Safety - Relationship Gone Sour

While it is true that managements love to hate pilots, it is also true that the onus rests on pilots to see the writing on the wall and apply their collective mind to manage the management. A healthy relationship between pilots and the management is extremely desirable and contributes to harmonious work culture and safer cockpits.

Whether airlines or business jet operators, managements love to hate pilots and this is the universal truth. There is virtually a stampede out there among people who are eager to throttle pilots, if they get a chance. The only problem is that flights would get grounded if they managed to satisfy this urge. And that is too high a price to pay. Pilots, of course, are too preoccupied to notice what the fuss is all about. They are not even aware of their status, leave alone bothering to adopt remedial measures. What then is the position of a pilot in the aviation hierarchy?

No doubt, aviation exists because of pilots. Aircraft can fly without cabin crew, managers or ground staff. But while the raison d’être for aviation industry to exist, is the passenger, a passenger aircraft does not fly without a pilot either.

Organisation and the Pilot

The cubicle of the Vice-President, Operations (VP-Ops) of a leading airline displays this rather amusing poster through which pilots entering the portals of their new employer are made aware of their standing. To be precise, they are depicted exactly as their environment perceives them to be. The Captain, perceived by the management to be the most expensive item on the balance sheet, is viewed as either a ‘value additive’ or a ‘cost additive’. As is the case in most of the airlines with red bottom lines, the Captain is regarded as the cause of all miseries. Not an admirable picture. This is only the beginning of the shocking introduction of the organisation to the pilot.

To the ground staff, the Captain appears as a nitpicking fusspot, while the mechanics regard him as an overpaid, underworked moron. The cabin crew perceives the Captain as a lecherous, difficult-to-please, demanding, growling hound while his own young co-pilot (or First Officer) sees him as one who knows and does little for a living but takes all the credit. Lastly, the poster also depicts the Captain looking at himself as the mule bearing the burden with his working colleagues bereft of gratitude. Not a pretty picture and certainly not a great welcome to a new pilot. But then it is a profound lesson in crew resource management (CRM).

Unfortunately, the ground realities are not too far removed from what the cartoons on the poster depict. While it is true that managements love to hate pilots, it is also true that the onus rests on pilots to see the writing on the wall and apply their collective mind to manage the management. End of the day, this is a vital prerequisite for survival. A healthy relationship between pilots and the management is extremely desirable and contributes to harmonious work culture and safer cockpits. This is true of aviation organisations the world over but least understood by both the parties concerned. Unfortunately, managing managements is not a part of pilot training.

Perception of the Management

To begin with, managements generally have little or no exposure to aviation or the pilot community. There is also lack of interaction between the pilots and the management because of the nature of their work schedule. Managements generally work “9 a.m. to 9 p.m.” while pilots are on the other side of the clock. Besides, their workstations are not collocated. On the rare occasions when the two aliens do meet, interaction begins with a complaint and ends with a grouse, not entirely a pleasant experience. The management generally does not look forward to another meeting especially as every such encounter with pilots leads to substantial outflow of funds.

The Way Ahead

Both the management as well as the pilot fraternity need to mutually empathise while transacting. One needs to identify and remove reasons for mutual suspicion. Understanding the environment that both have to operate in will enable them to articulate their points of view without hurting each other’s sensitivities. For example, a request for night vision glasses by a pilot will appear to the management as not only unnecessary and expensive but outrageous as well. The manager, who attends office only during the day, has little or no idea of the work environment at night. If the management had an opportunity to fly a tenhour trip with the crew departing at midnight and arriving late morning, they would have no problem in visualising the necessity of such a demand. Simply put, both would understand that they are playing on the same side. And this is what CRM is all about.

Then how does the pilot go about achieving this state? The secret is to convince the management that he is dealing with an ally and not an opponent. The management should have no reason to perceive any threat from pilots. It is important that the pilots invite the management to fly with them, share their insecurities and concerns, see them walk out with red eyes and gas filled tummies, handle tantrums of passengers and last but not the least, give them a taste of the infamous airline cuisine. This will go a long way in fostering mutual trust and understanding. The management will hopefully realise that the pilot is not the demon as visualised by the organisation.

Crew Resource Management (CRM)

The expression CRM is generally alien to managements, and pilots do not see the requirement to educate them in this discipline. Few in the aviation industry recognise the fact that the management is at the apex of the CRM chain. The pilot fraternity believes that CRM begins and ends with pilots and is confined to the cockpit. Nothing could be further from the truth. CRM ought to flow from the top management to the pilot who is the final link in this chain. To understand and appreciate this fact is half the battle won. Pilots need to work towards weaving their managements into the fabric of CRM, the resultant benefits of which would be disproportionately high. It may be advisable to have the management attend refresher courses in CRM along with the crew. On the face of it, the mere suggestion may sound ridiculous to the management, if not downright blasphemous.