Of course something needed to be done about the wild gung-ho cowboy days of the past, but what we currently see is the sad product of office/management pilots (avoiding fatigue and avoiding having to make real decisions in real life line flying, by escaping into a cozy 9-5 job
) who need to justify their pathetic postholder positions by constantly reinventing the wheel and wanting to rule out any eventuality by churning out new or different SOP's on a daily/weekly basis.
Unfortunately the current strict SOP "Befehl ist Befehl" ("orders are orders") mentality has gone way too far, but this 'blindly-following-orders' mentality has turned out very useful when it comes to renegotiating contracts.
Isn't it a coincidence that the increase in CRM and blindly sticking to SOP's are inversely related to the deterioration of T&C's in our industry over the last 20-30 years? Is safety compromised by introducing and brainwashing an entire generation of pilots that "being nice" and "sticking to SOP's" is good for safety?
When I fly with some older colleagues I notice that they are much more relaxed, a bit more casual (but definitely not unsafe!) with SOP's and not necessarily true CRM miracles, yet when it comes to the company trying to screw us over they usually don't take any sh!t either and are not afraid to slam their fist on the table.
The younger and friendlier "nice guys" (CRM champions) on the other hand are shaking like a leaf on a tree and will sign any lousy contract in order to avoid a confrontation with management.
