After working 35 years for SIA, I must say overall it is a good company. However, whether it is a good employer or not will depend on who is the head of the division or SVP. During my tenure in cabin crew, I had worked under 7 bosses out of which in my opinion only 2 gained my admiration and respect.
The current cabin crew SVP Tan PT took over the helm at cabin crew after I had left. Although not having worked under SVP Tan but looking at the way he treats the crew, I think he is one of the best SVPs in cabin crew. My reason for saying so is because he did not retrench nor got rid of any Singaporean and PR crew despite of SIA losing billions during the current pandemic. In a similar situation, some other SVPs would have used the excuse to rid some cabin crew whom they did not like.
During the SARS crisis of 2003, dozens of crew were retrenched or given the "Golden Handshake" The SARS crisis inflicted a couple of millions in lost revenue for about 3 months or so. In the end,the airline still managed to make a tidy profit for the full year 2003 despite of SARS. So why were the crew and a few ground staff retrenched in 2003?......to be continued
16 comments:
It is not an act of 'kindness' or 'caring' of the SVP.
It appears that way.
The lessons learnt from SArs 2003 was that once traffic rebounded, the airline
needed crew to mount flights. During that time, almost 300+ crew were let off.. encouraged ( or discouraged) by management's policies of not renewing contracts ( for stewardess) or retrenching the "problematic" ones ( assisted by the labour union no less).
Many flights departed ex-SIN with minus crew, especially the really tough ones like SIN-MAAS-SIN. Over time, management discovered how much they saved in allowances by having less crew on board and yet not contravene safety regulations.
They became addicted to seeing a surplus budget every year. The airline even had higher ratings from passengers about the overall service!!
How not to wank harder and more often?? Unhappy crew cannot be measured. Such matrix does not exist. The proxy measure was how many resigned, or declined to renew their contracts. It is a ( still in use) poor matrix to use. But it does not matter. The airline is not in the business of ensuring employee happiness.
To say the current SVP is "kind" is unsubstantiated.
Imo,the retrenchment or those who left,forced or otherwise seems to be discrimination in the least.True it save cost increase the kpi of Sim,by replacing with so called IA,bumped the S to M status and thinked it solve most problems.It threw out the good baby along with the bad so be selective.The LS and the 8 happened,Sexcy head swells to the maxed,and thought he was the solution,actually pluck from the masses.His rise was due to Spamming,Outlook for a while phototime,every pages seen his pose.It unconciously leaks into the physche of the Top,he was the Choosen one.Yup,spamming used by Sexcy long time ago.Some management can see the danger,untrained ordinary employee to be able to sack another,only in Squid Game,Upward checks by junior solves the problem kudo to the the Manager who propose it.In the end,some mid-east Air with deeper pocket,with no local populace can survive.In covid time,arriving fresh and free from infection from take off to landing win passenger's award,the new criteria.In the least avoiding covid infested countries is not discrimination,only pragmatism.Till a cure is found,preventive pills available,it is better than award winning cuisine,or caring crew and fake vaccine paxs.
The worse boss was SKW. C.Lee was in 2nd place followed by TOT.
its everybody for his own in a doggy eat doggy world. this culture is not just prevalent in sia cc. you will say a boss is bad if you do not benefit from him or you made use of you to climb the ladder. you will sing his praises if he helped you climb from a nobody to somebody.
TPT did not retrench more crew is not b'cos he is kind, it's Gov and Temasek decision. Gov side wants to retain work force as far possible with their initiatives...
Thus wad u said abt kindness... nah...
ppl like toh giam meng will say sim kay wee is best boss. ppl like CCEs will say he is no good. its all a matter of self benefit. IFS give you good work position and you klkk 3 sectors hk-sfo, you say he is v nice and you must know his style. if he put you B3, C3 4 sectors, you curse him lo
Open door policy initiated,help to expose the glaring practise of IFS,how they handle or mishandle the junior crew,witness the Pearl Fox incident ex Ams.IFS ,a serial bedder,seen his sad GF,tossed and used.Had hot line to C.Lee by playing tennis.Thinked he played strategic game by lossing all set,and give him good shot.Normally the words of the IFS goes much much stronger than the FSS,whole flight staring,intimidatimg until Pearl drop the tray thru the death stares.He cant stand a syt,who defied,or fear his lascivous look.Many many other strong arms tactic by senior crew or AO then,include offering mug shots of the whole set of crew operating for complaining pax till the union stepped in.Octopussy Ling,Gangster Lim W.S,tai seng chieftain,behaving like his territory on board.Well,it seem,a living example then of toxic,environment.No wonder the 8,point fingers at the LS,easily or coached,by Sexcy.Karma will come back,cussed by all past victims,do one blame them.They need to own up,reflects before they cant,as their last breath on earth,this is covid time.
tpt kind?
hahahahahahahaahaha
thanks for the joke in ending 2021, really needed it for such horrible year
If you think TPT is bad his predecessor is worse!
To the higher ranked versus the lower rank,good or bad management depends on their KPI,outputs and body count.The figures reflects maintaining benefits or not,to their charge,through good or fair handling,promoting those deem worthy,minus those who clearly suck up,tripoding,stabbing their peers,through acts not in their line of duties.Of course fog of office politics,and seeing beyond such,and extremism like long tour of duties and minus crew to achieve lower cost gets in the way.Happy balance,quite a difficult figures, lassie,gayee tends to outperform those with family and in laws.Those manager who manage to figures accelerated promo of juniors,at the expanse of the seniors need to be saluted seen a Wannabees,interview a buxomy junior in Mac,after hour in the night,those compromised by selective promotion of unionist,and senior crew who sold insurance policy to their juniors,seen with my own eyes.Manager,who I seen with syt,going to swimming pool in the noon,thinking he was God gift to girl.At the end,Karma will take over,one may earn less,throughout their term,these facts cannot be erase,HR dept,be aware.Its a good Co,these are the evil live in CC,feedback is good,unionist can be self serving.Creme de la creme promoted to Infight Manager,could be a disgusting chilly crab,which local hot pot are famous for.Good or bad,it is thru their karma,good deeds done,not money,because a camel can go thru the eyes of a needle,how many crews prayed for their soul when it's time,some mirror reflects more than one person,these are priceless.There will be last flight for all on earth,better later than sooner or soonest.Amen.
I remembered attending a course as an IFS and SKW came and gave us a talk. He was expounding on getting IFS to train C.Crew.
We were given the impression that the CCE position was a white elephant situation. If they were to disappear it would save much cost for the CC dept and my guessed was that he would gain commendation for cutting costs.
I was ah.... wow this guy was thinking of axing the CCEs. He was not into long service, dedication or to their livelihoods.
It was about making a name and cutting costs.
I was looking at our CCE instructor at that time and wondered whether he was getting the message. He doesn't seem to realise that his position was in Jeopardy.
When SARS came along, it was perfect for SKW as he was able to execute his plan and at the same time looking like an angel as the CCEs were not aware of the plan to axed them. Only the few IFS on course were given the hint.
I guessed when SKW was in office, he was able to see many tables manned by the CCEs and he must have been wondering, hey do we need them. They must have cost CC dept lots in terms of cost. Sure was not productive for the CC dept to have them around. Guessed that was his thought.
Everytime he steps out of his office, he saw a bunch of unproductive personnel in front of him. Getting the IFS to do the training would sufficed, that was his thought.
So while the CCEs were coming up with a list of crew to be axed in their team during SARs, little did they realise they too were in the line of fire.
To the CCEs, so u want the truth, but can you handle the truth.
This is the SKW truth dudes.
In the end SKW faced the wrath of retribution. For what he did to the cces he was kicked out of SQ by Gen Bey his boss.
He didn't get a single cent whereas the cces were given gratuity for serving the company. SKW went on to work for Lim Chin Beng but his evil nature got him collided with someone higher and again was boot out. Today, he is spending his time licking his wound in Australia.
so you're saying high management is the problem now then, cause they have been choosing unsuitable candidates to be svp tec
Gen Bey also replaced.Natural cycle ?
Cabin Crew Division is all about managing by numbers.
Its only resource is human beings.
No spanner, no cook pot, no engine, no machine.
It is being managed by discipline, numbers and division.
At any given time, there will be at least 10 or more inquiries / investigations on
crew behaviour.
Can be anything from make up colours, sexual harassment to a facebook posting.
Sadly, the tools used are 99% punitive. From point systems to termination of employment.
There is very little application of motivation, development of skills that is recognised nationally.
30 years ago, being an ex SQ crew drew an exclusive image of deportment, finesse and knowledge. Perhaps others were not well traveled or exposed, the ex crew appeared extraordinary.
This is certainly not the situation in the era of facebook, Youtube etc.
Management by the numbers need to be recalibrated to include value for employees.
To claim that you were ex crew or ex SQ may be a liability rather than an asset.
Set aside a bigger budget to train the employee, and not just the free, claimable courses that the Gov hands out.
Otherwise, dont spend so much time training brand new employees, and with that remove the bond too... Makes no difference to the in flight experience. Customers just want to fly A to B safely. Makes no difference if the tray, fork, or coffee cup was served with left hand, right hand.
It's a new world order really,Middle East Air got deeper pocket no hinterland or local populace,unlike SQ.Trying to achieve the best in service etc,the goalpost shifted dramatically,not to be close contact,increase cost on seatings to prevent aerosolised virus,ulvc disinfectant at every inlet and outlet,and many other innovations to prevent transmission.Superspreading to local populace the only fear,in flight to higher infective countries,and variants of interest.Those who ventures ahead can be proof or perish,the herd's immunity theory,in the least,research into blood plasma treatment.Calibrated approach ,rather than headlong.Unfortunately,CC has always promote suckup,strict regiment sop,and not putting rebels who seen the danger of outdated sop.Its incestous ,and inbreeding in the long term,bad.Covid wins every time SOP for service never change,award winners and Covid cases need to be far away from each other.Smarter traveller know the best,hoi polloi the other choice, Uber rich fly their own plane.Good karma needed and lots of prayers,or it's going to be stormy weather ahead,for pax and plane.
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