TRY NOT TO GET THERE

We’re all commuters – even if you live just 5 miles from the airport. Someday there will be an accident that shuts your road to work down with you in the middle lane unable to attempt an alternate route. Except for both of you who live in the bag room (and you know who I’m talking about), the rest of you are reading this while commuting on an aircraft or waiting in the crew lounge bored to tears.
Listen up! Attendance and Reliability isn’t a steakhouse on the Las Vegas strip.
The words “Attendance and Reliability” strike fear in the hearts of normal pilots. Possibly written for guidance of the Chief Pilot’s Office and its administrative responsibilities, the Attendance and Reliability Program is available for all pilots to read in the Flight Operations section of the “read” file and is often printed and studied by interested pilots.
Although much can be said for standardization and equality in evaluating pilots’ attendance and reliability, none of it is nice.
Let’s step back a little and think about this. If you are eligible for perfect attendance drawings “they” love you. If, on the other hand, you own a Ford Explorer and call in sick when you are medically unable to fly, you are unreliable and suspect at best. Total sick bank, past drawings or heroics on the flight line are quickly forgotten. There are no excused absences (other than death in the family). All absences are counted in the “Attendance and Reliability Program.”
My response to this negative approach to the use of accrued sick leave was also negative – at first. Now, I try to rid my working experience (as well as my home) of negative stressful situations.
I try “not” to call in sick. I try “not” to want to rush through the terminal and security. Take off my shoes? “Sure,” I say. “Sounds good to me.”
Basically, I try “not” to get there. And do you know what? I’ve been cruising through security, making flights I didn’t expect to make and calling in sick when I’m medically unable to fly. Don’t worry, be happy! as the song from the ’90s goes. Of course, I get a note from my doctor. I may have been Navy but I’m not stupid. I try “not” to be scared of secret retribution.
How many years have I rushed around trying to make thinks happen? Too many, of course, but with very little to show for it. I took massive pay cuts at the original “Braniff International” but the company went out of business anyway. I bought way too much PeoplExpress stock on the payroll deduct plan, trying to be millionaire but to no avail.
I tried and tried but that is now history. I don’t try now. I’m still an optimist and loyal to the company but no more trying for me. I set low expectations and then am excited when I exceed them. I try “not” to expect people to be nice and compassionate.
Now, I find this new philosophy must be catching on. I run into more and more employees being nice. Are they “not” trying to be mean?