I appreciate that life at your airline/seat/seniority is a different ballgame, but when it comes to showing up to work and doing the job, I’ve gotta disagree with you a little here. I’m sure part of it is because it’s built on the foundation of 25ish years of experience, but where I sit 121 is stupid easy compared to any other flying job I’ve done. I’m not, at all, any kind of super pilot, and I didn’t fly stealth fighters, but I show up every leg taking the job seriously, trying to go above the minimum, and do my best, and that’s enough to get comments like “thanks for making it easy for me today” “thanks for not being a •up” “finally an FO who knows how to fly” etc.
Outside of the cockpit, with commuting, trying to stay rested and fit on the road, filling time on layovers with something more productive than doomscrolling, bidding, training events that are actually just checking events, etc… no doubt the hardest. 100% with you there. Like not even close. Well, maybe being a 135 director of maintenance was close in that I was never truly off the clock.