Guys; before this thread runs off the rails. The above quote from SWA is not apples & apples with what is being discussed a couple of posts previously. A cadet F/O is an apprentice. Many don't see it that way, and that is their problem which will restrict their progress and promotion eventually. The 6000hr F/O is either a permanent F/O or unlucky enough to be in a slow promotion airline. Indeed they should be fully cognisant with flying,operating and command thinking. The cadet or low hour F/O is still learning for a few years. It takes many flights to learn how to think and react, or even hopefully, be proactive. That is where the ordinary captain has a professional duty to lead by example and also explain their decisions. It is very sad to hear in an airline that the F/O's just do what they are told, even when PF. Very sad and such a wasted opportunity. It's nothing to do with the formal line training under LTC guidance. We all have a duty to the newbies. It's how we learnt. We didn't suddenly have a brain transplant during the command course. It was a steady progression over time. When I was PF I always asked the F/O's opinion first and either disagreed or not. If the former I explained why and then we proceeded as a crew in agreement. It was often the comment that they wished all captains acted in the same manner.
Indeed in my first airline this was the company culture. Sadly, in the many start-up airlines I've been with since, the culture was not on the front burner; financial survival and SOP's were. With many DEC's and low time F/O's it was a case of get the job done safely and efficiently. Those same airlines have continued to expand so fast that still the daily professional passing of knowledge has not been indued in the captains. Training is a formal role for LTC's. Indeed, it can be argued, and it has on here many times, that the new generation of 3000hr captains may not have that much outside the SOP's to pass on. But surely the passage of knowledge down the ranks is a given?