AC employees feared reprisal for reporting safety concerns, Transport Canada found
Oct 17, 2018, 3:19 am
#16
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: YYZ most of the time
Programs: AC SE100K MM, Princess Elite
Posts: 3,921
Are we really surprised? I don't think there is a company in Canada where a portion of their employees don't fear reprisal - be it for reporting safety concerns, harassment, reporting poor management or anything else. It's ingrained in our psyche even if the employer takes steps to ensure confidentiality and does not in fact ever enact any reprisal.
Oct 17, 2018, 9:32 am
#18
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: YVR
Programs: Bottom feeder Star Gold
Posts: 2,652
Did I read that right? 26,000 safety issues raised in a one year period? And the report suggests that employees are afraid to write up safety concerns? 26,000 concerns were raised/brought forward. That is a strikingly high number and doesn't seem to imply people are afraid to report.
Oct 17, 2018, 9:59 am
#19
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: Halifax
Programs: AC SE100K, Marriott Lifetime Platinum Elite. NEXUS
Posts: 4,562
And what does 26,000 reports even mean? Unless you can put that in some context of reports/worker, or reports/mile or something, and then tell me what the industry average is, it means nothing.
Oct 17, 2018, 10:52 am
#20
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: YYZ most of the time
Programs: AC SE100K MM, Princess Elite
Posts: 3,921
I was almost expecting this reply. Sadly I'm not sure. I don't think so. I don't know why.... I have no issue standing up and saying something is wrong, something is unsafe, because I know there is nothing that the company can "directly" do to me. Sure I could be labelled a pain in the arse, and it may cause issues when it comes to advancement or promotions, but honestly I don't really care about that. I'm happy doing my thing, and I know what the union can and cannot do. Am I labelled a ....-disturber? Perhaps. But I know that I can go to sleep at night with a clean conscience knowing that I've always done everything I can do to make a safe system safer.
Oct 17, 2018, 11:12 am
#21
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: YVR
Programs: AC SE 2MM; UA MP Premier Silver; Marriott Bonvoy LT Titanium Elite; Radisson; Avis PC
Posts: 35,255
I believe @Transpacificflyer is referring to an AC flight several years ago, IIRC to ZRH (it was a 763 IIRC), when it suddenly "dropped" or "dived" (insert another word that you might find appropriate if these don't work)... but I could be wrong.
Oct 17, 2018, 11:17 am
#22
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: YYZ
Programs: TK *G
Posts: 3,099
As @yyznomad mentioned, I believe it's ZRH. Here is the TSB report: http://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-re...2/a11f0012.pdf
Oct 17, 2018, 11:33 am
#23
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: YYC
Posts: 23,797
I believe @Transpacificflyer is referring to an AC flight several years ago, IIRC to ZRH (it was a 763 IIRC), when it suddenly "dropped" or "dived" (insert another word that you might find appropriate if these don't work)... but I could be wrong.
To clarify: it was not transpacificflyer who mentioned ZUR.
Oct 17, 2018, 11:37 am
#24
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: YVR
Programs: AC SE 2MM; UA MP Premier Silver; Marriott Bonvoy LT Titanium Elite; Radisson; Avis PC
Posts: 35,255
Oct 17, 2018, 10:56 pm
#26
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: SFO
Programs: AC SE MM, BA Gold, SQ Silver, Bonvoy Tit LTG, Hyatt Glob, HH Diamond
Posts: 44,302
I was almost expecting this reply. Sadly I'm not sure. I don't think so. I don't know why.... I have no issue standing up and saying something is wrong, something is unsafe, because I know there is nothing that the company can "directly" do to me. Sure I could be labelled a pain in the arse, and it may cause issues when it comes to advancement or promotions, but honestly I don't really care about that. I'm happy doing my thing, and I know what the union can and cannot do. Am I labelled a ....-disturber? Perhaps. But I know that I can go to sleep at night with a clean conscience knowing that I've always done everything I can do to make a safe system safer.
I have no such fear. This sometimes gets me into arguments with management.
But I'm slowly learning to turn the discussion from "we should use titanium bolts" to "we should spend an extra $5/flight to bring the chances of a crash from 0.1% down to 0.01%, which will save us $500/flight".
It only takes a few dollar signs to turn "shut up and do as you're told" into "that's an interesting idea that we should investigate".
Should it be necessary to know how to properly phrase these things? No. Management should be able to do that analysis. A new grad with a good idea shouldn't be dismissed.
But you can make a lot more progress if you can sell your ideas.
Oct 17, 2018, 11:02 pm
#27
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: YVR - MILLS Waypoint (It's the third house on the left)
Programs: AC*SE100K, wood level status in various other programs
Posts: 6,216
An excellent point.
Understanding how to put ideas/suggestions/opinions into a context that the target audience understands is one of the essentials of communications regardless of the situation.
Personality type or cultural background aside, most often a fear of standing up is a learned response to bad experiences with (probably) poor leadership. And it is really tough to earn trust back once it has been lost.
Understanding how to put ideas/suggestions/opinions into a context that the target audience understands is one of the essentials of communications regardless of the situation.
Personality type or cultural background aside, most often a fear of standing up is a learned response to bad experiences with (probably) poor leadership. And it is really tough to earn trust back once it has been lost.