Life as a Furloughee?

berge7f9

berge7f9

Well-Known Member
Life as a Furloughee?

Its probably the least popular topic in the forums, but I feel I have to ask about how people deal with airline layoffs. If you have been furloughed, please share your experiences. If you are furloughed tomorrow, what is your plan to deal with it?

When furloughed, were you able to get another flying job within 6-12 months of being laid off? Or did you have to accept another job unrelated to aviation just to pay the bills?

In the event of furlough, my plan is to try to return to the place I instructed (probably wont happen); if that doesn't work try to get a 121 or 135 dispatcher job; if that does n't work I will try to get a job as a substitute teacher with the option of being a full-time teacher if the furlough is to be an long extended period.

If the topic has been discussed already, I am sorry. However, I could not find much on this topic using the 'Search' function.
 
Being furloughed is like being a piece of jewelry sent to the pawn shop.

"Yeah, we liked you, but we need money, so we're gonna get rid of you. For now. Maybe we'll come back for you later. Good luck!"

It's like being tossed out with the garbage, feeling like a paper towel, used and tossed aside.

Watching everyone else suit up, go to work like nothing happened, like nothing has changed for them, but here YOU are, on the street.

It's like being pushed off a cliff blindfolded. You know you're going, you don't know what's there and you don't know where you're gonna land. But you land on your feet. Cause there's no where else to land. So you find something. Something always comes up, a new opportunity, something different, something similar. It's there and you find it. And you eventually realize it's not quite so bad after all, when the time comes for recall you may or may not take it. Depending on what your new situation has come to be. If you do take it, recall class is a very eerie feeling. They're blowing sunshine up your ass and telling you how wonderful you are and how much you've been missed and blah blah blah. You wonder why, if you're so wonderful, did they throw you out in the first place? But you go back, and once the "weird flashback dream" feeling goes away it's life as usual. Maybe with a displacement to a new base or equipment, but it's life as usual.

If you're lucky it never happens again. If you're not so lucky it does. In which case you repeat the whole cycle.

Being furloughed is something I would wish on very, very few people in the world. Lorenzo, Ichann, Crandall...... those names pop in my head.... but that's about it :D
 
If I ever get furloughed and don't immediately get back into Commercial Aviation with another opportunity, then I'm getting out. I am only working my way up the ladder once. We've got a family in the making and I can not afford to go through the paying dues part that I'm going through now, again with a family.

Thats why I'm working on a degree in a different field and I have many more fallbacks even without the degree. I continue to try and learn new skills to better my resume in case I am forced out of this field. For those that get furloughed and eventually get back in the industry, I give you a lot of credit. For me, I think that would be the kicker to make me go to a different field.
 
berge7f9 said:
Life as a Furloughee?

Its probably the least popular topic in the forums, but I feel I have to ask about how people deal with airline layoffs. If you have been furloughed, please share your experiences. If you are furloughed tomorrow, what is your plan to deal with it?
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I wont worry about it until it happens. But if i got furloughed today, I would ask my guard unit if there is a need for me to pick up extra shifts or possible deployments i can go on. ALso a couple of my friends own their own business and have been asking me to come and help them. So I have those options to fall back on. But I Hope never need them.
 
MQAAord said:
Being furloughed is like being a piece of jewelry sent to the pawn shop.

"Yeah, we liked you, but we need money, so we're gonna get rid of you. For now. Maybe we'll come back for you later. Good luck!"

It's like being tossed out with the garbage, feeling like a paper towel, used and tossed aside.

Watching everyone else suit up, go to work like nothing happened, like nothing has changed for them, but here YOU are, on the street.

It's like being pushed off a cliff blindfolded. You know you're going, you don't know what's there and you don't know where you're gonna land. But you land on your feet. Cause there's no where else to land. So you find something. Something always comes up, a new opportunity, something different, something similar. It's there and you find it. And you eventually realize it's not quite so bad after all, when the time comes for recall you may or may not take it. Depending on what your new situation has come to be. If you do take it, recall class is a very eerie feeling. They're blowing sunshine up your ass and telling you how wonderful you are and how much you've been missed and blah blah blah. You wonder why, if you're so wonderful, did they throw you out in the first place? But you go back, and once the "weird flashback dream" feeling goes away it's life as usual. Maybe with a displacement to a new base or equipment, but it's life as usual.

If you're lucky it never happens again. If you're not so lucky it does. In which case you repeat the whole cycle.

Being furloughed is something I would wish on very, very few people in the world. Lorenzo, Ichann, Crandall...... those names pop in my head.... but that's about it :D
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Very well said, Amber!



Kevin

Furloughed June 1993 - October 1996
 
I've got another job lined up in case of furlogh, strike into oblivion or loss of medical. I'm just not in a huge rush to go shovel elephant or giraffe poop.
 
I was thinking that working as a substitute teacher would be a fairly decent alternative during a possible furlough. The government pays your salary albeit a relatively crappy salary, you can work part-time and then get a teaching accreditadation and roll over to full-time if the furlough seems to be an extended one. My experience teaching as a CFI would be a plus. And it seemed that during the 9/11 furlough era, the teaching profession at least in the SF Bay Area was fairly resistant to the economic times.

But today, I realized that a load of teachers are getting laid off in SoCal and more layoffs are about to happen in NorCal.

I have just turned 23 and am getting my 121 dispatch ticket added on, but it seems there are a lot more pilot jobs than dispatch jobs, and in a furlough those jobs would also become scarce.

I guess the best option in the case of a furlough would be to get a CFI job at a nearby FBO or academy as the place where I originally instructed is way the hell on the other side of the country. But it seems fairly clear from the evidence gathered so far that when a furlough or lay off happens nearly half do not find another flying job.

I think the best bet is a part-time federal government job from which the possibility remains of going full-time.
 
Plan A) Hopefully, I will have a rich hottie to finance me.

Plan B) Go back working at Marriott.

Plan C) Move in with Doug and Kristie Taylor.
 
Seggy said:
Plan A) Hopefully, I will have a rich hottie to finance me.

Plan B) Go back working at Marriott.

Plan C) Move in with Doug and Kristie Taylor.
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Doesn't she have to be Swedish? :p Or are you ok with it as long as she's a sugar mama? :D
 
I do not discriminate, she has to be hot, nationality does not matter.

She also has to be no more than a year older than me.
 
Unless Daddy's the one with the big bucks, you're not going to find too many wealthy 20-somethings. None that are going to share it with a man, anyway! JMO.
 
Pharmaceutical Sales Reps.

My cousin is one at 26. I need to call her and invite myself out with her and her friends
 
I think most of you are aware that I was furloughed numerous times in my career.

The first time was with AirTran Airways in October of 1998. Since I had just come from the commuters I was pretty poor and I had only been with AirTran about 3 months.

When the furlough came I was able to quickly get a job at the commuter where I had worked previously, but I ended up living in my car in a parking garage near the Pittsburgh airport. I took showers at the YMCA.

Never again.

The next time I was furloughed was after 9/11. I was a little bit better prepared. I had six months expenses in the bank and kept my resumes and logbooks up to date.

That time flying jobs were hard to come by. I swallowed my pride and went back to work for a commuter (this time flying a Dornier 328 turboprop). Six months later that company sent out letters advising of their intention to furlough. Rats!

Well I didn't even wait for the axe to drop that time, I switched to another commuter this time flying RJs. Now keep in mind that I had already BEEN through the commuters once on my way to the majors, so now I was on my 3rd commuter (and after flying a DC9 and 737 for an LCC and a major) and was now back in indoc with guys ten years younger than me. Talk about feeling like a failure!!!?!!

A few years later I managed to find a job flying for a large corporation. I had never done any kind of corporate flying but I figured I would give it a shot anyway. The lifestyle was significantly better than the airlines. (I was home most every night). The training was done by FSI every six months so it was pretty good (although not as good as the airilnes). The people were great, the pay was reasonable, and the benefits were good.

So when the time finally came last October to go back to US Airways (after 5+ years on furlough) I made a long list of pros and cons to decide what to do. At the end of the day only one thing was pointing me back to the airlines.

Shiny Jet Syndrome. The only thing in the PRO column was that I wanted to fly a big airplane again. Lousy reason to take a cut in pay, commute to Philadelphia, move into a crashpad, ultimately uproot my family etc.

So I turned them down. I won't lie to you. I occasionally regret my decision. Only because I miss flying those kinds of airplanes though. At the end of the day we must remember that this is a JOB. The sole purpose of this job is to earn income and provide for my family. If I can still fly airplanes (which I enjoy) and be home every night and earn a fair wage (albeit less than I would after a 20 more years at the airlines) then why leave?

Being furlough sucks. But it does teach you valuable lessons on how to interview, financial preparedness, and retirement planning.

Best of luck to those who are facing it.
 
Great post, Zap. Thanks for opening up and sharing some of your very painful memories. It's not easy to do, but I think you've succeeded in showing others how to cope and make the right decisions. :bandit:
 
MQAAord said:
Being furloughed is like being a piece of jewelry sent to the pawn shop.

"Yeah, we liked you, but we need money, so we're gonna get rid of you. For now. Maybe we'll come back for you later."
Click to expand...

I may have just found a new signature!
 
WildCougar said:
Well, good luck to ya, then! Seggy----a kept man----who would have thunk it?! :D
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He's gonna need to turn into an au pair if he wants to live with us! he'll have to cook, clean, litter boxes, be dough's eye candy and all sorts of fun stuff. there's a lot of work involved with the taylor household! :)
 
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