Hi Chris,
Kudos for scoring Thanksgiving off! To me this is very surprising though, if I were on reserve for the big three holidays I would easily assume I’d be getting a call. Do you guys ever see an influx of “sick” calls on major holidays? I know it’s typical for a lot of industries, especially for New Years, and the Monday after Super Bowl for whatever reason. I’m sure the responsibility factor comes into play here in a sense, or maybe I’m just not used to working with a large group of highly dedicated people. Drives me crazy
I do not have specific numbers to quote, but I do not feel that there is an increase in sick calls over the holidays. Pilots tend to be a pretty responsible group and calling in sick just pushes the ball down hill to your fellow pilot.
Just to jump in this has actually been a serious topic of conversation at my airline recently. Also I don’t want to make sweeping judgments on any generation BUT for a VERY long time the culture at my airline was such that NO ONE ever called in sick on holidays (unless you were seriously ill). If you were on Reserve and had a reserve day on Christmas, Thanksgiving etc you were almost guaranteed you wouldn’t get called in. It was about respecting the seniority system and not putting yourself or your interests above another pilot. In the last few years that has noticeably changed. Our latest in flux of pilots thinks nothing about calling in sick as a means of “schedule improvement”. It’s things like this that erode moral and make working as a unified group (which is important particularly when it comes to negotiations) difficult.
Typically I am able to make it home on the last day of my trip, but not always. I commute from EWR to SBN or ORF, both of which have late night departures from EWR, so that helps.
