In my view QF upper management (hereafter called '
they') have been paid big bucks for a long time, not to make QF profitable and pay dividends but rather to follow through on a plan, which
they realised would be unpalatable to employees, to strip down cost structures & drive 'efficiencies' despite the enemies
they would make; profits and dividends will return with the miraculous 'turn-around' built into the plan for the next year or two.
I reckon the last few years could have been completely different if
they had chosen a path of open & honest communication, defining the perceived problems transparently, allowing a few employee questions about the assertions being made, truthful comparisons with the competition, setting understandable goals re costs/fleet and directing attention to the resultant expansion which would be possible etc.
Instead,
they have shown themselves to be disingenuous, deceptive, misleading, scheming, obfuscating and obtuse toward (mostly) competent, honest, proud and loyal employees.
They have brought about varying degrees of damage to 'the brand' both through their own actions, and also the actions
they precipitated by employees who had no faith in such appalling 'leadership'.
It's water under the bridge now but, in a period of undoubted challenge when national policy has been but one part of an 'un-level playing field', I believe employee 'buy-in' and contribution to the solutions could have achieved
so much more than the dysfunctional, aggressive, stress-inducing, engagement-sapping management posturing of the Dixon/Joyce era.
Time may clear the air, and perhaps history will be the judge....