/O. I'm sure no-one can be suprised that I intially applied for DEC? I have also applied to some other carriers as F/O. It is also no secret on this site that no-one is as of yet interviewing for F/O on the 777. (if you do know of anyone then let me know so I can tell the dole!).
I expected to leave BA at the end of Aug and have some months with the family. I need and want this time to relax with them. It is my impression that various airlines should start interviewing soon and I would like to think that I should get an interview as an F/O, even thinking like this, no job would start until 5-6 months from now.
I chose to take VR. I expected to not be flying again for at least 6 months. 3 weeks from leaving BA nothing has changed from my expected plan so why would Maria whine to the papers? We have seen a comment on a couple of the online papers that state that "our finances are so tight we may lose our house", then in a later paragraph it says "if Pete doesn't work then in Aug we may have to start thinking about selling the house". Today are finances are not tight. Last year was different, after a reduced wage for a few months we noticed our finances were stretched and maybe the first quote comes from then. The second quote is valid, but if I have a year's pay and didn't work in the 11 months from now until Aug, then there would be issues with my finances, but that would be the same for anyone. And I don't expect to not work in the next 11 months (whether this be in the air or on the ground).
I do not want anyone to think that Maria is whining about money, we are more fortunate with our finances than a lot of people, I walked away from a job with a payout, a lot of people are not so lucky. We took this gamble and we will see where the year takes us, but today we are happy and positive. I am thinking of attempting to do after dinner speaking and Maria and I are writing a book - but do you think we would be stupid enough to be so extreme in this that it shoots me in the foot to never being able to get another job?
Maria is taking on extra shifts in work as a Paramedic not for the money but because she enjoys it. At the moment she works 3 shifts a month, as I do the childcare and she had to work around my days off (I've 3 boys - 4,3,2). Now that I am home she can do extra shifts as I am free to have the boys anytime.
Some people will never understand why I took VR at 45 with no job to go to. Some people may one day decide to find out why I took it. All that matters to me though is that it was the right thing to do for the family as a whole, and things are going as expected. The papers have totally gone wild regarding KAL and we cannot believe how things have kicked off today with the media interest over something we have known about for 4 months.