Wizzair
booze
To be fair, in Wizz - this is not the fault of the base captains, it's due to the organizations hierarchy, where the base captains ends up to be puppets for upper management.
I am certain the message in the recording goes all the way to the top / the CEO and COO, just as they were profiting on recruitment in the golden times. Nobody down the food chain would dare to speak like this, unless they had been given the "orders" to do this.
The easy solution, is to kick all the Eastern european countries out of the EU and EASA, as they are not complying with workers rights, tax avoidance and corruption, which sooner or later will impact safety.
There is nobody who has been involved in Wizz in the past, who for one second will believe the letter they wrote on the 4.th of April after demoting all base captains.
Some Wizz representative claiming that these actions does not represent Wizz Air's value, these are lying men in suits trying to do some damage control. We all know this is exactly how Wizz do their business, it's all based on fear. Enjoy.
To be fair, in Wizz - this is not the fault of the base captains, it's due to the organizations hierarchy, where the base captains ends up to be puppets for upper management.
I am certain the message in the recording goes all the way to the top / the CEO and COO, just as they were profiting on recruitment in the golden times. Nobody down the food chain would dare to speak like this, unless they had been given the "orders" to do this.
The easy solution, is to kick all the Eastern european countries out of the EU and EASA, as they are not complying with workers rights, tax avoidance and corruption, which sooner or later will impact safety.
There is nobody who has been involved in Wizz in the past, who for one second will believe the letter they wrote on the 4.th of April after demoting all base captains.
Some Wizz representative claiming that these actions does not represent Wizz Air's value, these are lying men in suits trying to do some damage control. We all know this is exactly how Wizz do their business, it's all based on fear. Enjoy.
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In my opinion the base captains are just as guilty as the top management if not more as they were the ones executing these orders.
One can say no to their managers to perform something unethical then live with the consequences just as captain can say no to a duty extension, being rushed and pushed by ops, etc.
Now they will all have to live with consequences of becoming pariahs in the aviation scene in Eastern Europe. Make no mistake their names are out and known.
Change can only come from the bottom otherwise this will be ops normal for many more years to come. As you said: the culture of fear.
Edit: the guy in the recording is truly himself. Has been confirmed by many friends at EK. Didn't change a bit over the years. Just gave himself and portraid the culture over at EK. True gem/find by wizz upper management back in the day. Real fit amongst them. Bloody disgusting bunch if you ask me.
One can say no to their managers to perform something unethical then live with the consequences just as captain can say no to a duty extension, being rushed and pushed by ops, etc.
Now they will all have to live with consequences of becoming pariahs in the aviation scene in Eastern Europe. Make no mistake their names are out and known.
Change can only come from the bottom otherwise this will be ops normal for many more years to come. As you said: the culture of fear.
Edit: the guy in the recording is truly himself. Has been confirmed by many friends at EK. Didn't change a bit over the years. Just gave himself and portraid the culture over at EK. True gem/find by wizz upper management back in the day. Real fit amongst them. Bloody disgusting bunch if you ask me.
Last edited by booze; 14th Apr 2021 at 04:38.
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I don't know if they were allowed to speak on the call but it's simply incredible that not one of the 15+ ? base managers challenged this guy. Not one dared ask "Is this legal?". This is how dictatorships are run and these guys were probably selected for these precise qualities. Toe the line and don't challenge management.
I know some of you owe your careers to them but they do appear on the outside to be a truly nasty bunch. Like many, I had my own interview from hell experience with them many years ago, a complete contrast to the next 3 in a row where I got the job. Pompous, arrogant and overly challenging. That's no way to interview people in the 21st century.
"Leaders who don't listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say." ~Andy Stanley.
I know some of you owe your careers to them but they do appear on the outside to be a truly nasty bunch. Like many, I had my own interview from hell experience with them many years ago, a complete contrast to the next 3 in a row where I got the job. Pompous, arrogant and overly challenging. That's no way to interview people in the 21st century.
"Leaders who don't listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say." ~Andy Stanley.
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Guys, not to interrupt the lynchings, but a lot of good base captains who behaved ethically and were a credit to their crews also were among those demoted by the company after this transcript was leaked.
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They are the ME3 of Europe: they use you and throw you away when they don't need you any more (or you know too much). Lots of good people learnt it in the last two years. From flight attendants through department heads (with the company since day one) up to a vice president. The main difference is that the money is crap here too. I tried to count how much chief pilots they had through the years. At least nine (in 17 years) and I can't even remember all of them.
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Completely true and agreed. All I’m saying is that there are some good and ethical base captains mixed into that group, who are now being mixed in with the rest and painted with the same brush as it reads in the recording.
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You do not speak up at meetings in Wizz.
I remember back in my day one of the demoted base captains on the list shut me down for raising an issue (which i took up with him several times before, without anything being done about it) with upper management during a base visit.
I was on my way out, serving my notice, so I didn't care anyways, however right there, in that moment i realized the culture fear they all standing for and actively participating in.
All these base visits used to be a joke btw. Who cares about new routes, planes added, etc.? You get that stuff from emails anyways. Most of the issues at every base was bullying, parking, crew cars, they way vacations being approved and most importantly sorting medical/healthcare out for new joiners, etc. Used to take months due to the indifference and simple inability of the people mentioned above.
I remember back in my day one of the demoted base captains on the list shut me down for raising an issue (which i took up with him several times before, without anything being done about it) with upper management during a base visit.
I was on my way out, serving my notice, so I didn't care anyways, however right there, in that moment i realized the culture fear they all standing for and actively participating in.
All these base visits used to be a joke btw. Who cares about new routes, planes added, etc.? You get that stuff from emails anyways. Most of the issues at every base was bullying, parking, crew cars, they way vacations being approved and most importantly sorting medical/healthcare out for new joiners, etc. Used to take months due to the indifference and simple inability of the people mentioned above.
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I totally concur with this statement. The few who actually posed a direct question face to face , received a useless reply by the COO, CEO, head of bla bla , .... whatever in the style of:
“you pilots think that you are so important and everything is turning around you, it’s time to realise that the market clearly shows that the days of glory for pilots are over. If you don’t like it, you are free to go. We have over 6000 pilots eager to take your place.” The rest of the colleagues are just bystanders who don’t dare to ask anything besides stupid questions like , “will there be a base in Spain? , will our staff tickets be valid for another 6 months bla bla ...
This company is about everything you couldn’t even imagine in your worst days at any Western European airline. Non punitive just culture ,it’s a nice header in one of their numerous manuals that are actually used as form of justification to punish you or put you last on some
list. The pressure on the pilots and cabin crew is rising every day.
There isn’t a single day that they don’t come up with something new to screw their employees.
Not to mention they have the cheapest crews in the universe . 2000€ for a Capt, 1200€ SFO and 800€ FO.
I thought there was worse out there, I must have mistaken.
“you pilots think that you are so important and everything is turning around you, it’s time to realise that the market clearly shows that the days of glory for pilots are over. If you don’t like it, you are free to go. We have over 6000 pilots eager to take your place.” The rest of the colleagues are just bystanders who don’t dare to ask anything besides stupid questions like , “will there be a base in Spain? , will our staff tickets be valid for another 6 months bla bla ...
This company is about everything you couldn’t even imagine in your worst days at any Western European airline. Non punitive just culture ,it’s a nice header in one of their numerous manuals that are actually used as form of justification to punish you or put you last on some
list. The pressure on the pilots and cabin crew is rising every day.There isn’t a single day that they don’t come up with something new to screw their employees.
Not to mention they have the cheapest crews in the universe . 2000€ for a Capt, 1200€ SFO and 800€ FO.
I thought there was worse out there, I must have mistaken.
Last edited by Racetothebottom; 17th Apr 2021 at 17:51.
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“you pilots think that you are so important and everything is turning around you, it’s time to realise that the market clearly shows that the days of glory for pilots are over. If you don’t like it, you are free to go. We have over 6000 pilots eager to take your place.”
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I doubt it, I remember virtually the same sentence being used to describe us in 1999. Since then, pilot demand has ebbed and flowed, during times of oversupply the same chant re-surfaces and there is a bit of push back from some pilot bodies, but a bit more is chipped away from the T&C's. In times of pilot drought a bit of the last loss is regained but never all of it. So, over my career the overall direction of travel is ever downwards. As the baby boomer generation pilots shuffle off into retirement, the good times become memory and the new normal is accepted by the young. It is common in lots of other industries, where once desirable careers are now financially mundane. Airline pilot pay is screwed by commoditization of the product and a worldwide glut of cheap pilots. The airlines themselves are just as trapped into this 'pile it high, sell it cheap' model and staff costs are the easiest item for the accountants to bear down on. Expect worse to come, not better.
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They don't have to worry at all...the 6000 eager pilots out there are the same 6000 eager on all the A320 operators of the planet....the moment all this will be over they will be at 90 degrees...and only hardly believe they like it!
Perhaps it’s something simple as the bargaining ability is missing so it can only go one-way Macdo. There are benefits for bargaining en masse, improvements in the wage rate and other conditions generally follow. Considering the competitive landscape in Europe last decades, where lowering the costs seems v high on the agenda, people are easy targets when going for the 1/n solo approach instead of what is shown by research to be effective and fit for purpose.
Racetothebottom
And don't forget those colleagues of you that visit these Forums, who are more then willing to sell you out to management when they have the chance. You would be surprised by the effort they would make to try to shut down peoples opinions about the company even on the PPRune Forums.
There are many great people in Wizz, but there are also loads of Snitches and B...hes, who will happily screw over their colleague. I guess you can't take the Stasi out of them all, btw these are the same who are hated by almost all if they get exposed. But they are there and here, and everywhere.
And don't forget those colleagues of you that visit these Forums, who are more then willing to sell you out to management when they have the chance. You would be surprised by the effort they would make to try to shut down peoples opinions about the company even on the PPRune Forums.
There are many great people in Wizz, but there are also loads of Snitches and B...hes, who will happily screw over their colleague. I guess you can't take the Stasi out of them all, btw these are the same who are hated by almost all if they get exposed. But they are there and here, and everywhere.
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I am always astonished why people (pilots and cc) want to work for those crooks. Working your ass of for peanuts, getting bullied and treated like **** by the management etc. All you have to say is “no” and dont join them. It is really that easy. I speak from experience. But it seems a lot of ppl simply don’t get it. It is just a job!