ClarkGriswold
Non Nutritive Cereal Varnish Engineer
Do you by chance have a video to explain this all a little clearer?
ALPA Volunteering
- Thread starter BigZ
- Start date
Avalon781ML
Well-Known Member
I enjoyed the volunteer work I did as a Pilot Rep and then shortly as the Chief Rep... but at the end it literally consumed all of my free time when no one else would step up and volunteer. My advice would be to definitely volunteer but also make sure that you set limits on how much of your free time you give up. I wouldn’t trade my experience for anything but I’ll be taking a break at the new shop for a while before thinking of volunteering again.
SlumTodd_Millionaire
Most Hated Member
I said the same thing when I went to AirTran. Seventeen months later I was FO rep and leading an ALPA drive.
Avalon781ML
Well-Known Member
Its hard not to volunteer when you actually care... its harder to force yourself to the sideline to recover from being burnt out... this is one time where I need to be a little selfish and enjoy my time away from work... the last 4.5 years really put a dent in me.I said the same thing when I went to AirTran. Seventeen months later I was FO rep and leading an ALPA drive.
P2P is a good program, but for a brief period of time before the failed TA, things got "peculiar" in its usage.
Lol, do you have PTSD or something? You got out, move on already. You're in a far better place now. Don't be a masochist. You don't see the three women in the Ariel Castro kidnappings returning to the scene of the crime as often as you do!
Damn, gurl SAVAAAAGE!
ComplexHiAv8r
Well-Known Member
Its hard not to volunteer when you actually care... its harder to force yourself to the sideline to recover from being burnt out... this is one time where I need to be a little selfish and enjoy my time away from work... the last 4.5 years really put a dent in me.
The hard part about volunteering is, what I keep telling @Richman, is that I don’t handle angry old pilots very well without wanting to grab a souvenir Dodgers bat and wrecking the carpet with spattered blood and dental material.
jynxyjoe
Queso King
"What do you mean you got me 4 hours of pay? Why are you shaking down the company?"
"You had a complaint for a possible violation. We researched it, the mec and committee agree you were violated, the company agrees you were violated, I agree. You asked for 16 and we got you 4. If you don't want the money donate it to church, itll be like you never got paid."
"Does the company know it was me?"
"Thats how the money got in your account."
"In my account? That weird payment last week?"
"Ill mark you as resolved and have the committee chair call you later on."
Pilots are for the most part nicer than advertised and dummer than advertised all at once.
Truth!
Richman
JC’s Resident Curmudgeon
The gig ebbs and flows. Even something as mundane a membership, where you do the pizza and beer meet and greet twice a month, can turn into a whole different job when furloughs start overnight (yes, it happened).
The Rep job has two parts, the Rep part and the MEC part, and how you handle that depends greatly on the circumstances particular to your property.
Everyone wants to do Safety or AAI. Fact of the matter is that 95% of those jobs are pure tedium. If you’re In it for the glory or the gawker aspect, you’re in it for the wrong reasons, and those people bail when it’s their turn to count the lights on taxiway Alpha. Besides, just wearing the bunny suit in the ND summer for an afternoon was enough for me to swear it off.
PTP has its place, but ours got warped past it’s original intent and the program had to be shuttered. It’s been rebooted as something different, more in line with the original goal of public service announcements and personal outreach.
For committee work, find something you like and start small. It will grow to consume all of your available time if you show the slightest competence or interest.
The Rep thing is a different deal entirely.
The Rep job has two parts, the Rep part and the MEC part, and how you handle that depends greatly on the circumstances particular to your property.
Everyone wants to do Safety or AAI. Fact of the matter is that 95% of those jobs are pure tedium. If you’re In it for the glory or the gawker aspect, you’re in it for the wrong reasons, and those people bail when it’s their turn to count the lights on taxiway Alpha. Besides, just wearing the bunny suit in the ND summer for an afternoon was enough for me to swear it off.
PTP has its place, but ours got warped past it’s original intent and the program had to be shuttered. It’s been rebooted as something different, more in line with the original goal of public service announcements and personal outreach.
For committee work, find something you like and start small. It will grow to consume all of your available time if you show the slightest competence or interest.
The Rep thing is a different deal entirely.
BobDDuck
Island Bus Driver
I've done committe work pretty consistantly for the last 12 years. I have no desire to ever do any rep work.
jynxyjoe
Queso King
Why, making stupid promises to pilots you cant keep doesn't appeal to you? Or is it seeing those pilots in a section 19 meeting where you have to ask just prior to the meeting, "hey you told me X, but when we pulled the tapes you said Y. WTF dude?"
SlumTodd_Millionaire
Most Hated Member
I found it very rewarding. There’s nothing like saving somebody’s livelihood. But then those same people whose jobs you’ve saved hate your guts later when you vote to approve a contract they don’t like. So there’s that.
Richman
JC’s Resident Curmudgeon
I will admit that getting sandbagged is not a highlight of the job.
jynxyjoe
Queso King
Look the pilot offered to get his way back he was on day six hed have been on day seven.
He was on day 5? He offered to trade the extention for a day off? He said what? Oh God.
Richman
JC’s Resident Curmudgeon
One of the most impossible tasks I’ve had is convincing people that everything they say is recorded, every swipe & keystroke logged, and that no matter what they think, if someone is asking the question, it means they already have the answer and finally, no matter how GQ Smooth they think they are, people in CYA mode have no friends or loyalty.
Despite making this abundantly clear, both in coms and in person, people still are surprised
jynxyjoe
Queso King
So when you told your FO " *curse* the company if they don't give me a hotel room I'm stopping this last leg" on hold, thats recorded too... Yeah... So when you said the company is either gonna pay the 170 for a hotel room or you're gonna stick them for 700 on the extention pay, that was recorded too...
I learned that during my visit to the "Big Brown Desk" several years ago. Generally speaking, a company representative isn't going to ask you a question they don't already know the answer to. Fess up, say you're sorry, have a great career. Lie, deny, "yeah, but" and you're not going to have a good time.
"Yeah, I was sitting short call in Denver when crew scheduling called. I shouldn't have called in sick when I couldn't make it and should have said "I'm sorry but I'm not in position to reach ATL in time", I apologize and it will not happen again" versus "I literally got sick on the way to the airport, what do you mean KCM logged my ID getting scanned thousands of miles away? That's got to be a mistake because I was actually in Atlanta! Sick!"