The dark side of the pilot shortage.

av8tr1 said:
Dude, I was making 250k a year before bonuses at my last IT job. Trust me money can not buy you happiness. I’ve never been happier going to work than when I quit IT making a quarter of a million a year for a job doing flight instruction for $25 per flight hour in a piece of chit Robinson.

Money Does not buy happiness.
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I don’t know about that. The 350K I made this year flying airplanes provides a money happiness on top of the job happiness. Come Feb 14th, the bonus happiness will be large too.
 
I did read an article once stating that the happiest people are around the 70k income range. It was explained that was the perfect income, enough to be comfortable but not so much that it started losing its value to you. That was about 8 years ago I read that, so inflation probably brought that number up a bit. Some of the more successful and rich people end up committing suicide because of their depression, dolla dolla bills didn't fix that did it??
 
Inverted said:
I’m not gonna shed a single tear for the plight of 91 and 135 companies. I hope they completely revamp or cease to exist. Bottom feeder 135s will get the bottom of the barrel crap pilots with a child porn charge and a DUI because that’s the bed they made, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

I think back to just a short time ago at my first 135 carrier making 28k, being told that if I don’t kiss their shoes for the opportunity to fly a crappy turboprops, they would happily kick my butt to the curb and find somebody else. Now, watching how the only way, literally the only way they get people through the door, is with a 500 hour FO program that locks them in until they can fly as a captain, or captains with shady records, makes me so happy.

Call it the dark side all you want, but those subsets of the industry created the problem they are in. The entire industry relies on economic downturns to create a frenzy of qualified pilots on the market to feed the companies that would otherwise be desperate for pilots. And that isn’t unique to 91 and 135, 121 feels it as well. Hell the only reason the regionals have stepped it up as dramatically as they have, is because the economy is good and they can’t staff. Just wait until it dips and there are pilots on the street, the benefits, hiring bonuses and smiling faces by recruiters will stop overnight, and we will be back to Envoy kicking 10,000 hour airline captains out of the interview because they were off by .1 in their logbook.
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Preach brother!
 
JDean3204 said:
I did read an article once stating that the happiest people are around the 70k income range. It was explained that was the perfect income, enough to be comfortable but not so much that it started losing its value to you. That was about 8 years ago I read that, so inflation probably brought that number up a bit. Some of the more successful and rich people end up committing suicide because of their depression, dolla dolla bills didn't fix that did it??
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I think the basic concept of that was based on the value of diminishing returns. As income grows typically so does time on the job, away from home, etc.

Pilots have a slightly different viewpoint because I would think most of us like going to work...plus the guys who bid reserve and sit at home have it made on the wide bodies. That is a very different lifestyle vs your typical worker bee.

I can tell you from experience when we made $75k vs what we make now life is so much better. This recent cold snap doesn't bother me so much - if it costs an extra $100 to keep my house warm I won't even see the difference in my bank account for example. If my car breaks down I just go buy another. NBD.

Where people get into trouble is as their income grows they experience lifestyle creep. This is certainly true for pilots. We go out and buy toys, a second home, a third wife, the list goes on. Soon even with the higher incomes you're not saving much and are working to pay for all these extra "toys".

There is a ton to be said for simplifying your life and getting rid of clutter and unneeded things. Google hedonic adaptation. Essentially it means what is perceived as an increase in ones happiness will quickly diminish as you get used to it.
 
I heard that $75k thing as well. It also said that the $75k equivalent on LI was north of $100k for the same effect for cost of living. My friends don't believe me when I tell them my $250k is like their $100k.
 
Cptnchia said:
I don’t know about that. The 350K I made this year flying airplanes provides a money happiness on top of the job happiness. Come Feb 14th, the bonus happiness will be large too.
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But wouldn't you feel happier if you doubled it? The BS about people being happy and content with x is exactly that.
 
NickH said:
But wouldn't you feel happier if you doubled it? The BS about people being happy and content with x is exactly that.
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If I win a lottery, maybe. My bills are paid, the kids have food and clothes, my wife can go do her thing, I don’t drink cheap beer or bourbon, I go on vacation when I want, just dropped $2,200 to rebuild a transmission, didn’t have to think about where the $$ were coming from. I spend 10-12 nights away from home, working 14-16 days a month. I’m content.
 
av8tr1 said:
You’re doing one of the roamer positions. I just applied for the opening we have. I wasn’t aware we could make that much. I calculated somewhere south of 100k but not by much and I didn’t include per dium and a few other riders you included.

We also have a significant pay raise coming from FedEx for all the feeders. I’ve heard as much as 20k to all of the salary schedule. “If true” That would make starting salary 72k for our normal run of the mill pilot positions. That’s without any riders, extra pay or per dium.

I could spend the rest of my career at that pay level.
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Lol man, they’ve been peddling the whole pay raise thing for the 3 years I’ve been here. The most it has ever been was 6,000 my first year. Since then the pay raises have been a joke. I’ll believe it when I see it. The yearly pay raises are a joke as well. They better be serious about pay or (my company at least) is going to have a crisis on its hands.
 
JDean3204 said:
I did read an article once stating that the happiest people are around the 70k income range. It was explained that was the perfect income, enough to be comfortable but not so much that it started losing its value to you. That was about 8 years ago I read that, so inflation probably brought that number up a bit. Some of the more successful and rich people end up committing suicide because of their depression, dolla dolla bills didn't fix that did it??
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It’s diminishing returns after that is all.
 
Cptnchia said:
NickH said:
But wouldn't you feel happier if you doubled it? The BS about people being happy and content with x is exactly that.
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If I win a lottery, maybe. My bills are paid, the kids have food and clothes, my wife can go do her thing, I don’t drink cheap beer or bourbon, I go on vacation when I want, just dropped $2,200 to rebuild a transmission, didn’t have to think about where the $$ were coming from. I spend 10-12 nights away from home, working 14-16 days a month. I’m content.
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I knew I had escaped total poverty when I needed socks and I went out and bought a package of socks and didn't worry about how I could afford them. Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
 
Has anyone ever wondered what if we got a minimum wage per duty hour? This has been getting to me lately as I fly a ton of 20-30 minute legs but have 5 or 6 a day. It turns into a 10 or 11 hour day and with weather sometimes more until we time out. Plane swaps and pre flights, paperwork review and all thing necessary to conducting a safe 121 flight and only the time the door is closed and the motors are running do we get paid. I know, it's been like this since the wright bros etc... It could be as simple as subtracting your credit time from your duty time and getting paid min wage for the difference. This is what I think about on my 30hr Wenatchee layovers... lol
 
trafficinsight said:
I knew I had escaped total poverty when I needed socks and I went out and bought a package of socks and didn't worry about how I could afford them. Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
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What's interesting is that there have been several studies on the psychological effect of growing up in poverty has on an individual. I'm currently making six figures and hesitate to buy stuff that costs under $20. Whereas my wife didn't think twice about the $500 HOV ticket she just got.
 
flyinggreasemnky said:
What's interesting is that there have been several studies on the psychological effect of growing up in poverty has on an individual. I'm currently making six figures and hesitate to buy stuff that costs under $20. Whereas my wife didn't think twice about the $500 HOV ticket she just got.
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I didn't grow up in poverty in the sense my parents were middle class, but from 18-30 I was either in "poverty" or just above. I'm just starting to get over the habit of thinking "ok if I buy this today what am I willing to give up for the next week? Lunch?"
 
Richman said:
Probably a self selecting study. People with a dope ass amount of money don't sit around taking surveys from think tanks, b-grade universities and other random people....and those that do probably have self-loating issues.
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The idea is to have enough money so that you don't have to worry about money or "OMG OMG OMG I Cant get a green slip!!! AAAAARGH!!! That guy picked up my trip from open time it would have been MIIIIIIIINE!!!!!!" — loathe those guys.
 
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