I live in a part of the world where being a pilot is still a career, where only crappy companies and smaller charter and cargo operators accept self sponsoring. We have a crazy idea that pilots are the last line of defense and in my home base I am not even frisked
We work as hard as pilots everywhere but we insist on a yearly increase of 6% and we respect our profession enough to demand that no pilot -not even deadheads and positioning- should ever go on board with some stubble.
We are leaders and insist that even the most junior first officer should act in that manner, we know our manuals, maintenance manuals, loading manuals and cabin crew manuals so that we can maintain our position as pilots, and not as "backups to the autopilot"
We stand up to management everyday on issues that seem trivial to our counterparts up north, but we refuse to allow our erosion of rights to start.
I am not patronizing anyone, sincerely, I wish you have it as sweet as us
, I am just answering the question, I might lose the passion one day but if we can maintain our standards, I might be in here for the long haul.