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Caymanians not allowed to succeed to higher posts at the national carrier

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 01/06/2011 - 19:27

With the exception of the pilots (who have cleverly organized themselves into the equivalent of a union) the Caymanian staff at CAL are not given the opportunity to succeed to senior posts. Staff that are not qualified are not given required aviation industry training to be able to assume more responsibilities; Caymanian staff that are adequately trained are pushed aside for a select group of individuals. This is especially predominant in the sales and marketing department, the maintenance department, the flight attendants, etc.

When will the management who are supposed to be leaders realise that you cannot threaten, side line and intimidate employees into giving over and above for the company when the company does not care about them. The level of apathy is so apparent when you speak with employees that they outright admit its a job and if the industry was diversified they would find another employer. Management should realize that arming staff with knowledge and required skills makes them more productive, you might even be able to reduce staffing levels if you give the employees a stake in their company and their future.

Poor, poor leadership!

 

 

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Comments

re; not given the opportunity

Submitted by da-wa-u-get (not verified) on Wed, 03/09/2011 - 06:13.
The fact that the airline is constantly short of resources (money) makes it very difficult to have any kind of succession planning/mentoring program. Many of the good managers are completely overloaded with clerical work to the extent that they can barely find time to do their real job and some other managers are simply bad and would never be in those positions were it not for the fact that political affiliation, tenure and nepotism carry more weight then professional qualification or management skills. CAL exists at the pleasure of the Government of the day. as a consequence it is subject to those special interests! We have to accept that and take it or leave it.
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I really want to come back to CI...

Submitted by T (not verified) on Mon, 01/31/2011 - 06:38.
Believe it or not... the CAL management's application review and interview process is flawed in both if not all directions. For example, why is it that a US citizen that has Caymanian heritage and is deemed a Caymanian by Section 25 by right of descent not accepted as a Caymanian by Caymanians. In other words, my grandfather was born and raised in Cayman had children in USA, their children obtained CI citizenship and want to come back and work in CI as a Caymanian. But guess what, the empoyers did not interview me as a Caymanian applicant. What more can one do to become accepted by real Caymanians. I have a Doctorate degree, 35 years experience in the field and no interview. Plus... yes I am a two home owner in CI. I do not conisder myself an expat, I hold dual citizenship, like many others hold British and CI citzenship I ask Cayman employers, what do you recommend? I will not move here permanently until I hold a respectable position or comparable salary (it is more expensive yo live in CI). The point is... the discriminatory practice appears to me to go both ways and is merely an subjective (friend of a friend) practice of hiring at CAL. I wish the predisposed personalities (hiring friends of friends)would wake up to the facts and recognize Caymanians whether born and raised on Cayman or born and educated in USA, with better professional education and aviation experience should be seriously considered for employment at CAL. Sincerely, T
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Well said. They need to get

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 02/11/2011 - 11:20.
Well said. They need to get away from asking if you are Caymanian or Caymanian Status - who the hell cares - what they should be asking is do you need a work permit or not -that should be the bottom line. Who you are, where you come from and how or why you have status is irrelevant - DO YOU NEED A PERMIT OR NOT
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Laws that protect and promote

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 01/12/2011 - 13:34.

Laws that protect and promote Caymanians actually do a disservice to smart, motivated, educated Caymanians that could compete with expats on merit. 

Those laws have created a presumption that Caymanians are not hired or promoted because they are the best candidates for the job. 

Imagine if you walked into a department of a Cayman company and found one Caymanian and one expat. At a glance, who would you assume was better at their job? The expat, of course, because they had to fight a lot harder to get the job, whereas for al you know the Caymanian may well have been hired to meet a quota or for appearances sake.

And its not just that.  It's very easy to fire an expat, but really hard to sack a Caymanian for non-performance. So in the above scenario, you know that the expat is a proven performer whereas the Caymanian might be a "legacy" employee that the firm can't get rid of for political reasons (this is not theoretical: most employers on the island have staff in that category). It also means the expat has much more incentive to perform on a daily basis.

Perception is reality.  Given the above, the expat is going to be given more important assignments.  Clients will gravitate towards him or her. Any work the Caymanian does will be reviewed more critically and there will be a presumption that it could be inferior.  The expat will get opportunities to shine, and the Caymanian will get opportunities to fail.

So the very legislation that is supposed to protect Caymanians actually ensures they will continue to be treated like second rate employees, and that the perception of "lazy Caymanians" will be perpetuated.

I would urge all Caymanians to go to London or New York for at least a couple of years

 

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Excellant post. One addendum.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 01/22/2011 - 21:36.

Excellant post.

One addendum. Your comments apply equally to both Caymanian and Expat employers.

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