Dont call me Shirley
Veteran
- Aug 20, 2002
- 3,270
- 306
The following was posted on another discussion board along with a purported reply from Doug Parker. Because the response is so completely outrageous, I am not posting it since I am not sure that is is authentic. If anyone knows about the reply and if it is indeed from DP, please let us know. The letter from the pilot is worthwhile reading itself ( the name of the writer was in the post on the other board; I've deleted it here).
Dear US Management,
Rather than go into a shell, I thought I could sit down and share with you a list of my concerns about this once fine airline.
I challenge you to try and turn a profit without p*****g off virtually everyone you come in contact with, though most notably, the passengers and the employees. Your total lack of attention this summer to YOUR operation has left this company so low in passenger satisfaction that many feel it is impossible to redeem. Find me a station agent who never fantasized seeing one of our well-compensated management team standing behind a computer, at the customer service counter, right after a line of thunderstorms have moved through Charlotte. Your failure has manifested itself in chronically late flights, lost and mishandled bags, crowded, dirty terminals, a once efficient and proud shuttle operation full of holes, your transition to SHARES, and your crown jewel: a PHL hub that should serve as a primer to any nascent airline management on HOW NOT TO RUN AN AIRLINE (and have left many calling for the return of Crelin).
Where were you this summer? Golfing? Vacationing? Deal-making. Certainly not managing. You see, instead of coming around to the bases to debate with your employees about why they should be happy to be underpaid, you could have seen this summer's debacle forming on the horizon like a storm cloud. Staffing shortages, a useless computer system which prevents you from putting your finger on the true cause of your problems, and finally arrogance--plain old-fashioned, nose up in the air-again. You really could have made a difference, but that would meant that you were really sincere about trying to run an airline, instead of flipping one.
Therein lies the problem. Doing what's right doesn't motivate many any more. The lowest common denominator is money, and consolidation is just a phone call away; running an airline like Bob Crandall or Herb Kelleher is a lot of work, and would require numerous paradigm shifts.
I know you could care less whether you garner my respect and support, and that of my coworkers, but what if that carried a significant dollar advantage? There are people working here who at one time would have given an appendage for the survival of this place. That was before a series of draconian cuts in wages and benefits, and the impression that we do not matter, nor figure into any success story here. Concessions. Huge airline saving concessions, without nary a thanks and a tip of the hat. You can always win over more coworkers by extolling good will, and yet you consistently miss the boat. My kids say I can be a funsucker. Still I hope I never become a hopesucker, and some say hope is seeping out of this place like a knotless balloon. Some of you are so young, so please heed my advice: good will does have a price tag attached, which could be as much or as little as you make it. In a service industry like ours, it can be huge.
Where can you extoll good will? Your handling of the latest rift between the West and East pilots would make Machiavelli blush. What better place to start?
What can you do?
Tell Jerry Glass to go home and torture insects, and with the stroke of a pen, try to unify this pilot group by granting East pilots pay parity with those from the West. Finally, try out the Southwest business model of putting employees ahead of passengers and profits and watch the productivity and profits steadily grow instead of playing both ends against the middle. By treating employees as an expense instead of an asset, you'll never see people play above their game, and consequently you'll always come up short. Build relationships and good will by honoring your word, and letting it be known that middle management should do the same. In other words, become a mensch. Put stock in your good name, and strive to keep your name good. Visit with your troops when s*** hits the fan, instead of just sending out a memo--have you ever pushed a passenger lately in a wheelchair to their gate? Don't make it a photo op. Just do it. Eat the same greasy garbage that the flight crews and agents eat, and eat it with them. Here's where you learn the most: go out with them after work, and listen to what they have to put up with. Then, at the end of the day, when you've walked in their shoes, you'll know a lot more about how to make this a first-class airline instead of a Jay Leno monologue.
We have seen management come and go here, some of them no more than vultures pecking at a corpse. Your actions will determine your own corporate success or failure, and I pray for your good sense and good fortune, since yours is inextricably linked with ours.
Sincerely,
(name deleted by DCMS)
LGA Airbus Captain
Dear US Management,
Rather than go into a shell, I thought I could sit down and share with you a list of my concerns about this once fine airline.
I challenge you to try and turn a profit without p*****g off virtually everyone you come in contact with, though most notably, the passengers and the employees. Your total lack of attention this summer to YOUR operation has left this company so low in passenger satisfaction that many feel it is impossible to redeem. Find me a station agent who never fantasized seeing one of our well-compensated management team standing behind a computer, at the customer service counter, right after a line of thunderstorms have moved through Charlotte. Your failure has manifested itself in chronically late flights, lost and mishandled bags, crowded, dirty terminals, a once efficient and proud shuttle operation full of holes, your transition to SHARES, and your crown jewel: a PHL hub that should serve as a primer to any nascent airline management on HOW NOT TO RUN AN AIRLINE (and have left many calling for the return of Crelin).
Where were you this summer? Golfing? Vacationing? Deal-making. Certainly not managing. You see, instead of coming around to the bases to debate with your employees about why they should be happy to be underpaid, you could have seen this summer's debacle forming on the horizon like a storm cloud. Staffing shortages, a useless computer system which prevents you from putting your finger on the true cause of your problems, and finally arrogance--plain old-fashioned, nose up in the air-again. You really could have made a difference, but that would meant that you were really sincere about trying to run an airline, instead of flipping one.
Therein lies the problem. Doing what's right doesn't motivate many any more. The lowest common denominator is money, and consolidation is just a phone call away; running an airline like Bob Crandall or Herb Kelleher is a lot of work, and would require numerous paradigm shifts.
I know you could care less whether you garner my respect and support, and that of my coworkers, but what if that carried a significant dollar advantage? There are people working here who at one time would have given an appendage for the survival of this place. That was before a series of draconian cuts in wages and benefits, and the impression that we do not matter, nor figure into any success story here. Concessions. Huge airline saving concessions, without nary a thanks and a tip of the hat. You can always win over more coworkers by extolling good will, and yet you consistently miss the boat. My kids say I can be a funsucker. Still I hope I never become a hopesucker, and some say hope is seeping out of this place like a knotless balloon. Some of you are so young, so please heed my advice: good will does have a price tag attached, which could be as much or as little as you make it. In a service industry like ours, it can be huge.
Where can you extoll good will? Your handling of the latest rift between the West and East pilots would make Machiavelli blush. What better place to start?
What can you do?
Tell Jerry Glass to go home and torture insects, and with the stroke of a pen, try to unify this pilot group by granting East pilots pay parity with those from the West. Finally, try out the Southwest business model of putting employees ahead of passengers and profits and watch the productivity and profits steadily grow instead of playing both ends against the middle. By treating employees as an expense instead of an asset, you'll never see people play above their game, and consequently you'll always come up short. Build relationships and good will by honoring your word, and letting it be known that middle management should do the same. In other words, become a mensch. Put stock in your good name, and strive to keep your name good. Visit with your troops when s*** hits the fan, instead of just sending out a memo--have you ever pushed a passenger lately in a wheelchair to their gate? Don't make it a photo op. Just do it. Eat the same greasy garbage that the flight crews and agents eat, and eat it with them. Here's where you learn the most: go out with them after work, and listen to what they have to put up with. Then, at the end of the day, when you've walked in their shoes, you'll know a lot more about how to make this a first-class airline instead of a Jay Leno monologue.
We have seen management come and go here, some of them no more than vultures pecking at a corpse. Your actions will determine your own corporate success or failure, and I pray for your good sense and good fortune, since yours is inextricably linked with ours.
Sincerely,
(name deleted by DCMS)
LGA Airbus Captain
However, I do agree with you that he did not write this.
