Cause and Effect Morale

Okay, so by now you know how much I appreciate a good headline. This is especially true when I totally agree with what's said and even spoke the same weeks earlier. You also probably know that I read two newspapers (so that if I can't remember where I've read something, I can usually count on guessing that I saw it in the Chicago Tribune or The Wall Street Journal) and yesterday I found something that reminded me of a recent blogging rant (my own) regarding a certain horrendous (I know; it's all relative--I didn't lose luggage and everyone was safe, but still we were over a DAY late . . . ) flying experience.
On today's front page of The Wall Street Journal, I read "Unfriendly Skies . . . As Pay Falls, Airlines Struggle to Fill Jobs . . . Tight Staffing Makes Morale 'Severely Tested'; Why Your Flight Is Late." Well, no kidding. When my flight on American FINALLY took off a day later I asked the pilot, the same who was supposed to fly the plane a day earlier, what was going on and he launched into a full-fledged friendly rant, explaining how hard people were working, how executives were making lots of money while most people had taken pay cuts in order to help keep the company, yes, I have to say it: airborne.
Now, according to the piece, "Airlines used to offer prestigious jobs with good wages and coveted flight benefits. Now in the aftermath of aggressive cutbacks, a growing number of airline jobs are more akin to those at a fast-food restaurant. This pay is low, the work is tough and, in a new twist, airlines are having trouble hanging onto workers and finding new ones." I thought about this actually as I listened to the pilot, thinking, there's no morale here. No wonder no one wanted to help us; no one is helping them; no one seems to be listening to anyone. And then, as I wrote in an earlier post, the pilot ended by saying to me earnestly, "I feel sorry for you guys." Then I was speechless.
So we shouldn't be surprised that we sit on tarmacs for hours or wait longer for service while we're flying (though many of us are opting to just grit through whatever is making us uncomfortable rather than have to ask for help and then wait forever), or sit for extra time at the gate waiting for a storm to pass because there are fewer people to work the planes that are readying for flight.
Yet we are surprised and angry, too, because we're stuck. If you want to get somewhere fast and you don't have access to a private or corporate jet, you do what the rest of us do: scowl, complain, and practice stress management techniques while we wait to board. One of the reasons that planes are still flying at all is because the carriers got rid of lot of their workers, but something happened on the way to the pink slip distribution parade: the airlines neglected to identify how this would affect its customers. At least that's how it feels.
If morale is a problem where you work, you might think about what the airlines have done and determine if you've studied all the cause and effect scenarios that often disclose how things might fall apart before they actually do.