As I reread the above letter from the C&Ters, a recurring thought keeps surfacing in my mind. IT'S OUR FAULT!!! Yes, management has pushed us to the brink, but we allow ourselves to be pushed to the brink. Honestly, show of hands... How many of you book off on preemptive sick calls? By that, I mean unfitness calls where you are not actually sick yet, relationships are not actually failing yet, the bills are not actually overdue yet, etc. So many of us are "suck it up, get it done" types of personality that we are literally selling ourselves (mind, body, and soul) to CX for a degrading pittance of a living. Most of us are far more talented than this job requires. We are whoring ourselves for absolutely no good reason whatsoever. Why???
I believe it is time for a review of sickness management. It would be imprudent to post the Company's SMS programme here, but I will give you some tactics in case you do not know already. The only attendance record you should concern yourself with is the last 12 months. Some call it a rolling twelve months. In the last twelve months, you should strive to keep your sickness calls (Unfit for reason other than fatigue, ASRF) to a number of 3 or 4, preferably 4. The number of days you have booked off in the last twelve months should be in the high teens or low twenties depending on your number of sick calls respectively. This leaves you at all times with at least one more sick call and a long string of days in case you catch a cold or the flu. Think about it, this is an extra three weeks leave every year that you can take whenever you want. Sound good? Might help?
I highly recommend that you get a sickness note for each event, but this is not required, yet. Keep in mind that you do not have to be sick to go to the doctor. Make an appointment, and tell him/her what is going on. You can't sleep for more than a few hours at a time. You are run down and tired. You can't concentrate for very long. You feel like you are always on the verge of getting sick. Your relationships are suffering at home. You think you might be drinking to much. Yada, yada, yada...
If the any of above is a chronic problem, and a couple weeks off don't fix things. It is probably time to go see the flight doc and tell him/her what is up. They will pull your medical but not to worry, you will get it back after an extended period of rest and relaxation. They have to do this. It is their job. Like you, they have an obligation to the traveling public. This works to your benefit, not your detriment. You DO NOT want to be that guy who screwed up and got people injured or killed. All but the newest of our pilots have all been there, flying when we shouldn't be. LEARN from those times.
In closing, stop killing yourselves! Repetitious three man long haul will make this much worse. Two man WOCL is just plain unsafe and stupid. I would not do that, period. Just book off unfit. You are not able to sit in the seat for 9 hours and then do a landing, ever. That hardly makes you a wimp. This Company not only does not care for you, they despise you. They resent everything about you. They dislike that you make "too much". They dislike that you work counter to their bonuses. They dislike that you are not a machine with an on/off switch. They dislike any esteem that you may get from being a "pilot". They resent that they have to pay you housing, or that they had to pay for your flight training. They resent that they have to pay for your kids to go to school. In short, they HATE you. They LOVE when you are tired, worn down, looking like **** (note the uniforms), disorganized with failing relationships, living in a tiny crappy apartment, and selling yourselves on days off to pay your ex. They would just assume you drop dead the day after you taxi under the water cannons so you cannot use retiree staff travel. I am not kidding.