Can Qantas trash its reputation any faster than it has been in recent months? Having spent most of the pandemic clamouring to be allowed to begin operating again, Alan Joyce’s airline returned to the skies unable to provide the most basic services consistently — on-time flights (or simply flights that aren’t cancelled), efficient processing of passengers, peak-demand management, customer service, baggage arriving at the same destination (or not disappearing into some void from which nothing ever returns).
Throughout this period, Joyce and his team have blamed everyone else. First it was passengers who were not “match fit”. Then it was airports that were to blame for not having enough staff. Then it was the labour market and shortages of workers — after Qantas had illegally sacked thousands of baggage handlers during the pandemic. Joyce, it seems, always has an excuse for why a once-great airline is now regarded as a social media joke and barely worthy of the description “full service”.
The abiding theme of Joyce’s management of the decline of Qantas is his passionate loathing of his workforce. This is the man who shut the entire airline down in 2011 rather than deal with engineers, pilots and transport workers and their unions, who used the pandemic to sack 6000 workers, on top of another 7000 workers also sacked under Joyce. The loss of Qantas staff has tracked its decline from a respected airline to the butt of jokes.
The fact that it now doesn’t have enough staff to answer phones, crew to fly planes, or workers for its outsourced baggage-handling operation is all completely on Joyce and his attitude of belligerent grievance toward the people who make the airline run day after day.
What’s fascinating is that Joyce has been able to get away with it. He is still taken seriously in the media, especially the business media that adores his hatred of workers, and is allowed to opine on all manner of subjects — most recently energy (Peter Dutton famously upbraided him in 2017 for not “sticking to his knitting” on marriage equality). Yesterday, as travellers around the country and around the world waited for delayed or cancelled flights, wondered where their baggage had gone, and wasted time waiting to talk to a human on the phone, Joyce was at it again, spruiking biofuels.
There’s an interesting question here about whether Joyce would have gotten away with trashing Qantas if he wasn’t a white male. What if a female CEO had shut down an entire airline in a fit of pique because she had to negotiate with unions? Or illegally sacked hundreds of workers, outsourced baggage handling and then lamented that there weren’t enough workers? Or was in charge of an airline with a rapidly deteriorating on-time performance?
The fate of some other senior female business figures is instructive. While Qantas has been privately owned for decades and thus suffers no overt political interference, the highly successful Christine Holgate was driven out of Australia Post for trivial “offences” around bonuses, and abused in Parliament by the prime minister.
Raelene Castle was forced out of Rugby Australia after a long-term campaign of criticism by opponents as the code faced major structural challenges — challenges it is still struggling with nearly two years on. AMP chair Catherine Brenner took the fall for the revelation of AMP’s rotten culture. At Qantas-rival Virgin (which Joyce campaigned against a bailout for, despite enjoying one himself), Jayne Hrdlicka has been the target of vague allegations of “bullying”.
In contrast, Joyce presides over the decline of an iconic company with apparent impunity, the next excuse ever at the ready, the next round of job cuts being prepared for the delight of sharemarkets and The Australian Financial Review. It’s an airline run not for customers stuck with an aviation duopoly, and certainly not for the country, but for shareholders.
The problem with Joyce’s belligerent attitude to staff is that for an airline to function properly, you need a lot of staff, both facing the public and behind the scenes. The obsession of neoliberalism with outsourcing staff is that it is never cheaper of more efficient than employing and directing them. Outsourcing is not about efficiency, it is simply about destroying the power of labour at the expense of capital.
After not flying since January 2020, I recently (and reluctantly) flew from Brisbane to Melbourne for a weekend to attend a board meeting (NFP organisation and volunteer board member). Qantas’ once impressive reliability has been decimated. I sat in the lounge watching multiple flights being cancelled, apparently with the objective of filling the planes Qantas deigned to fly. Not a spare seat on either flight, the result being a COVID infection almost certainly on the fight hime. The cabin staff don’t stand a chance. They must be copping multiple infections and Joyce’s inane implied criticism because he can’t Marshall enough employed staff.
On top of all that, his public performance during all of the pandemic has been appalling. Heartlessly sacking thousand of staff while revelling with his snout in the trough rent-seeking and attacking the right of competitors to even exist.
Joyce’s a disgrace and the single factor in the reputation of Qantas being trashed. Are Qantas shareholders and the board ignorant or stupid? Or do they actually support the loathsome conduct of Joyce?
Added to this is the displeasure at having Sky News inflicted upon us in the lounges. I have sent multiple emails to qantas asking to have this removed, with zero response. Recently being called as as being dangerous extremists in the climate discussions, qantas continues to air their drivel which is impossible to get away from. In flight service is now terrible as well. No interest is making flights a better experience. All due to Joyce who really does seem to think that customers are a pain in the arse, and his workers are his enemy.
When you say Joyce hates his staff, it is really obvious. But to that you can add “and his passengers”
There is an interesting article in this week’s The Saturday Paper on the same subject that also lays blame on the board for going along with Joyce’s excesses and incompetence.
TSP is really critical of Joyce – and deservedly so.
The board commissioned him to kill Qantas.
Breach of directors’ duties, that would be.
As a long time Qantas Frequent Flyer member I am furious with Alan Joyce about how he has been running Qantas – and in particular how he has reduced its staffing numbers by sacking thousands of staff so that services are either non existent or very patchy. When I flew to NZ on a Qantas ticket in February 2020 and in late March the Qantas partner Emirates just decided to stop flying, I did not receive any email, advice or support from either Emirates or Qantas and had to rely on Air NZ to get home. I am still sitting on over $1000 of flight credits which are impossible to manage online, but I have given up waiting to talk to someone from Qantas to get a refund (and talking to someone over the phone is the only way to get a refund – don’t bother asking for help at the airport) as the normal waiting time is still 3 – 5 hours!! I mean really – is that the best they can do? Even Centrelink and ServiceNSW have faster response times. Added to this is bags taking up to an hour to come out (and having to run from baggage carousel to carousel as they are incorrectly signposted), flights cancelled on short notice, and little to no assistance available at the terminals. What makes me even crankier is that the Board has done nothing to rein Joyce in while he has been trashing the brand and sacking people. It is a disgrace and very sad to see the decline of what once was an Australian icon.
I gave up years ago. Frequent Flyer (I still used the carry bag) and somehow they lost my lifelong membership and points record. Thank you Alan. I just stopped flying Qantas – displaying the same loyalty to them as they did to me.
Take a casual attitude towards your staff, whether current, ex, or potential, and they’ll take a casual attitude towards you.
The biggest challenge facing any big company’s management is there isn’t any management anymore, just stumbling in fear from one crisis to another, and blaming staff for all the ills all the way along.
While still pocketing the executive bonuses.
Poorly managed organisations end up treating their staff the same way the treat their customers
In this case, it seems it started with the staff.
All the while, spending hundreds of thousands on executive and director leadership training and strategic visioning. It’s a farce. Unless you’re hooked up to the money tree and providing the training.