Ops Morale

[ghost-rider]

OK guys & girls - so how is the morale and conditions in your dept ?

What really annoys you most about your dept ?

Does your company look after you ? Do they pay you well ? Will they back you up ? Or do you get nothing but grief !

Or do you work for 'the best' airline around, in which you'd recommend joining to anyone ?

Let's start a real warts & all debate and try and find the best & worst airline ops. dept to work for.


Could be controversial, but what the hell ! :-)

[This message has been edited by ghost-rider (edited 28 August 1999).]

[This message has been edited by ghost-rider (edited 28 August 1999).]

[Daifly]

I work for a Exec Jet Charter company, as the Senior Ops Controller.

I like it loads and the department's good. Morale is very high amongst the Dept Staff though not so high amongst the Pilots (as in any company!).

They look after us well, good pay (+ car) and conditions, health care, pension, life and travel insurance, but we are expected to work hard for it - this is the South East after all ;o, (Tues-Fri 0800-1800, w/e off, Mon-Fri 1200-2000 + night on call till 0800 then whole w/e on call - very busy)

I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who has some stamina and enjoys hard work and a laugh - on this note there is an Ops Controller job in the near future (not quite the above working hours!, but close) - e-mail me if you're interested.

[blackbox]

I work for a well known uk airline - namesless.....

1. Morale is very low...
2. Lack of managment intrest..
3. Department undermanned..
4. Department has not grown with major expansion of airline..
5. Terible working conditions ie. very crampt ops room with full access to crews sometimes up to 5 at a time..
6. No recurrent training
7. Poor salaries ie. not industry standard
8. No understanding of what ops does
9. And of course - Oh ops will deal with it..

I hear virgin is ops is very good... whats the job situ there....???



[This message has been edited by blackbox (edited 28 August 1999).]

[ghost-rider]

I too work for a fairly new, but expanding schedualed UK airline.

Morale is a problem at the moment, due to the airline exec management not really seeming to have a clue about how to actually run an airline. (from an ops point of view)All they care about is the business side. 'Ops will have to make do with what they've got' seems to be the case. :-( Even the ops manager seems to be banging his head against a brick wall trying to explain the intracasies (sp?) of an ops dept to them.

Unfortunately, I think we may lose some of our best ops controllers due to the demoralisation and frustration setting in.

Overall though, I'm happy here. There are problems, but at least the ops management know about them, and keep us info'd as to what we can fix, and what (and why) we can't yet fix others.

Be honest, 'employers' will never please all the staff, but I think on the whole we're pointing in the right direction.

Pay seems to be OK, although there is too wide a gulf between ops assistants, officers and controllers IMHO.

We get a share option and annual bonus (based on personal performance), so I've seen a lot worse.

To summarise : I'm happy !

I'd be interested to hear about other setups ...

[Squawk Ident]

Reading a report in the West Australian, 25 Aug, about the turn around happening at Continental in the States. I'm sure at one time or another we've all heard about how bad they are, constantly the worst airline in the US, so much so, the report said, that the staff even take the company logo off their uniforms because of embarrassment!!.

Anyway, some new CEO has gone in and straight away offered every staff member a 50 Pounds bonus,(sorry, Aussie keyboards only have $ signs), give or take a few quid, every month that the airline was in the US Top 5..... it took the staff just ONE MONTH, to get their first bonus!!!!!!!!!!!!. The airline has constantly been in the Top 3 since.

He has told the staff to run the airline as they are the ones doing the job. Security cameras have been taken down. Locks hve been removed of office doors and the Employees Terms & Conditions book has been re-written and is now only a third of the size. Since then, staff turn-over has dropped 30%.

Now to me, there is one hell of a big moral to that report and I'm just a mere employee.HOW COME OTHER MANAGERS DON'T GET IT?. I know they don't understand simple things like that in my Company.

[Daifly]

One of the major problems is staff numbers. We don't have enough staff - period. It's not that the company can't afford it, but more to do with the attitude of the top - we've worked hard to get where we are today, so can you. I agree we should all work hard - I'm not here to play, but when the fleets increase, the crews do - but for some unexplicable reason we don't... By the end of the shift you've run out of the get up and go to solve a problem and turned into a how can I make this go away until I finish my handover......?

[orange juicer]

I work in a potentially good ops enviroment, however, myself and numerous colleagues feel that morale is on the downhill slippery slope.
I honestly don't know how this can be stopped or even improved.
But then I don't think management know how to improve the situation either.
I don't know if everyone feels the same, but I want things to improve.
Do you remember the days when you looked forward to going to work?
Any suggestions on how to improve the situation?

[This message has been edited by orange juicer (edited 04 September 1999).]

[ghost-rider]

One major domestic US airline has an amazing strategy along the lines of 'the employee is the most valuable asset of the company' !
That'd be a novel concept in the UK ... :-(
Everyone in the company - from the cleaner to the CEO - seems to love working for them and is proud to work for them for two major reasons :

a)The company look after them all very well financially. They are the best paid in all departments I believe. And this doesn't include tax-free bonuses AND profit-share. One guy I spoke too had $18000.00 placed in a seperate account by the company last year alone ! And he's a dispatcher, not a high flying exec. They also enjoy health and pension benefit

b)They have a policy of making the workplace a 'fun' place to be. It's relaxed, informal, yet VERY professional. Their safety record is second to none, and they take a pride in doing things right !

As SquawkIdent & Orange-Juicer said - when will MDs realise that you have to make the employees happy - in their pockets as well as their mind - before morale and, as a consequence, performance improve.

The US airline ? Southwest.

[HAMSHANK]

Ghost Rider what a simple but novel idea
happy employees = better performance = happier pax = bigger profits!! afraid equations like this too complicated for chief exec types can't usually relate to the first part.
P.S any cleaning jobs going at Southwest

[ghost-rider]

Hamshank,

Not sure if there's any cleaners jobs going, but I'm packing my brush and visa just in case !!!!! ;-)

[orange juicer]

ghost-rider,

When I went orange I remember being told, 'the employee is the most valuable asset of this company' .

It appears so much can change in such a short time.

OR, have we just stopped appreciating our lot?

[ooooh matron]

Juicer/Ghosti

Yeh, I remember all that toss about being a valued employee. But it would seem the potential 'men in suits' have put pay to that!

Morale?!? All I want is an October roster!!!!

[ghost-rider]

Juicer,

I still think tangoworld is on the right track - but - like you correctly pointed out, we do seem to have forgotten how to appreciate people.

I still believe in the idea as a whole, but I am concerned.


[This message has been edited by ghost-rider (edited 05 September 1999).]

[Warteck]

I've heard 'Tangoworld' pays the MOC engineers major bonuses AND overtime, but not ops or crewing etc.

Surely that's VERY unfair, and not exactly going to inspire loyalty seeing as MOC & Ops/Crewing are all in the same office working the same shifts ????

[opsbod]

Unfortunately the deal at tango world is that the Ops and Crewing staff work for tango, whilst the MOC staff work for FLS.

At the end of the year tango do pay a bonus to all their full-time staff, on top of the usual salary, based on company and personal performance.

Having said that I do miss overtime.

Like my colleagues I hope we're not on the slippery slope to low morale, not long come from there and have no desire to return.

[Bairn]

All this talk about men in suits/managers. Have any of you thought about the commercial viabilities of a managers actions ?
How about you stop whinging and start thinking about ways to improve your inviroment. I'll put money on it that if you suggest something, backed up with reasons/benefits and a full presentation.....you'll either get a 'what a bloody good idea-lets do it' or 'thats a good idea-but sorry we cant do because of this (a genuine reason'
Dont sit on your **** slagging off management when you dont fully understand the business implications to your thoughts !
If this statement doesnt apply to you and youre really work in a crap enviroment the n sorry....move job !

[jaguar]

Bairn, do you actualy work in the industry??

[quarterback]

Bairn....
Get the impression you are encamped within the ranks of the "men in suits"...
Could your beligerent attitude be partly due to the fact that what has been posted before is getting a little too near the mark????


[This message has been edited by quarterback (edited 06 September 1999).]

[Squawk Ident]

Bairn,
You're not the new CEO of Continental or Richard Branson are you?. One thing's for sure... you're not Rod Eddington.

We have suggested many 'ideas' to management. Ideas that would offer better service to the punters, better use of manpower AND save the company money. They say to us "yeh good idea", but that's it. Nothing ever gets done. My theory is, is that OUR management (which generally moves around every 2 years), don't have the balls to put their name to something, just in case it doesn't work.

On the other hand.... we have just had a management reshuffle and we now have one departmental boss who has come up through the ranks... she has had more visits from the troops in the last 3 months than the last boss had in 2 1/2 years.

By the way, any Virgins out there?. Richard Branson was on Aussie TV a while ago giving an interview. He says he puts his staff first and to us 'down here', he appears to do that..... Does He?



[This message has been edited by Squawk Ident (edited 06 September 1999).]

[Warteck]

Bairn - get a grip on reality !

Do you not think we are trying to improve things ????

Or as Quarterback said - are we hitting a nerve ?!?!

If you are a 'suit', then fine, it's just that we hate being looked down on by some jumped up pratt that should know better. So act like one and treat us like adults !

If you want a constructive debate, then welcome - if not, then please go elsewhere !