Oh Kirby....

Sorry. I’ll go against the grain. I don’t see the big deal. He’s a CEO. Any CEO ought to be able to use whatever tool he/she needs to in order to go where they need to, company metal or not.


United’s EWR problems are a lot to do with weather that comes in from the west (looking at you, PA) and ATC staffing issues. I assume they’ve also added flying and beefed up EWR flights? And maybe some UA employee can chime in on their EWR staffing situation for flight crews? My point being, I don’t think this squarely falls on the feet of the CEO if is weather and ATC related.
 
form810 said:
But I can certainly state that in almost every human endeavor right now, the users of the tools available to them are using only about 2% of the available capacity of those tools.
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Are you trying to say that the operation is falling apart because the rampers, gate agents, mechanics, pilots, and flight attendants are trying hard enough?
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Sorry. I’ll go against the grain. I don’t see the big deal. He’s a CEO. Any CEO ought to be able to use whatever tool he/she needs to in order to go where they need to, company metal or not.


United’s EWR problems are a lot to do with weather that comes in from the west (looking at you, PA) and ATC staffing issues. I assume they’ve also added flying and beefed up EWR flights? And maybe some UA employee can chime in on their EWR staffing situation for flight crews? My point being, I don’t think this squarely falls on the feet of the CEO if is weather and ATC related.
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The private jet part is a headline. It’s an attention getter. Look past that.

Forget for a second why the operational melted down. Wx, ATC, staffing… whatever. The big boss didn’t cause the weather or ATC issues… but he holds responsibility for the company’s ability to maintain operational control.

The facts on the ground were that the operation did melt down. Passengers were lined up for customer service from the end of the concourse out through security. Crews were stranded with no method to get reassigned to a flight or sent to a hotel when they timed out. The big boss happened to be in town and just left. Dramatically.

The story here is leadership.
 
I get that a CEO (even of one of the world's largest airlines) might need a private jet from time to time.

But to take a private jet OUT of where your company is currently melting down....that's a different story. I could understand if he had taken a jet out of DEN to get to TEB in order to help tackle the problem. The other way around is crap.
 
///AMG said:
If I were an airline CEO (or any CEO), I'd have my own part 91 airplane toy. It would be an F-4. I'd dump gas sometimes, break the number other times, and I'd pay the fines. If you caught me on camera, I'd be smoking a cigar, probably in the airplane.
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You,Sir, sound like the type of person that would build a cloth submarine!
🤣
 
What did you expect him to do, go to the airport and throw bags and man a re-booking service line?

There’s people for that (or a lack there of). He’s the CEO. He has the entire company to run, not just EWR. I don’t have an issue with him jetting off to DEN to do CEO stuff.


Besides, it’s sEWeRk. Can’t blame him for ditching. ;)
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
What did you expect him to do, go to the airport and throw bags and man a re-booking service line?

There’s people for that (or a lack there of). He’s the CEO. He has the entire company to run, not just EWR. I don’t have an issue with him jetting off to DEN to do CEO stuff.
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“CEO stuff” is being a leader and doing things that are uncomfortable.

Yes, I’d expect him to make an appearance where his company’s operations are melting down. Because when it comes down to it, it’s his fault they’re melting down unless there was some completely un-forecastable event.

At the beginning of Covid our CEO asked employees to take a temporary pay cut to keep the lights on. And then she herself took one over twice as large. It’s called leadership.
 
zmiller4 said:
“CEO stuff” is being a leader and doing things that are uncomfortable.

Yes, I’d expect him to make an appearance where his company’s operations are melting down. Because when it comes down to it, it’s his fault they’re melting down unless there was some completely un-forecastable event.

At the beginning of Covid our CEO asked employees to take a temporary pay cut to keep the lights on. And then she herself took one over twice as large. It’s called leadership.
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Meh. For United? That’s not leadership. That’s called optics. A CEO’s time and efficiency is zero if he’s in the Sewark throwing bags.

CEO paycuts? Also meh. What’s the other components of their pay? Stock options, stock ownership, bonuses, etc.
 
milleR said:
Whether you employ 9 or 90,000 people, optics to your employees is just as, if not more important, than to the general public. So sure, it may be mainly about optics, but that's a major function of good leadership.
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This is something CC isn’t going to understand.

My previous company had a banker as a CEO who had come in as an executive, who managed crappily for the better part of a decade, essentially packaging us to be sold (although he continuously denied that until the announcement we were getting bought). He walked away with $100 million from the buyout.

New company’s CEO started in the company as a field engineer and worked up over like 30+ years. She’s *vehemently* opposed to layoffs, favoring voluntary severance, and successfully navigated multiple downturns and Covid with extremely few involuntary layoffs. It’s a night and day difference between her and our previous d-bag.
 
Here's a nice old picture.
73252932-C11B-428B-A71F-4FE8D22CCA0B_1_105_c.jpeg
 
zmiller4 said:
This is something CC isn’t going to understand.

My previous company had a banker as a CEO who had come in as an executive, who managed crappily for the better part of a decade, essentially packaging us to be sold (although he continuously denied that until the announcement we were getting bought). He walked away with $100 million from the buyout.

New company’s CEO started in the company as a field engineer and worked up over like 30+ years. She’s *vehemently* opposed to layoffs, favoring voluntary severance, and successfully navigated multiple downturns and Covid with extremely few involuntary layoffs. It’s a night and day difference between her and our previous d-bag.
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And that can often dictate the composition of the leadership team and subsequent levels of management. While there are plenty of examples of highly successful business leaders and CEO's that are terrible people leaders, they frequently have a revolving door c-suite and poor overall culture.
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Meh. For United? That’s not leadership. That’s called optics. A CEO’s time and efficiency is zero if he’s in the Sewark throwing bags.

CEO paycuts? Also meh. What’s the other components of their pay? Stock options, stock ownership, bonuses, etc.
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What would’ve the right response been?
 
milleR said:
And that can often dictate the composition of the leadership team and subsequent levels of management. While there are plenty of examples of highly successful business leaders and CEO's that are terrible people leaders, they frequently have a revolving door c-suite and poor overall culture.
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I don’t know what our collective opinion of Warren Buffet is here, but I consider him to be both a brilliant investor and very decent human.

He owns something like 24% of our company and is a huge supporter of our CEO. Which in my mind says something.
 
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