Turbulence between the airline industy and its employees

It’s no secret the airline industry has been struck by some hard times: the 2001 Terrorist attacks, H1N1 and a poor economy. Recently they’ve been plagued with another sort of crisis—employee performance.

Earlier this week, a pilot for United Airlines was arrested for nearly flying an aircraft while intoxicated. What’s even more surprising is that this pilot, Erwin Vermont Washington, isn’t the first. In fact, he is the third American pilot arrested for intoxication within the last 13 months.

Perhaps you remember the two Northwest Airline pilots that overshot their destination by 150 miles in late October.

According to The Independent, “The Federal Aviation Administration said the crew told authorities they became distracted during a heated discussion over airline policy and lost track of their location, but federal officials are investigating whether pilot fatigue might also have played a role.”

Sounds to me like the airline industry has a serious internal public relations issue on their hands.

Employees aren’t performing well and although no actual harm has been done, passengers were still in danger. There needs to be coherency in internal relations and a balance between company authority and employee privilege.

Employees need to feel treasured by their company. In turn, they will be more motivated to do well and sincerely want their company to succeed. There needs to be an opportunity for employees to excel and the airline must be sure not to demand too much from their workers. In no case is fatigue an acceptable excuse.

If staff members can feel good about coming to work, they will be less likely to show up drunk and exert negligent behavior.

Simultaneously, there needs to be clear-cut, no exception, zero tolerance consequences spelled out for these sort of actions. There simply cannot be room for ambiguity. Pilots and other staff must know the consequences of their actions, and management must be prepared to enforce these penalties.

I believe this is a simple case of management/employee relations that desperately needs improvement.