But still, it's wise not to underestimate one's opponent.
That's true, but the problem with most pilots, and I'm starting to see this, is we're so pilot-centric, we can't step back and see things for what they are.
Are there managers who go out of their way to torque pilots? Yes. I can give you more examples from my 18 months at my current employer with a former VP than I could of malicious stuff in 9 years at crap wagon super growth regional #1.
Most airlines can't properly staff airplanes or re-route crews during abnormal operations.
Even no matter how many times that it happens, they repeat the same silly mistakes over and over and over and over to the same results. What's that the very definition of?
They always set up a "team" designed to look at approaching weather systems or other abnormal things that jam up a system. Yet with all this "forward planning", you end up with crews in divert stations that are timed out. Now you have jets sitting on the ground, crews burning duty time, and the longer this goes on, and the larger the operation, the longer it takes. So about the time they dig out of a hole, the next one is opening up.
Or look at the growth/contraction cycles. They know growth is coming, so instead of slowly ramping up training and being able to meet or exceed the staffing requirements, they wait until airplanes show up, then run 2-3 months behind in training because they wanted to wait. But a small hiccup? Furlough 10% effective yesterday
The real deal is management is concerned with the bottom line. It's impersonal. If they can save 10% of crewing costs, they'll do it. It's not that they hate you or your coworkers, they just don't care.
I'm not saying it's right, but that's the end of the day. As much as we hate it, we are just assets to them like plane or a bag cart.