The whole East Vs. West theme is so trite.
The majority of the employees I work with at HP are stellar, as are the majority of staff I have met and become friends with at US.
From the FA perspective there is definately an air of paranoia at HP. So many FAs are worried all the time about getting written up. HP InFlight Management (I use that term loosely) and Training are the kings of micromanaging. They have all these people sitting in cubes making up policies and procedures that are completely ridiculous. From my perspective, they take the FAR, make it 10 times more restrictive/ridiculous, then apply it to the IOM where it stands as the law of the land.
Having a chain smoking dinosaur of an FAA cabin safety inspector on the ultimate power trip just adds to this equation of absurd policy and uptight FAs. If you didn't already know, the position of Cabin Safety Inspector places just one step above the position of Toilet Cleaner at the FAA in OKC, among FAA employees. They're the butt of jokes of the employees there, the also-ran of the FAA if you will. Anyway...
HP is as far from PSA as Air France. <_<
Some examples:
The "notification of the location of the FD door" announcement. I'd like to meet the puke in the legal department that came up with this one. Actually, ALL of the announcements are lame. They expect us to bark into the PA from block out to block in. The required announcements are far from concise and are full of grammatical errors.
The "verbatim" exit row briefing. They require we read this verbatim. It creates tension between the FA and PAX, and makes us look like morons. Let the FA use common sense. If someone shows up for the exit row in a body cast, reseat them. Japanese tourist that can't speak english, reseat them. Why pester the FF Elite who usually sit there though?
Stepping past the OW Exit during flight. We have actually had FAs written up for this at HP! Written up and then suspended...absurd! The FD Door is like a bank vault. If someone is (God forbid) intent on getting in, my scrawny ass sitting on the FWD J/S reading "The Week" is not going to stop them.
The InFlight Cafe service flow in YC is completely ineffecient. At HP, we are required to do a beverage service first. The entire time the PAX are asking for InFlight Cafe. We have to say no, wait for that service, it's later. Then, during the InFlight Cafe service all of my PAX want more to drink. Again, we must say no. All we have is food and water/coffee now. Who makes this sh*t up? I feel like David Spade on a Capital One commercial...no no no, no no, no no no...Push/Pull ala US is the only way to go. It's best for the PAX and easier for the FA. The old KISS theory.
The minimum staffing requirement for boarding/deplaning. We have a 6 leg day with 30 minute turns on full 320s all day. We can't step off to grab food. At WN, they can...again, it's HP management tweaking the FARs for whatever reason. Let's use some common sense here. One FA stepping of for a few minutes is not a safety issue.
The culture is messed up. You can't blame all of the FAs for being so uptight, it's the culture! It's how they were trained to be, and how they feel they must act in order to avoid the wrath of InFlight. The culture breeds such paranoia, you end up with these FAs who feel they are police officers, all about the FARs, all about enforcing policy.
But not all of us at HP are that way. You'll find many of us are easy going, who know this job is just that, a job. It does not define me. It is not who I am.
I just hope that the new US retains some of the "chill" attitude of the old US and most of the policies and procedures for InFlight as well...
Policy aside, the whole East Vs. West issue troubles me the most because it is just what management wants. So many of us feed on it. The really pressing issue for me is US all standing together for a fair contract. If we're divided we risk not getting the best contract we can.
We've got to be all about Unity.
