It's actually the TP guys I would have sympathy with in all of this. After the elation of being selected to fly a big shiny jet in a big shiny city, they will soon be introduced to the Emirates way of training and realise that they are given precisely zero credit for the attributes on which, presumably, they were selected. Then, having passed the training, they will have the pleasure of sitting next to an individual who has been doing EK long-haul just a bit too long and is paranoid about some upstart ruining his precious track record and jeopardising the income on which he his family have become a bit too dependent.
Welcome to the EK fear culture. It does not generally make for a fun day out (although there are of course exceptions).