Sean Dillon - thanks for your valued and insightful contribution.
Doug the Head - I suggest you and wind check get into a bit of a PM flurry and he can commiserate with you still not being able to escape from the evil orange empire. He can then share with you his exciting new life which is just so much better. Go on - you owe it to yourself to leave here mate.
My own personal careers advice is, of course, always available to you at no cost. On the domestic front, there is always a good chance our very own British Airways, flushed with its current success, is about to recruit willing FOs onto the Airbus. None of that nasty final salary pension to worry about now obviously which saves any anxiety over whether it might fold some day. Also, you would not have to concern yourself with the stress of command any longer as you won't be a captain there for at least 15 years. May I also suggest that for those seeking a warmer environment to bring a gentle thaw to that cold heart, Emirates and Qatar are an excellent places to start? A number of our former employees genuinely love it out there. Mr Akbar Al Baker in Qatar is a particularly reasonable gentleman to work for I am told and would welcome any constructive criticism you might care to share with him. Just think you could be part of that process of employee involvement in all company matters he has become so appreciated for. Then of course Atlas Air are recruiting DECs on the Airbus based in Marrakech - 7000 Euros per month before tax - but it just has to be better than life here don't you think? Then, for the more seasoned veterans, opportunity knocks out there in Vietnam. Oh, I nearly forgot - Senegal Airlines are about to kick off with a rather natty little A319 operation. And then of course there are countless Chinese opportunities - Deer Air, Hainan Airways etc. And finally, both Turkish Airlines and Onur Air have been sniffing about for DECs on the Airbus. Does it get any better? As you can imagine, every one of these companies just loves and esteems its foreign pilots, and would of course treat them with unusual respect and consideration at all times. The list is just growing by the day and I can only recommend every last one of them in comparison to easyJet, which as wind check can verify is just dire.
wind check - you cannot imagine my delight to discover that you are no longer having to subject yourself to that 'company pressure' every day. Strange thing is I never get any of that, but there you go. I wish you every success my friend out there in whatever promised land you have found - for us simple folk who just like to get home most nights and have a great day out with some great people, easyJet is actually quite a good life. And, there are a whole lot of 'p2f' people about to have permanent jobs at a time when countless other companies are laying people off. It really is terrible here compared with any company you care to name.