Bentrees
If you work for an airline where penalties are the norm for a pilot that takes an unacceptable aeroplane, then you need to change airlines, or, at the very least, report it.
Pressured into taking an unacceptable aeroplane is, and never will be, an excuse.
Sorry, Bentrees, but Bulldog is right. It happens.
Once you get into the lower-order airlines, pressure to take ongoing defects and multiple defects is an everyday event. And yes, if you make waves, another pilot will be found to take the aircraft and your next sim-ride will be a real problem. And your mortgage will be on the line once again.
And let's not have this silly business of, 'oh, leave the airline and go elsewhere'. Where to? Piloting is not like working as a shop assistant, where you have hundreds of alternatives. You will probably end up flying in a third world country, where the engineering will be worse anyway - so you may as well just take the defect. And some of these intermittent defects go on for months,** because, as Bulldog said, it becomes the norm. Crew chatter will just say, 'oh, watch the thrunge-actuator controller on Charlie Alpha, it is always failing.' 'have a good flight now.'....
This is not a pilot problem, nor is it an engineering issue, the real problem is a regulation issue. The authorities are more than keen to reprimand pilots, because that is simple; but when it comes to bellicose operators, they become supine to the point of being horizontal. It is not beyond the capabilities of regulators to demand if a system that has been snagged more than six times, then that aircraft is grounded until the whole system is overhauled (rather than just box-swapping). And also stipulate that a non-revenue flight-test is done before flying the line again (how many times does that happen, eh?)
But the authorities will not do it, because it is much easier for them to throw the ball back into the crew's court. Let the crew take the pressure and blame, and lose their jobs - much easier than putting your own neck on the line by arguing with the fat-cat lawyers from Bellicose Airlines Ltd.
** (This was the cause of the Turkish Airlines accident at AMS - long before any mis-handling by the crew became an issue.)