Originally Posted by
sevenstrokeroll
I'm in the airline industry...all the colgan FO had to do was call in sick. granted, an outfit like colgan might have tried to fire her, but it was her choice to fly.
We may differ in our interpretation, but your second sentence reads to me like coercion by any other means.
and that is what leadership is all about.
Forgive me if I'm missing something, but I don't see how being willing to risk your job and chosen career path if you call in sick has anything to do with leadership.
In any case, the illness and commuting fatigue factors combine into a potentially deadly whole if you consider that with a flu virus you can feel fine when you sign on and deadhead from Seattle, but feel like death when you get off at Newark.
Of course, you can call in sick at Newark, but then we're back to coercion because you not only have to pay your own accommodation costs - being very far from home - but you'll probably have to front any further transport costs to get you back home and lose money on your flight time. That's on top of the question you raised of whether doing so would risk your job.
I will also say this...after commuting from San Francisco to Boston, I learned early on that I had better get there in time to have 12 hours in a hotel before reporting for duty...and it cost ME money.
In all fairness, I suspect your salary was a much better deal than that now available to junior FOs working for the regionals. Combine that with the fact that your union representation was much stronger back then and I hope you can see that it's not a valid comparison.