Have I mentioned that I travel a lot, and don’t particularly care for it??
If not, let me do so now. “I travel a lot, and don’t particularly care for it.”
The good news, however, is that traveling — the whole airport/airline/car rental and hotel experience provides unbelievable fodder for this lifelong student of leadership. Take the most recent example…
Who in heaven’s name runs these airline pilot unions?? The guy (assuming, since it’s the classic ‘good ol’-boys’ club’) must be a Darwin escapee. American Airlines — not my favorite, but they are the biggest — had their little “scheduling snafu” last week. These moronic pilots took out full-page ads in major publications (think WSJ, USA Today), lambasting the airline management as being inept, incompetent, and not thinking about passenger safety first.
What??? Do these idiots know that the union doesn’t pay their salaries??? That their livelihood depends on those very people they are trying to undermine, and that the customers they are reaching are the very revenue they need to survive??
But wait — it gets better. Now, Delta and Northwest are going to merge. These airlines, in and out of bankruptcy so frequently they probably have trustees on speed-dial, simply will not survive without combining resources. So, one group of pilots agree, the others — the ones who don’t make as much (can you say “Northwest?”) — has stated they will do “everything in their power to prevent the merger.”
Stupidity in the skies, I tell you. These guys must be near brain-dead; they’ve been drinking their own kool-aid so long that they really do believe the world revolves around them. And don’t kid yourselves — there are other pilots to be had. The judgment they exhibit here (or lack thereof) certainly doesn’t give me much confidence while sitting in the cabin behind them.
Classic examples of errant leadership, and power used for evil instead of good. Note to self — “don’t do this.
