The Writing is on the Wall.
EK is like any other airline except in one specific area. All airlines have incidents but when a mature carrier has a safety incident the main aim is to learn from it and prevent recurrence. Many at EK have the same aim but the company culture driven from on high does not support them; it wants blood. On the walls of the lifts the penalty free reporting system is written but it is far distant from reality. Depending on who was flying when the incident occurred, it is dealt with differently. Recent incidents on the whale have me fearing for the crews but apparently on the trip a similar significant incident resulted in a couple of days off the roster. These career defining decisions are taken based on the nationality of the crew involved and the publicity received rather than the actual incident involved. Over the summer DSVP-FO and SVP-F left within a week of each other without being replaced. Normally under those circumstances the Chief Pilot would be next in the 'firing line' for line incidents but not at EK, he is protected by his nationality so instead they find an expat to fire. I wonder if the training manager that lost his job was only really guilty of a lack of top cover.
The company culture has a bully at the helm who bullies his subordinate and then that subordinate accepts the actions of, not a bully, but an individual with sociopathic tendencies. (Sociopath definition: a person with a psychopathic personality whose behavior is antisocial, often criminal, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience) The individual has already been shipped off to Doha to duck responsibility for 'allegedly' sexually harassing a female pilot. I have been unlucky enough to be checked by him, he is a disgrace. There seems to have been attempts to correct his behaviour by management but in the end any ex-pat to have challenged him has been removed from their job. The parallels with what is going on with Harvey Weinstein are instructive. Everyone turning a blind eye to open abuse by a person with power over other individuals.
Every few years, EK has a purge of the training department. Normally it is as a result of interference from outside. Last time all the managers were fired because a friend of the bully said they had been mean to him. This time it seems it is because they can't blame anyone in Fleet because they have all left. You have to give the old DSVP and SVP props for seeing the signs. When I joined I was told it would take 20 years before EK turned into GF. I left after 14 so I am not sure what I was told was very far off the mark. The solution is simple: change the culture, remove the bullies, fire the sociopaths and above all walk the walk. Do what you say and know you should do; its all written on the walls.