Originally Posted by Betty Girl
Having worked for BA for over 22 years, often long hours, unsociable hours and often away from my family, not to mention working at Christmas and other family occasions that others take for granted, I can assure you it can be a lonely and strange existence at times.
This is a view I've heard many times, and it's one I always find a little intriguing. I work for the same company as Betty Girl, so I'm more than adequately aquainted with the long unsociable hours, the Christmas out trip etc etc. Yet I only ever hear cabin crew complain of loneliness and I wonder why this is. As flight crew I am equally likely to be working with complete strangers, and throughout my career in BA I've had to contend with the less than subtle anti-pilot prejudice of my colleagues in the cabin, yet I don't feel lonely downroute, nor do I hear complaints of loneliness from me colleagues of the flight deck. Why is it that the cabin crew seem to feel this aspect of the job so much more than others?
A very good example of a premium company that pays it's staff well and looks after them is John Lewis and as such their customer service is second to none. This is how BA has until recently been.
An oft quoted analogy, but one that I think is false. I've yet to experience anyone in John Lewis say no and wave a union rule book at me. I have countless examples of Club Europe pax being downgraded because there were too many of them for the matrix, of flights being delayed because of insufficent rest for the industrial agreement, of pax being stranded because two local nights (or two days overtime) were desired. Whilst I can offer examples of individuals going above and beyond the call of duty to visit pax in hospital, offer lifts to stranded pax, etc etc, I think it is quite a stretch of the imagination to pretend that BA on the whole has been anything other than hidebound to BASSA rules for at least 20 years.
Just trust me when I tell you that no one likes Willie Walsh and he does not inspire any of his workforce to be the best.
Amongst IFCE I'd agree. Amongst wider BA he has more admirers than you'd expect, and from some unexpected quarters. Look how much he has achieved compared to Eddington and Ayling.
We are products of a previous chief executive Colin Marshall who inspired us all to be the best and it is his legacy of customer service that runs through many of us. This is all being eroded by Willie Walsh
I don't see Willie Walsh doing anything to erode the ethos of customer service, but he does have to work within economic constraints which Marshall didn't have to contend with. The cupboard is bare, there's no money to throw at the problem, and thats in no small part due to the fact that he's playing fair by BA staff in keeping their pension fund solvent. Would you sacrifice your pension for investment in the on-board product?
and it is a shame that we can't have the cost savings combined with an inspirational boss instead of someone that does not really care what his crew are like, as long as they are the cheapest!!
BA aren't going for the cheapest, and never have. What they are moving away from is the notion that you have to pay twice what everyone else does to get good crew, because BA have tried that and found that it doesn't work. All you get is the same mix of crew but paid twice as much as the competition.