Golden Handcuffs - Ever experience it?

Anybody here ever find themselves with a case of Golden Handcuffs?

If you're not familiar with the term it essentially means finding ones self unwilling to accept employment at another company due to a variety of factors but usually financial. Typically the jump would result in someone making significantly less money for an extended period of time.

The grass is always greener on the other side of course... but I have friends who are now working for places such as Allegiant and Virgin America. When they post photos on Facebook it looks like fun. (That A320 is a gentleman's airplane) But I just couldn't make the numbers work for many, many, years (or in some cases - ever).

To paraphrase a popular cereal commercial: "The kid in me would love to apply at Virgin America! But the grown up in me knows it doesn't make sense to do so."

That ever happen to you? Have you reached a point in your profession where it would be financially irresponsible to make a move voluntarily? Do you still fantasize about those other positions even though you know they're no good for you? lol

Still love my job (don't get me wrong) just feeling restless.

If ther is one thing I've learned it's you have to do what you love, not because you make bank but because you love it. It you really think your better off mentally somewhere else but you might have to give up the house and go to an appartment.. then do it. I did and glad I did. I had a job that I was payed pretty well for but I absolutely hated it. Now I dont make as much but love what I do and couldnt be happier. Its not about the Benjamins.. its about doing what you truely want.

That works when you're young and single. When you're middle-aged with a family, a mortgage, and planning for the kid's college and your own retirement... well things are not so simple.

I'm in that boat right now.

Yes but as you've reminded me on more than one occasion, the grass isn't always greener. I'm very pleased with how things are going here lately. Hard not to do a little window shopping from time to time though.

I have done the same math a few months ago for the same position at the same place, I think if its such a great place then why pay so little. I have been told from many older pilots that I work with, it is only for the first year and in the long run it means nothing. But it is hard to tell your mortgage that and your wife and kids that. But I did hear that management has asked the BOD for some money to pay the pilots more, but who knows.

Nope can't say that I have. Mine are pretty rusted right now.

I think just about anyone who is gainfully employed with the same metrics you described is wearing those handcuffs to some degree or another. If you are in a crap job, it is easy to leave. A halfway decent job where you built up some company time and a check that is bigger than any other starting check (i.e., anyone in aviation) is wearing some chrome err....golden handcuffs.

Many, if not most airline pilots at some point wear some kind of golden handcuff. It can be due to commitment or it can be due to a dramatic and unforeseen event.

Example.. your base closes and you wind up commuting which places a fair amount of stress on you but because the kids are in school or the family is really established, you stay in the job although the cost went up.

Example.. your HR dept probably knows as much or more about you than you do. And that is why someone like Jerry Glass can gut a contract because he knows where you live, what schools your kids probably attend, what kind of car is the choice in your area and he can get a good idea of how hard he can push before you rebel and strike or quit.

It is sort of like a navigation point of no-return in life.

I've got some good friends who are years and years of being reserve Capts chasing time and airplanes. I asked one what the diff was flying a block F/O on a wide body and Capt reserve guarantee with no life. The money diff was there but I asked would they rather be napping across the Atlantic to sit on the Champs and have a glass of red versus getting a call at 2100 saying they had to take the 0130 to Syracuse for a short layover.

I have been in that position, and obviously I pulled the cord.

Like MikeD said, there's the point of senior regional guy making good money and good time off.

There were a confluence of events that started my job shopping. At the end of the day, looking at everything on min guarantee and being exposed to the USAir guys that spent 20 years of their careers at the junior FO level in the company, it gets the wheels spinning.

To me, I looked at sitting bottom reserve on whatever the lowest paying equipment was, I did the math and compared.

This job even was a massive paycut, but for me the QoL was a huge positive change. I weird that way though.

I think as the industry has changed from true stepping stones to a very grey line of QoL and pay, you'll see more and more of these discussions.

I mean if you're making 120k/yr in your base flying a domestic narrowbody jet, and you are picking your schedule, why take a 10 year paycut (theoretically) to do the same job for less money and less of a choice in schedule? It's not like history is littered with major airline "sure thing" carriers becoming a short paragraph, or even a chapter if they were awesome, in some industry history book.

At least, that's how I see the present state of airline flying. Of course, YMMV...

It's interesting that you mention the evolution from the stepping stones to something with a lot more grey area. It doesn't really apply in my situation but I can absolutely see it with some of the more senior regional airline pilots. Good observation.

I think things like "happiness" and "love what I do" can make this more complicated. Zap - if you weren't flying airplanes for a living but instead pushing papers for this retailer - would you have the same questions?

Pilots sometimes confuse these things I think and put themselves through mental quandaries that may be relevant...or perhaps not. The main issue is that "flying" and "being a pilot" create this weird psychological difference when compared to accountants, or other professions for example. I think it's awesome that you can fly for a living, and I think that if people are happy flying for a living that it's a wonderful thing...but it is completely unnecessary to the whole idea of working for a living or having a job. So, I guess I would say to modify the hypothetical situation a little bit and create a set of facts that are based upon what most (as in 99% of the non-pilot world) of the population does when evaluating employment and jobs. Substitute "I fly for "xyz retailer" for "I push paper and do drudgery for xyz retailer". Then, once the flying part is removed and you are not evaluating warm layovers or pleasant and beautiful FA's or whatever you will evaluate what is most important - the pay, the work rules and how much of your time is involved in getting that pay, the long-term career aspects and earning potential, and the overall stability of the company and ability to actually meet the long-term financial goals in your plan without layoffs and such. Then it becomes a simple math problem with none of the attendant emotional crap weighing on the decision.

Happiness is a great thing I guess...but this is a job, and it's work. Accountants don't wax poetic about their profession or make lateral or downward moves financially chasing a "QOL" (which in the airline business can turn on a dime anyway - as you've experienced with your past). As far as I can see a lot of pilots (and I know this isn't YOU, because you're experienced and wise) - but a lot of them seem disillusioned with the career when they find that like many jobs it is simply a ton of drudgery and work, with brief interludes of interesting or fun times to make it tolerable or even enjoyable.

So, I guess that is my thinking on this topic - pilots should evaluate their jobs in a manner similar to investment bankers, accountants, engineers and others. The point of "work" is that you are selling your time for money and fun never really enters the equation as something that is relevant to the decision (because "fun" is transitory and can stop...then you're stuck with the job without the fun). Evaluate the pay and other factors, substitute "pilot" for "paper pusher" and then make the best financial decision you can devoid of emotion, or romantic thoughts of Ernest Gann, etc.

Hi Zap,
I am in the exact same scenario. I would very much like to come back stateside and be closer to my wife and daughter instead of being gone for 30 days at a time. Unfortunately I am tied to this job for financial reasons. I would have to become a captain at Delta to come close to my current salary and even then the tax situation would not be as advantageous. So I am stuck. Keep flying for this oil company and raking in the cash or change our lifestyle drastically and take a job stateside...if I could even find one. Is it selfish of me? One thinks you should earn as much as possible especially with a house payment, kid, etc. I would hate to take anything away from my child simply because I wanted to be closer to home and not gone so much.

Just for info sake, I have a wife, one month old daughter, nanny, part time maid, mortgage payment, car payment, insurances, other long term investments, etc..etc. Once you gain all of these things it is very hard to turn them off and downsize. Even if my wife would understand my choice to come home, quality of life for my family means a lot (to me). My wife and I started when we had nothing and worked to where we are now. Now she is working on her PhD and I am working to feed the family doing what I love...flying.

Anyways, I know how you feel. I am very restless as well even though the job is great, great pay, and I fly with a great bunch of guys. Just gotta keep on keeping on I guess.

This is probably the most powerful, concise, paragraph on this topic that i've ever read. It really does make things seem a whole lot more clear. Thank you very much!

This is an excellent point. I don't have any toys. I have a modest mortgage, I send my kid to a private school (public schools in the area are mediocre), I have retirement and investment accounts beyond what is provided by the company, and -- of course -- life insurance. Those things need to be funded regardless of what decisions I make. I appreciate your comments.

sometimes just knowing that others have the same thoughts make them easier to put behind you.