Don't compare my job to other jobs
Just recieved this via e-mail. Not sure who the Author is but its worth the read....
Lot has been said and written in the press concerning pilots' salaries
and compensation. We have been told about how much it will cost our
company, our job has been compared to others, and various subtle and
not so subtle threats and intimidation tactics have been hurled at our
group.
In light of the current situation, please allow me, a pilot to give you
a small glimpse into my world...
DON'T COMPARE MY JOB TO OTHER JOBS
...How many boardrooms explode over Long Island Sound?
...How many meetings conclude with hundreds of dead bodies?
...How many trucks cost $82 million dollars?
...How many doctors spend half the month away from their families?
...Do the children of media representatives cry when Daddy puts on his
uniform to go to work because they know he'll be gone for a week?
...How many salesmen lose their jobs because they have high blood
pressure?
...How many lawyers spent Christmas alone in a hotel room?
...When your wife is watching TV and the program is interrupted by a news
flash of an aircraft accident, does she momentarily freeze in fear for
what she might hear?
There is not another profession in the world where the consequences for
mistakes are so catastrophic and unforgiving.
THE PRICE
...I pay the price when somebody loads full oxygen containers in the
cargo hold
...I pay the price when a terrorist has a bone to pick
...I pay the price when loaders forget to set the locks
...I pay the price when engineers design a fuel pump not quite correctly
...I pay the price when Mother Nature decides to shift the winds...
YOU SPEAK OF THE COST
...Ask the CEO of Valu-Jet the cost of a DC-9 buried in the Everglades...The Cost.
...Ask Fred Smith the cost to scrape a DC-10 and MD-11 from the runways
at Steward and Newark...The Cost
...Ask Korean Airlines the cost of a 747 that didn't quite make the runway at Guam... The Cost
...Ask Fine Air the cost to clean up a DC-8 off a Miami Street...The Cost
...Ask Bob Crandall the cost of a B-757 impacting a Colombian mountain...The Cost
...And if not for their Cool, Calm, Professionalism, what could have
been the cost of a UPS B-727 that suddenly went dark and silent four miles
above Chicago? How much were they worth to you that night? Industry
standard or 25% below? ...... The Cost
WHEN YOU TRY TO INTIMIDATE ME, REMEMBER
I am not your enemy, I am your asset, an asset who has experienced and
accomplished things few others dare to try. Realize this and there few
obstacles we can't overcome.