I came in with decent expectations, but as soon as I saw how disorganized training was, I became wary. Training has gotten better, and they laid off the training manager who, honestly, wasn’t that on top of it, so if they can get a decent replacement that will help a lot. He would show half done videos in ground school and talk about how he stayed up all night prepping the power point, and still had slides in it that only applied to the pilots, since he just stole their stuff.
I think a lot of the ”old school“ dispatchers are tired of the constant turnover, and we got hit pretty hard with people leaving last year in a short period, right when we started to grow, which didn’t help things. They keep minimal staffing, which I get since its a regional, but with (pre-COVID) people leaving constantly, it wasn’t smart on the business side, since they were paying so much OT and burning people out. I made an extra 25% over my base pay in over time alone, and there are many who did more OT than me. Dispatch is the only union group in the company that can still be junior assigned a shift and forced to work. They say when it comes to pilots, it kills morale, so they don’t want it, but they continue to do it, and want to do it, to dispatch.
I think the biggest issue is that dispatch is seen as a legal necessity that they wouldn’t have otherwise (my perception). The company would be happy to replace dispatch with automation, but as we all learned when getting our certificates, the weakest point in automation is those monitoring it. Dispatch’s primary function is supposed to be flight following, and when you have 55 releases due in a day, you can’t effectively flight follow. That may be manageable on the west coast flying into LAX, but when your big hubs are LGA and DCA, well, things go to hell quickly. It’s hard to handle multiple diversions at the same time, plus the 5-7 releases you have to prep for the next hour. FAA literally had to start putting pressure on the company to fix the workload issues because of what they were seeing.
Now, that all being said, I did *start* to see a few minor changes that were positive before all this hit, and a lot of the morale stuff was, and remains to be, really easily fixed perception stuff, when its not pay and contract related. Crew scheduling sending out an email to management saying they ordering the pizzas, and them just forwarding the email out, makes it look like crew scheduling is the only one ordering pizzas, when they’re paying for it too. When you constantly see management taking care of one team and not the other, it wears you down. The Director would regularly ask for feedback, and then either dismiss your feedback or tell you don’t need the information you asked for. You want less fuel? Well then I need better tools to let me make that decision safely. No tools, more fuel, since I can’t evaluate the risk properly with what you’re giving me. That simple.
I mentioned pay and contract up there. RPA is on a contract from 2013 still, that was bargained for by a guy that became a duty manager shortly after the contract was signed. I’m sure I don’t need to explain the perception and possible moral issues with that move. There were several other regionals that had gotten new contracts in the time I was there that increased their pay substantially, and then, of course, there is Endeavour, but the company honestly did not seem to be in any rush to sign a new contract. Combine that with refusing to give Dispatch an MOU during COVID, and they have not currently furloughed any pilots that were on the line, but they furloughed a third of dispatch. Several dispatchers brought up concerns about the contract when it was proposed and were told by the union if they didn’t pass it, their contract would go on the back burner.
I think I painted an accurate picture in there of it, but kinda started rambling. Happy to answer more in depth If you have specific questions, since that was kind of broad. Basically I came in expecting to be treated with respect, and to be tight on funds for a while. I found a manager who will split days off every week because it was easier to schedule that way, instead of keeping everyone’s days off together. That doesn’t show respect for your people’s personal lives, and neither does junior manning.
I think a lot of the ”old school“ dispatchers are tired of the constant turnover, and we got hit pretty hard with people leaving last year in a short period, right when we started to grow, which didn’t help things. They keep minimal staffing, which I get since its a regional, but with (pre-COVID) people leaving constantly, it wasn’t smart on the business side, since they were paying so much OT and burning people out. I made an extra 25% over my base pay in over time alone, and there are many who did more OT than me. Dispatch is the only union group in the company that can still be junior assigned a shift and forced to work. They say when it comes to pilots, it kills morale, so they don’t want it, but they continue to do it, and want to do it, to dispatch.
I think the biggest issue is that dispatch is seen as a legal necessity that they wouldn’t have otherwise (my perception). The company would be happy to replace dispatch with automation, but as we all learned when getting our certificates, the weakest point in automation is those monitoring it. Dispatch’s primary function is supposed to be flight following, and when you have 55 releases due in a day, you can’t effectively flight follow. That may be manageable on the west coast flying into LAX, but when your big hubs are LGA and DCA, well, things go to hell quickly. It’s hard to handle multiple diversions at the same time, plus the 5-7 releases you have to prep for the next hour. FAA literally had to start putting pressure on the company to fix the workload issues because of what they were seeing.
Now, that all being said, I did *start* to see a few minor changes that were positive before all this hit, and a lot of the morale stuff was, and remains to be, really easily fixed perception stuff, when its not pay and contract related. Crew scheduling sending out an email to management saying they ordering the pizzas, and them just forwarding the email out, makes it look like crew scheduling is the only one ordering pizzas, when they’re paying for it too. When you constantly see management taking care of one team and not the other, it wears you down. The Director would regularly ask for feedback, and then either dismiss your feedback or tell you don’t need the information you asked for. You want less fuel? Well then I need better tools to let me make that decision safely. No tools, more fuel, since I can’t evaluate the risk properly with what you’re giving me. That simple.
I mentioned pay and contract up there. RPA is on a contract from 2013 still, that was bargained for by a guy that became a duty manager shortly after the contract was signed. I’m sure I don’t need to explain the perception and possible moral issues with that move. There were several other regionals that had gotten new contracts in the time I was there that increased their pay substantially, and then, of course, there is Endeavour, but the company honestly did not seem to be in any rush to sign a new contract. Combine that with refusing to give Dispatch an MOU during COVID, and they have not currently furloughed any pilots that were on the line, but they furloughed a third of dispatch. Several dispatchers brought up concerns about the contract when it was proposed and were told by the union if they didn’t pass it, their contract would go on the back burner.
I think I painted an accurate picture in there of it, but kinda started rambling. Happy to answer more in depth If you have specific questions, since that was kind of broad. Basically I came in expecting to be treated with respect, and to be tight on funds for a while. I found a manager who will split days off every week because it was easier to schedule that way, instead of keeping everyone’s days off together. That doesn’t show respect for your people’s personal lives, and neither does junior manning.
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