This reminds me of the whole "business casual" phenomenon at many companies in America. For the past decade or so, companies have been going business casual to make the work environment more "inviting" and "comfortable." Now, years later, studies are coming out that are showing that productivity and efficiency are greatly reduced in offices that allow business casual attire. Offices that stick to traditional business attire are coming out way ahead in productivity. One study demonstrated a 3.6% drop in productivity in business casual environments. Another showed that over half of offices that recently instituted business casual policies observed a drop in productivity.
In general, too many Americans like to "dress down" at inappropriate times. When you're doing business, you need to look like it. When you're flying airplanes, you need to look like an air line pilot. The time to wear a leather jacket is when you're going out to the local bar, not when you're flying a multi-million dollar aircraft at work.
If you studied much about stats, and I didn't study much, you'd know that depending on how they're accomplished, surveys are accurate within +/- 3.0%, which would mean that a 3.6% drop in productivity might not actually be an accurate portrayal of what's occurring.
But that all depends on how the survey was done. A 100% accurate survey/study is nearly (if not completely impossible), so as far as I'm concerned, your statement is bunk. How was the study conducted? What were the questions? I know you don't have these answers, and I wouldn't be asking them if the number you quoted (and the chances of you remembering the number of 3.6% off the top of your head seems slim) was higher, indicating an actual trend downwards. A higher number would also tend to point towards the number not being spurious or ad hoc.
And that, my friend, is what I consider professionalism; an attention to detail and a full understanding of the words that are coming out of my mouth (or fingers). We're in an exacting business, and I'd much rather care to share a cockpit with somebody that knows what they're saying instead of making things up to serve an argument. Believe me, I know a lot about that one, and I think my most commonly used phrases in the cockpit are, "I'm not exactly sure" and, "I believe the answer is this, but let's look it up and double check if you don't agree so we can be sure here."
The leather jacked be damned, let's spend more time being accurate in our statements eh?
Further, on closer inspection of your post, you're equating 3.6% as coming out, "way ahead on productivity." Now, I didn't spend much time in college studying anything to do with numbers, but I DID spend a lot of time studying ########, and in my personal opinion 3.6% wouldn't qualify as being "way ahead."
But then again, I wear the blazer, trench coat and no hat.
Oh and I've really gotta add this: I don't know what we're all arguing about on this one. If you happen to look around the terminal one of these days, we ALL look like COMPLETE tools when we're compared to the Delta guys. I look like a kid playing dress up when I'm standing next to a Delta guy, who's in a tailored uniform and hat that makes it look like (s)he could have hopped off a Panzer and started belching orders in German. THOSE GUYS look good, the rest of us look like hacks.
