Am I the only non-whinger

[Pilot@EK]

I have been working for EK for the past 2 years and I've read this forum for a few months now and only decided to join in an d ask, am I the only person who actually enjoys working with EK?
Our children go to private schools, we have nice cars and our housing allowance let us buy a nice house in the Arabian Ranches, not a cheap area by any standard, in fact I think you will find it very hard to find someone that doesn't like the Arabian Ranches and has a good reason for doing so.
Yes, sometimes EK gets on my nerves but a lot of the time I enjoy what I do, where else can I go to expensive restaurants, relax on the beach and go offroading all the time?

[Eurydice]

"....Am I the only non-whinger"

Yes you are. :E :E

[Global Nomad]

Sorry, no dice.

We all know that you're incorrect, but you couldn't resist the temptation could you?

[Backwater]

No, you're not the only non-whinger, yet.

Just wait until...

a. Emaar build a 3 storey apartment complex between you and the view of the golf course you paid a premium for.
b. Your house falls apart due to concrete cancer.
c. You decide in x years to sell only to realise that you don't own the property on which your house stands (despite promises to the contrary) and by then nobody will want to buy it anyway (see b.).
d. You finally realise that the 24k you pay per year in utilities subsidises the UAE nationals who only pay 10% of what you do.
e. You get tired of digging out your flash new M5.
f. Your private school is targetted by terrorists.

Enjoy yourself while you can and "Keep discovering..."!
Rgds

[SecurID]

Backwater,

I fully endorse all of the above but the f.) is a bit below the belt mate. I do not consider that would happen in Dubai and suggest that you edit your post.

OK, a bomb went off in Doha recently, but in all my time here the only real 'incident' was a young local guy shooting holes in the stain glass window of the Hard Rock cafe after the invasion of Iraq by the US.

To all who read these pages, the UAE stands aside from all the political mess in the region and has a fairly neutral stand. The UAE would not support any terrorist activity and the chances of f.) happening, I belive, are as high as they would be in your home countries.

[BYLAW]

Actually, by moaning your not whinging, your a whinger yourself.

This "whinging" network seems to be the only place were you can go with your criticism, as EK doesn`t have any proper feedback system in place. As you would expect from a reputable company.

Even if you are totally happy with your job, there are always issues, as for instance stated above.

And there is a lot more to complain about, but ofcourse you can easily put your head in the sand , if you want

cheers, Bylaw

[Chocks Away]

As an outsider, i'm amased the you guys haven't had a pay increase for ten years... especially after this year, they made their record profit target in 10 months!
New types and quick commands yeh but the wages have shrunk and your long haul patterns (esp Aust, via SQ) look tedious/testing... you'd want that top shelf Ranch to come home to!

[Vorsicht]

SecurId

I find your comment naive in the extreme. I certainly hope you are right and i am wrong, but I am sure that the Qatar government are as opposed to that sort of activity as much as the UAE government are. That is the point. It wont be the government doing it. i would have to say that the recent events in Doha are another piece of information to put in the for and against case and evaluated. If it has been done in Doha, you would have to conclude that someone is thinking about doing it here. The target is bigger and the effect would be tenfold.

As i said, I suely hope you are right.

[chinny]

You keep living in the dream world of naivity and you will be the next target!!!!
Back water did not say or imply that such action would be endorsed by the UAE gov-in fact if anything they are as aware that such an action in or around Dubai would have major economical effects.

Getting back to main thread-I dont work for emirates but have a lot of mates who do-hearing it all from the other side of fence is always interesting.All previous points are valid but then what is not public knowledge are the quips,the jibes, the proceedures that dont actually help anyone except the people enforcing them.The seemly lack of consistincy in working hours across the fleets.The security checks coming off the a/c-crews know what I mean,and the list can go on......I dont condone what the crew feel but I then again I would get pi**ed off at the way that they seem to treat their guys and gals.
From my point of view it would hack me off too!!!:ok:

[00bultril]

Secure ID
Nee Boet. I have always respected your posts, in fact I agree with all you say and never have to add anything; as you as do it for me.
UNTIL NOW!!
You need some R&R man.
Go relax, enjoy the good Wx, have a braai and a few cold ones, go to bed early and then join us again tomorrow REFRESHED.

Cheers Boet

[SecurID]

Seems like I might have said something out of turn here...!

I did not imply that, because the UAE Government do not support terrorism, that the Qatar Government do.

The 'behind the scenes' work done here by not only foreign armed and police forces helps assist their UAE colleagues greatly in the protection of the Emirates, all I believe is that due to the much higher activity in this area that the chances of a similar event happening here are minimal compared to Doha. This coupled with the heightened visibility of US forces in that country compared to here. As far as I can remember, the only show of US military activity here has been at eth airshow and the odd C-5 or C-17 coming through for aid work in Sri Lanka recently. Everything else is confined to the desert out of the public eye, but in Doha you can quite regularly be 'No. 2 to the F-18.'

As for relaxing, suicide bombs going off outside soft targets do tend to p!$$ me right off and I guess it was Backwater's reference to schools that hit the wrong nerve.

As for agreeing or disagreeing with each other, we're all individuals, but then if we all agreed on the same thing then maybe we would all enjoy better working conditions and remuneration, we're hardly a cohesive body, are we?

But as there is little I can do about it, yes, the steak will be on the braai tonight.

[00bultril]

Secure ID

Good man.
Fillet, rump or siloin?:ok:

[Engineer]

You may not see military planes at the airport but maybe you should look at the ships that sometimes frequent the harbour

[Fox3snapshot]

There have been a lot more security threats here in the UAE since the heightening of hostilities than the average expat will ever know about. The fact is the authorities have developed over the years (originally for their own internal issues) a very good internal secuirty system and potential incidents have been shut down before they have had the chance to mature. Their internal secuirty is also fed by the governemnets of foreign powers who have their own intrests (people, commercial and military) so a reasonable level of security can be afforded.

I say a "reasonable" level of secuirty because at the end of the day total security can never be assured. It is certainly a hazard of living here in the Middle East, but then if New York is any example of a secure environment then perhaps there are few places left in the world that are really safe.

The people that mastermind these attacks have developed over the years into a smart, patient and unforgiving bunch which are very difficult to combat. Unfortunate to say but I think we will see a lot more of these activities and it certainly will not stay confined to the Middle East.

:ugh:

[ekpilot]

Back to the original subject, Pilot@EK, yes, I believe you are!

[Pilot@EK]

No, you're not the only non-whinger, yet.

Just wait until...

a. Emaar build a 3 storey apartment complex between you and the view of the golf course you paid a premium for.
b. Your house falls apart due to concrete cancer.
c. You decide in x years to sell only to realise that you don't own the property on which your house stands (despite promises to the contrary) and by then nobody will want to buy it anyway (see b.).
d. You finally realise that the 24k you pay per year in utilities subsidises the UAE nationals who only pay 10% of what you do.
e. You get tired of digging out your flash new M5.
f. Your private school is targetted by terrorists.

Enjoy yourself while you can and "Keep discovering..."!
Rgds

----

Backwater, yes even though we are happy with the property we bought at Arabian Ranches and there have been a few teething problems, we are still happy. I just don't understand why everybody here whinges so much. yes, we admit we have to pay a bit out of our own pocket to cover the cost of housing and school fees. But we look at what we pay as 25% tax. It could be better ofcourse but back home even if we paid 25% tax we would still have to pay more on top of that to send our kids to private school, have a house in a well to do area and so on.
If you think our situation is bad look at the Asians living in Karama, they earn much less than we do, in fact we are quite lucky in comparison.
Maybe it is just me being the optimist, we bought a few years ago and our house value has risen 40%, it is a cash cow waiting to be untapped.

[ratpoison]

Oh, dear oh dear.

Typical, purchasing during the honeymoon period. !!!!

[Cerberus]

Pilot@EK,

Yep, you are being an optimist and also comparing apples with eggs!! Asians in Karama? Every city in the world has different standards of accommodation for the different workers that live there.

While your at it, what about comparing Eastern Washington DC in the most prosperous country in the world and Georgetown. In one part you get rich in the other you get killed. Or dare I say it even Karama with that slum just off the end of 27 in Bombay. Maybe where you live has more to do with your professional qualifications and competence rather than luck, or the company you work for.

As to are you the only none whinger? No, you are not! Few people do whine at the start but after a while in any environment the temptation is to look at the problems rather than the good things.

Most of the whining you hear is down to the frustration of having no control over what is happening. We all get misled routinely by senior managers that clearly believe we are niaive and are then forced to live off rumours. Right now rumours are circling about a high level change in Flt Ops management and that factored flight hours are illegal. Instead the 'rumour buster' covers important issues like notional plans for a company credit card. To cushion any hopes our flight ops manager would have us believe that we have over 9000 applications per year from qualified pilots. (He is barking, the only time we averaged 25 applications a day, for a week, was when Ansett went bust.)

Years ago SecureID told me I hadn't been here long enough to understand the issues, he was right I hadn't. Back then I was enjoying the weather and my new job and had few frustrations. Looking back I was niaive, not just about EK, but also the country in which I lived.

With a little more experience I have discovered that being taken out by an aggressive, untrained idiot on the roads doesn't just happen to other idiots but also to my family. I have found the company less than transparent when they recruit. I have discovered that there is little hope of the package maintaining the same buying power in Dubai let alone when compared to the rest of the world.

As to security, I don't feel particularly unsafe but is it all a vaneer? On the aircraft the other day I was reading about political and economic freedom in the Middle East and the UAE ranked down with Iran way below Qatar and Kuwait. Lets face it, if you have an incident with the wrong local, even if you are in the right, there will be only one winner because the rule of law does not exist in a democratic sense. That climate is transferred by some to our working environment and creates a culture of fear.

In summary, I still enjoy my life because worrying about things over which I have no control is counter-productive. That said, you seem deliriously happy because of the little bubble in which you live. Problem with bubbles is that they always seem to burst, mine was burst when my wife and kids did aerobatics in a Prado. I'd start unplugging that cash cow sooner rather than later!


Cerberus

[Backwater]

Pilot@EK.
I wish you and your family all the best with your life here. My post offered an alternative view and was not intended to criticise your decision to buy in any way. I hope you maintain your positive outlook.
Perhaps our different views relate to personal experience.
Securid, schools in this region have been targetted before and sadly remain a soft target. I don't like it either, but the fact remains.
Cerberus. A high level change of Flt Ops management? Now there's a rumour worth repeating!