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Hot Flash - December 27, 2004
US Airways - One Small Job Action
And A Giant Leap Toward Obscurity
All bets are now off. At US Airways, the situation is in doubt. Big time.
The employees at US Airways responsible for last weekend's sick-out and job action have achieved an enormous triumph in media attention. Matter of fact, the stories of thousands of travelers ready to go postal due to cancelled flights, long lines, and intentionally screwed up baggage, are all over the place. National TV. Newspapers. No telling, but Rush Limbaugh will probably be covering it.
Dig it, a tsunami just wiped out half of Southeast Asia, and the US Airways meltdown is running a close second as the top news story. Great work guys. Now the whole world knows about the plight of you and your company. You may have just put into motion the solution to all your problems with management. If the consumers respond as we may expect, you won't have management to deal with in a few months. Or a job, either.
Employee Pride Starts With Management & The Airline's Image. This is not to say that at the core, this wasn't a management problem. Aside from massive pay cuts and what appears to be an attitude that most of the airline's problems are due to employee issues, there hasn't been much coming from the top at US Airways.
They've even outdone United's ridiculous "Ted" scheme. (Go there - you may not believe something as cheap and cheesy could come from a professional airline.) It's some idiotic attempt at hip marketing called "Seth."
This "Seth" program makes US Airways look like a pack of amateurs just out of a Third World marketing class. It actually has some creature dressed (if you can call it that) like a punk rocker, complete with a spiked, orange-dyed hairdo and a Zoot Suit. Then they have this ambassador of bad taste run around Florida hyping US Airways in nursing homes (!) and shopping malls. If employees have little respect for management, it's examples of this type of amateur voodoo-marketing that causes it.
When you demand concessions from employees, the first and fundamental quid pro quo is having an aggressive plan to turn the company around. Gofares may sound good, but nobody's going to "go" if they know that employees are so angry at their company that they'll take it out on passengers. And it's pretty hard to get employees fired up when the company's spokesperson is some bozo dressed like a reject from a Halloween party.
But the fat's now in the fire. There are thousands of people who had their children's Christmas ruined - no, turned into a uncomfortable nightmare - because some US Airways employees took the dishonest path of lying about being sick, and others intentionally fouled up their customers' holiday plans. None of these passengers will forget this, and they won't forget US Airways, either. Nor will they fly the airline again.
These employee clowns may have sealed the fate of US Airways. The airline cannot suffer any material reduction in future revenue. But that may be in the cards.
Wonder if they'll make it to February.
© 2004, The Boyd Group/ASRC, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Hot Flash - December 27, 2004
US Airways - One Small Job Action
And A Giant Leap Toward Obscurity
All bets are now off. At US Airways, the situation is in doubt. Big time.
The employees at US Airways responsible for last weekend's sick-out and job action have achieved an enormous triumph in media attention. Matter of fact, the stories of thousands of travelers ready to go postal due to cancelled flights, long lines, and intentionally screwed up baggage, are all over the place. National TV. Newspapers. No telling, but Rush Limbaugh will probably be covering it.
Dig it, a tsunami just wiped out half of Southeast Asia, and the US Airways meltdown is running a close second as the top news story. Great work guys. Now the whole world knows about the plight of you and your company. You may have just put into motion the solution to all your problems with management. If the consumers respond as we may expect, you won't have management to deal with in a few months. Or a job, either.
Employee Pride Starts With Management & The Airline's Image. This is not to say that at the core, this wasn't a management problem. Aside from massive pay cuts and what appears to be an attitude that most of the airline's problems are due to employee issues, there hasn't been much coming from the top at US Airways.
They've even outdone United's ridiculous "Ted" scheme. (Go there - you may not believe something as cheap and cheesy could come from a professional airline.) It's some idiotic attempt at hip marketing called "Seth."
This "Seth" program makes US Airways look like a pack of amateurs just out of a Third World marketing class. It actually has some creature dressed (if you can call it that) like a punk rocker, complete with a spiked, orange-dyed hairdo and a Zoot Suit. Then they have this ambassador of bad taste run around Florida hyping US Airways in nursing homes (!) and shopping malls. If employees have little respect for management, it's examples of this type of amateur voodoo-marketing that causes it.
When you demand concessions from employees, the first and fundamental quid pro quo is having an aggressive plan to turn the company around. Gofares may sound good, but nobody's going to "go" if they know that employees are so angry at their company that they'll take it out on passengers. And it's pretty hard to get employees fired up when the company's spokesperson is some bozo dressed like a reject from a Halloween party.
But the fat's now in the fire. There are thousands of people who had their children's Christmas ruined - no, turned into a uncomfortable nightmare - because some US Airways employees took the dishonest path of lying about being sick, and others intentionally fouled up their customers' holiday plans. None of these passengers will forget this, and they won't forget US Airways, either. Nor will they fly the airline again.
These employee clowns may have sealed the fate of US Airways. The airline cannot suffer any material reduction in future revenue. But that may be in the cards.
Wonder if they'll make it to February.
© 2004, The Boyd Group/ASRC, Inc. All Rights Reserved
