Attendance tracking

averettpilot said:
Ok finally an update on why I started the thread in the first place. Thanks for all the responses.

I’ll keep it short. Essentially I was investigated for my point total which was the result of the worst cold season I’ve ever had. Son started his first full time year of preschool and I went from never flying airlines to always flying airlines. My total exceeded their threshold for “probable separation.” I thought it would be pretty straight forward since they were supposedly looking for abusers, and I was not one and could prove it with doctors records/notes for every single absence. It resulted in a “verbal warning”.

I appealed if for no other reason than to get them to tell me exactly what they were warning me of. The letter said they were warning me for my point total which I thought was adequately explained.

In the end, the result of the appeal was they removed the verbal warning (pretty much my only request), but I’m still left confused and quite frankly angry at this system they have in place. My view is it impacts safety related decisions we have to make concerning fitness for duty. I’ve used a couple different avenues to try and convey this to the company, but it seems their position won’t change.

Anyway, I’m actually pretty disappointed to find this kind of stuff at a 121. I expect it in 91/135 which is a large reason why I left. I guess regionals are just a half rung above 135.

Long story short, it just confirms that my original half thought of maybe staying here as a viable option isn’t based in reality, and the only option is to move on to bigger and better at some point.

Thanks again for the comments.
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Is this a regional?

Guys often forget that regionals aren’t very far removed from a crappy 135 operation.

My majors got one of that. Good for you for pressing them for it.
 
averettpilot said:
Ok finally an update on why I started the thread in the first place. Thanks for all the responses.

I’ll keep it short. Essentially I was investigated for my point total which was the result of the worst cold season I’ve ever had. Son started his first full time year of preschool and I went from never flying airlines to always flying airlines. My total exceeded their threshold for “probable separation.” I thought it would be pretty straight forward since they were supposedly looking for abusers, and I was not one and could prove it with doctors records/notes for every single absence. It resulted in a “verbal warning”.

I appealed if for no other reason than to get them to tell me exactly what they were warning me of. The letter said they were warning me for my point total which I thought was adequately explained.

In the end, the result of the appeal was they removed the verbal warning (pretty much my only request), but I’m still left confused and quite frankly angry at this system they have in place. My view is it impacts safety related decisions we have to make concerning fitness for duty. I’ve used a couple different avenues to try and convey this to the company, but it seems their position won’t change.

Anyway, I’m actually pretty disappointed to find this kind of stuff at a 121. I expect it in 91/135 which is a large reason why I left. I guess regionals are just a half rung above 135.

Long story short, it just confirms that my original half thought of maybe staying here as a viable option isn’t based in reality, and the only option is to move on to bigger and better at some point.

Thanks again for the comments.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that sucks man. Sorry you had to deal with that nonsense. Move up the ladder - 121 gets much better than that.
 
averettpilot said:
Ok finally an update on why I started the thread in the first place. Thanks for all the responses.

I’ll keep it short. Essentially I was investigated for my point total which was the result of the worst cold season I’ve ever had. Son started his first full time year of preschool and I went from never flying airlines to always flying airlines. My total exceeded their threshold for “probable separation.” I thought it would be pretty straight forward since they were supposedly looking for abusers, and I was not one and could prove it with doctors records/notes for every single absence. It resulted in a “verbal warning”.

I appealed if for no other reason than to get them to tell me exactly what they were warning me of. The letter said they were warning me for my point total which I thought was adequately explained.

In the end, the result of the appeal was they removed the verbal warning (pretty much my only request), but I’m still left confused and quite frankly angry at this system they have in place. My view is it impacts safety related decisions we have to make concerning fitness for duty. I’ve used a couple different avenues to try and convey this to the company, but it seems their position won’t change.

Anyway, I’m actually pretty disappointed to find this kind of stuff at a 121. I expect it in 91/135 which is a large reason why I left. I guess regionals are just a half rung above 135.

Long story short, it just confirms that my original half thought of maybe staying here as a viable option isn’t based in reality, and the only option is to move on to bigger and better at some point.

Thanks again for the comments.
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This sounds exactly like a friend's situation who is a captain at my shop. Except they tried to fire him over it. Things don't necessarily get better when you leave the regionals. Choose wisely.
 
Something I haven't seen mentioned yet is sick leave makeup. We had it at brown as I recall you got some sort of advantage at picking up open time to make up sick vs just regular pickup. I can't remember the details. That didn't help with your 6 calls in a rolling 12 month stats, where you would get a courtesy call from an ACP, but I always felt it showed good will if I tried to pick up and make up some of the sick time. If you can go out of your way to make up some of the sick days it might be a way to show some good will to the company and they will look the other way instead of taking action against you.
 
DE727UPS said:
Something I haven't seen mentioned yet is sick leave makeup. We had it at brown as I recall you got some sort of advantage at picking up open time to make up sick vs just regular pickup. I can't remember the details. That didn't help with your 6 calls in a rolling 12 month stats, where you would get a courtesy call from an ACP, but I always felt it showed good will if I tried to pick up and make up some of the sick time. If you can go out of your way to make up some of the sick days it might be a way to show some good will to the company and they will look the other way instead of taking action against you.
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Purple has this, too. We can make up sick and make up vacation.
 
SurferLucas said:
Potential conflict of interest, being the biggest issue here…I wouldn’t ask anyone of relation to give me doctors notes, not worth the headache, literally.
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Is there a custom or professional standard among doctors not to treat family members in order to avoid conflicts of interest? Kind of seems like overkill. Also seems unfair for someone to get in trouble for seeing a doctor they are related to, unless the manual specifically says that doctor's notes will not be accepted in that case (which for all I know maybe it does. but that hasn't been the case any company I've worked at that I can recall).
 
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averettpilot said:
Ok finally an update on why I started the thread in the first place. Thanks for all the responses.

I’ll keep it short. Essentially I was investigated for my point total which was the result of the worst cold season I’ve ever had. Son started his first full time year of preschool and I went from never flying airlines to always flying airlines. My total exceeded their threshold for “probable separation.” I thought it would be pretty straight forward since they were supposedly looking for abusers, and I was not one and could prove it with doctors records/notes for every single absence. It resulted in a “verbal warning”.

I appealed if for no other reason than to get them to tell me exactly what they were warning me of. The letter said they were warning me for my point total which I thought was adequately explained.

In the end, the result of the appeal was they removed the verbal warning (pretty much my only request), but I’m still left confused and quite frankly angry at this system they have in place. My view is it impacts safety related decisions we have to make concerning fitness for duty. I’ve used a couple different avenues to try and convey this to the company, but it seems their position won’t change.

Anyway, I’m actually pretty disappointed to find this kind of stuff at a 121. I expect it in 91/135 which is a large reason why I left. I guess regionals are just a half rung above 135.

Long story short, it just confirms that my original half thought of maybe staying here as a viable option isn’t based in reality, and the only option is to move on to bigger and better at some point.

Thanks again for the comments.
Click to expand...

I'm with you 100%.

It's safety critical and we're making pilots fly sick to avoid what you described.
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Again, why. A doctor is a doctor. What conflict of interest.
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"I'm sorry, I can't fly my mom to Tampa. It's a conflict of interest."

Isn't the "interest" in either profession to ensure the well-being of the client?

But really, that's beside the point. No doctor would accept the liability of signing off a pilot to go to work when they said they're too sick to fly. Period. "Doctor's notes" are an archaic intimidation tactic, and should be a very obvious signal for anyone on the fence as to whether their current shop is a career destination.
 
thepotato232 said:
But really, that's beside the point. No doctor would accept the liability of signing off a pilot to go to work when they said they're too sick to fly. Period. "Doctor's notes" are an archaic intimidation tactic, and should be a very obvious signal for anyone on the fence as to whether their current shop is a career destination.
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The issue isn't doctors writing fake notes to clear a pilot to go back to work (although lits of AMEs do that in their own ways) but rather doctors generating notes saying a pilot was sick, when they weren't. I've been fortunate to have only been in 3 different domiciles with 2 different airlines over a 20 year career (when did that happen?) and in all three cities there was a least 1 doctor everyone knew would write you sick note when you needed one.

I went kayaking once in North Carolina with two other pilots and a few of their friends. We were packing up our gear at the takeout, and one of the guys (who was a doctor) came over and handed a note to one of the pilots and laughed and said "I hope you feel better from your cold".
 
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