Thanks Little Friend,
I fully agree with what you say in your second post - except that it is a counsel of perfection. It is the way things OUGHT to be. But it does not represent how everybody behaves all the time. Hence the increased frequency of human factors critical incidents in companies that are an organisational mess.
There is a further risk that may apply even to you in some circumstances. If you and/or those around you are under stress, then there is an increased likelihood that there will be attentional lapses. Most of these will be minor, and most of them will be committed by people who are not on board the aircraft when it takes off. But the cumulative effect of disruptions due to attentional lapses can negatively affect the performance of even the most dedicated flight crew. One only has to read the angry, dismissive or sarcastic tone of some of the flight crew who post on pprune to realise that all around you there are pilots with stress management problems.
I have absolutely no knowledge of whether any of this applies to EZY. My (limited) experience of EZY as a passenger has been perfectly satisfactory. But the time around a merger is always problematic (the Staines Trident, Erebus, the Dryden F28, Crossair recently,etc.). Actually, without having any inside knowledge, I am quite encouraged by EZY management's open acknowledgement of growth related HR problems. At least that suggests they are not in denial like so many aorund at the moment.