Professional Respect from Management?

[Bograt]

I was having a rant to SWMBO (she who must be obeyed) about how sick and tired I am of being fed c:mad:p by our managers, and being told it was a good deal. (See the Fragrant Harbour forum re the pay proposal)

I was complaining about how the company who used to own this outfit, and now manage it for the Chinese, always treat us like the coolies who used to harvest poppies for them; and don't give us anything like the respect we deserve just for doing the job of providing a safe, secure and profitable operation for them and the customer.

SWMBO wanted to know if any employer does treat their aircrew with what would be considered "professional respect" - she thinks I'm asking too much.

So I throw the question out to you.

Do you feel you receive the respect (not necessarily pay-based) you deserve? Am I asking too much?

If you do - how is this respect demonstrated and/or reciprocated?

[Fly3]

Not since days of Air Europe. Memories, memories.

[Lemper]

The company for which I am working now treats its employees, including pilots, with respect and consideration.
Not a perfect world of course, some frictions at time and always the same "rope puling" contests, but all in all I feel respected and considered for the job I do.
Now the problem here lies with the government people who seem determined to discourage all the cityzens to work in this country, but that is another story.

[ABUKABOY]

Aurigny Air Services in the mid-eighties. Several trislander pilots huddled around a tv screen in totally fog-bound Channel Islands, eagerly awaiting the 20's and the 50's metars. Always mindful that a French or UK diversion was the last thing our inter-island passengers wanted; if the chap sitting next to you decided to have a go, and the rest didn't, (and boy we had some high timers on that single-crew operation), there was never the hint of any pressure on anyone to follow him until they were happy with the likelihood of landing at destination. We were left strictly alone to do what we were trained and paid for. In return, we always offered go the extra mile when required. What a smashing all-round working environment that was.
TNT Airways, in its former UK and present Belgian incarnation. It's only by comparison and reading the various posts on here that we realised how well and sympathetically we were/are treated and rewarded.
I've probably lined myself up to be shot on this last one, but (sic) as ye sow, so shall ye reap. You give management a hard time all the time, and you'll definitely come off worse in the long run. Try a little (non-brown-nosed) TLC, and unless you are working for one of the established ####-heads, see if I'm not right.

[GlueBall]

Management only has a commercial interest in making profit by moving people and cargo from point A to point B in the most efficient manner.

You are an employe [a contractor in disguise] entitled to mutually agreed upon wages and regulatory rest periods for services performed. That's all. You are not entitled to demand more. And you cannot demand praise and respect for having operated your airplane consistently in a safe and professional manner. And if you think that your employer owes you more and you are dissatisfied, then you don't have to take it, because nobody is ripping the shirt off your back to drag you into a cockpit to make you fly.

The bottom line is that you don't get what you deserve, you only get what you negotiate. And in order to do that successfully you have to have a pilot's union with balls; a membership whose majority sticks together and stops the wheels from turning, as it should have, for example, in the case of the CX "49ers." Meanwhile, you are just a cog in a big wheel.