If they suffer from that disease, they are fortunate to have a much more mild case than a significant number of people on this site.
I don't know if your comment is a snarky swipe nor do I really care if it is. One of the interesting things about my last ten years of work life has been the travel and meeting owners and presidents of probably 600 companies along with yet another 600 large customers of those previous mentioned and it's actually rather amazing to observe how they operate.
Oddly enough one way to gauge the attitude towards employees was the offerings at the company cafeteria. I eaten lunch in some corporate cafeterias that were equal or better than what was offered in nearby restaurants. Other places the employees were ashamed of their facility and told us so as we drove to lunch. The even more interesting part was is that theiir seemed to be some correlation between Profitability and Quality of food.
I visited one Corporate HQ and there were logo's of there key customers on the wall in back of the reception area. US was one of them. This particular manufacturer position in the marketplace for its product is that of the price leader. The equipment is cheap and it shows. AFIK all of US has or will shortly have these products that are widely considered junk.
With the F/A booklets they accomplished several things:
1. Saved cash with their DIY approach
2. Didn't design the publication correctly so now it doesn't fit in a uniform pocket
3. Implied through 2 that employees don't factor in to their equation
4. Clearly demonstrated that in all things, 1 takes precedence
What managers in this type of organization forget to factor in is what would be the cost of redesigning & reprinting if the F/A's raise a big enough stink. It's the old
"Never enough time to do it right yet plenty of time to do it over" mantra we often hear. Funny thing is when you look at WN. I often think when I read about the length of time they take to implement changes. Often I think, "Jesus what ya waiting for?" This is because to do it right, once the first time which technically makes them the cheapskates but it's transparent to the customer. Having observed WN over the years my bet is if it came time to develop a new handbook the F/A's through their union would be involved.
All companies have a "Culture" and US is developing a reputation of a cheap organization that doesn't serve its employees or customers well. Can a company survive with that reputation? sure they can, but a better question is can they thrive long term?
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