Earbuds in sight of pax?

ZapBrannigan said:
The ones that prompted this post were not discrete. Bright orange. (Although even the white ones stand out on a black blazer).

Hey do what you want. I'm not your mom. I'm just one of those old guys who used to wear his hat. Guess the uniform should still mean something to me. It's been watered down so much by the retirement of the hat, the introduction of the leather coat, backpacks as crew bags, etc... the ear buds surprised me.

Then I realized I might be prejudiced against young pilots because I thought "what's the matter with these kids and their iPods?!"
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I use flat black earbuds to keep it as discreet and matching as possible.

Funny thing is, I know a guy on here who is very pro-hat at our hat optional airline. But he wears the leather jacket. The point being that all of this is very subjective. I think the most important thing is to wear the uniform well. Keep it as reasonably clean and pressed as you can on a trip.

Basically, I think that passengers should be able to look at the pilot in uniform and think that he knows how to wear a shirt, tie, jacket (whichever one) and slacks properly. If a pilot can do that, I think the accessories become pretty negligible as far as the image being projected to the flying public.
 
mshunter said:
I do ear buds and a North Face style jacket all the time. But, all company logos, and uniform are always covered up. Hell, I even wear a ball cap. But like I said, you can't tell I am going to or coming from work. I don't want people asking me questions about work, when I'm not working.
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Guys are doing this during their trip.
 
If I see pilots walking around using ear buds, I don't think "oh noes, unprofessional pilutz who will crash my planez!"

I actually don't think anything, positive or negative.

I probably don't even notice.

At the airport, I am busy going from gate to gate, trying to get on my plane.

Just stay out of my way and I'm happy.
 
Cal Goat said:
I just think there are so many ways the uniform/image can be subjectively disrespected that nitpicking earbuds is pretty petty. At least they can be very discreet.
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I'm inclined to agree. Mine are black, although I don't dig them out too terribly often at the airport. There are about 20 other appearance items that someone SHOULD worry about before picking on the earbuds.

I'm not giving myself a pass on this: I myself should probably cut down on my PED use in the public view.

(And I've even uttered the words, "You know, we can stop the airplane so you can take that phone call, Your Airworthiness"—that's a whole different matter.)

Cal Goat said:
Funny thing is, I know a guy on here who is very pro-hat at our hat optional airline. But he wears the leather jacket. The point being that all of this is very subjective. I think the most important thing is to wear the uniform well. Keep it as reasonably clean and pressed as you can on a trip.
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It's okay to use me by name ;) Incidentally, I'm coat-no-hat this week; I'll be hat-no-coat for the rest of the summertime. Our hats look anywhere from "weird" to "downright goofy"—Eagle's uniform hat was a lot easier to wear. The leather coat appeals to my practicality, to be honest.

Specific to appearance standards, I think the real problem is that we have too many of them, with too many approved configs. I can make some approved configurations look downright weird...like, leather jacket and hat, truthfully. I could drag out Standard Practice whatever-it-is and tell you all the weird ones. We'd look a lot less weird if there existed fewer options and we were more, er, uniform.

ZapBrannigan said:
Hey do what you want. I'm not your mom. I'm just one of those old guys who used to wear his hat. Guess the uniform should still mean something to me. It's been watered down so much by the retirement of the hat, the introduction of the leather coat, backpacks as crew bags, etc... the ear buds surprised me.

Then I realized I might be prejudiced against young pilots because I thought "what's the matter with these kids and their iPods?!"
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The word that you're looking for is pride. Pride in your job and your position. Bad news. There's not a lot of it left. There should be more.
 
I don't mind answering legit questions. Oh sure I get annoyed like everyone else but I'd rather use a patience point and get their question answered rather than another company employee turn their nose up and give a bad experience.

On average, every five or so times I go "above and beyond" in helping a passenger, at least one will write a letter.

Good letters means "points" and I can actually exchange those for cash and prizes. Plus, when (and if) you go to the "Big Brown Desk" at HQ with the chief pilot and the FAA, those attaboys come in tremendously handy and make a difference.

I might roll my eyes at the people that can't fathom that the gates are in numerical order, but I'm still going to help.

If I'm on the clock (or on an active rotation), I'm in uniform. If I'm off the clock, I'm generally hiding out or at least in civilian clothes.

People don't bother me. I consider myself in the customer service business as well.
 
Derg said:
I don't mind answering legit questions. Oh sure I get annoyed like everyone else but I'd rather use a patience point and get their question answered rather than another company employee turn their nose up and give a bad experience.

On average, every five or so times I go "above and beyond" in helping a passenger, at least one will write a letter.
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Down here at the Express level, I'm not sure that stuff (especially good stuff) ever gets passed from mainline customer relations, to the Express carrier, to Flight Operations, to the pilot involved. It doesn't seem very 'friendly'.

ZapBrannigan said:
Professional self discipline doesn't start at six figures.
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It's independent of pay.

(More money wouldn't hurt, though.)
 
ZapBrannigan said:
Professional self discipline doesn't start at six figures.
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Completely agree. There is a line, albeit a very fine line between $22,000 and $100,000. I'm not saying that it is right, but I listened to no less than 4 E Suite Execs say, and I quote, "You all chose to come to ground school. The pay can't be all that bad." I was almost insulted knowing that 1. they were all equally condescending and 2. They made more in a month than I make in a year.

The race to the bottom is nearing corner 4. Let's hope that the recent no vote among several companies will affect the attitude and presentation of the career we all care about.
 
Whatever helps you pass the day and mitigate fatigue - go for it. Low regional pilot wages = no requirement to care about public perception. When in the cockpit just do your job safely and professionally. That's all that matters.
 
Why do these discussions - whether they be about wearing your hat, polishing your shoes, or being nice to the pax who put food on your table - always come back around to salary?!

Surely you are all professional enough to take pride in yourselves without assigning it a dollar value?!

I'll tell you what I tell my 7 year old. Do the right thing, every time, even when nobody is watching. Have integrity and pride in the way you carry yourself. You don't need a dollar amount to make that happen. It's either part of who you are or it isn't. If it isn't, call your parents and ask them why.
 
Autothrust Blue said:
Down here at the Express level, I'm not sure that stuff (especially good stuff) ever gets passed from mainline customer relations, to the Express carrier, to Flight Operations, to the pilot involved. It doesn't seem very 'friendly'.


It's independent of pay.

(More money wouldn't hurt, though.)
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I got a customer service letter for unloading bags when no rampers were around. Because of it I got an "employee of the month" award that got me top parking in domicile without need to take a bus to/from the lot for a month, and more importantly, a resume bullet point item :).
 
wheelsup said:
I got a customer service letter for unloading bags when no rampers were around. Because of it I got an "employee of the month" award that got me top parking in domicile without need to take a bus to/from the lot for a month, and more importantly, a resume bullet point item :).
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*eyebrows up*
 
ZapBrannigan said:
Why do these discussions - whether they be about wearing your hat, polishing your shoes, or being nice to the pax who put food on your table - always come back around to salary?!
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Why? This answer is simple. Nobody who is responsible for the safe operation of a $30,000,000 piece of equipment and the lives of 79 people should be required to decide if they can afford to pay the rent, the electric bills, a cell phone bill or groceries, and which one gets skimped on. That's the abbreviated version as I am on my phone.

I find it interesting that guys who were screwing the guys who weren't in the industry yet had no idea that this would be one of the unintended consequences of their choices. For every action.... but hey, 3 more days off A MONTH!!!
 
I'll do it only if I'm sequestered in a quiet corner out of view from most passengers or if I'm making a company related phone call in a loud area (like the cockpit during boarding) and I can't hear out of the speaker on my phone.

But overall, yeah. Looks pretty unprofessional.
 
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Well if you want to be a career regional pilot, sure but I think if you've got higher aspirations, start practicing. I know the key phrase that my employer likes is "engagement of high value customers".

Love it or hate it, that's what they demand and there are a lot of operations that don't require that level of engagement.

Whenever anyone asks me for a letter of recommendation, I do think about their conduct online, how they handle conflict resolution and if they take the angle that low pay means low expectations.

If a person I helped get a job is romping around in the terminal, no tie, earbuds in his ears with the "probationary pay, probationary performance" it reflects poorly on me and also reflects poorly on the next person I'm trying to help secure employment.

You can fly jets at a lot of places, but if I put my name on an applicant at my employer or anywhere else, I expect more. If I say you're an exceptional candidate when you're looking for a job, ten years into it, I expect you to be an exceptional employee wherever you go.

Or don't ask.
 
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