p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; } What's wrong with Vistajet?
A lot of crews working at Vistajet are complaining about the way top management treats them. But what is really wrong with that company? Why do so many people who started with honest intentions start looking for other opportunities after a short while? How can it be improved to become 'employer of the year'?
I kindly ask for this discussion to be:
- factual and objective and NOT EMOTIONAL
- open minded
- more than Vistajet bashing as it is done whenever crews meet
To start the discussion I offer some personal observations and personal conclusions.
Crew frustration comes from:
-> Not being valued by the company but treated like an asset <-
This is shown by things like:
- general working conditions changing with the economy, when unemployment is high working conditions get impaired, when enough people are leaving conditions are temporarily improved – so people who stay longer must expect cut-backs as 'thanks for staying'
- kicking out 30 people and at the same time sending emails how excited Vistajet is about the excellent business outlook and new logos, uniforms etc
- sending people away from home for 17-25 days and honoring that by
* putting them into 'Holiday Inn Express' and similar airport hotels when staying at London, Paris or other cities for a couple of days and
* letting them buy hotel breakfasts for 20 Euros, letting them pay their hotel laundry by themselves and (as the rumour goes) letting them pay for Internet connections which are their only means of keeping contact with home
- missing human resource planning even when scheduled things like upgrades happen therefore having other crews compensate
- failing to provide a working crew roster and now putting the pressure of crew planning on the crews themselves as now forcing two cabin hostesses to 'share' a plane - so they pressure themselves in case of vacation or sickness or needed off days
- twisting the EU-OPS in many ways with and without the help of ACG to make things like constant standby duties 'legal' by not recording them and post assigning 36 hrs breaks
- employing office personnel not qualified for the job
- employing management personnel not taking care of things
My conclusion is:
- The owner has no interest in permanent employees therefore shows no interest in providing conditions that are suitable to attract and keep so the pilots who stay are those who either don't know better or are limited in their possibilities
- The owner tries to save the last coin not evaluating the effects of his decisions (like dish washing in hotel rooms or serving VIP guests spaghetti bolognese and sandwiches or cheap hotel rooms or using regular city taxis or or or) or having something completely different in mind (like preparing a bride??)
- This company is not constantly operating but struggling from month to month
- The owner limits the possibilities of promising managers therefore frustrating them so they run out of their initial dash and eventually leave
As it shows the most successful companies in the world are those who value their employees in terms of general conditions and listen to their opinions and needs because they realized that the human capital is their backbone and at the same time their biggest possibility to improve and be better than the others.
Vistajet employs a lot of good, honest and willing people but manages to demotivate them on a daily basis in many little details that could easily be avoided so 8 out of 10 crews are talking about applying somewhere else.
Am I wrong – what are your opinions?