After reading the emails from HA and especially MM, they appear to fail to grasp that even a competent operator can still stumble at EK. The relationship between the employer and the employee here is rare in the industry, due to the palpable influence that EK has on our lives outside of work. Whilst what happened at DME is significant, we all know that an event which is insignificant in comparison, can still merit a visit to the third floor.
This level of influence is seldom seen in most other carriers. Discontent with where you are living in company accommodation or battling to get compensated for a medical bill or seeing your family no longer happy in Dubai, with no viable part time alternative available, are all challenges that link back to the company. There will be many others as well. It could simply be a case of not getting leave when you want it or missing an important family event, which are challenges that would be more common in other operators, yet are still relevant.
I think it is fair to say that when we go to work, none of us wish to perform poorly and no one puts on their uniform with having this objective in mind. Take a competent operator who is tired and flying when their body wants to sleep and is feeling strain from issues in their life outside of work, which EK still has an overbearing input on. The potential result is you now have a competent yet now demotivated pilot and it is this demotivation and tiredness that can bring them a step closer to a line event.
With the ethnicity of the new Flight Ops postholder, I feel we are now farther away than we have been for a number of years from witnessing a Mea Culpa moment in the context of the company, which is needed before we see the relationship reset between the pilot work force and the company.