Would You Want To Work For This Guy?

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There was an article called Approach Boss With Caution in The New York Times yesterday. It is about the CEO of Mesa Airlines. Check out the whole thing, but these things make me wonder. How do people get away with this kind of thing? Even if he is effective at running the airline, I have no idea why people put up with such abuse. The article suggests that he does have other charms — but in my book, being around people like this not only isn’t worth the trouble, people who put-up with his nonsense are enabling — even encouraging — his abusive behavior to persist.

Here is just one quote little part — Check out Frank’s comment on my last post and of course the article:

Stacy Heath, employee relations and events manager at Mesa, was
until recently Mr. Ornstein’s administrative assistant. Her tasks
included tracking his mood and warning executives away from a meeting
with the boss. “They would call and say, ‘Is he in a good mood?’ I used
to laugh, but I do it now, too.”

Mr. Ornstein, who grew up in
Scarsdale, N.Y. , said the high-decibel communication style he learned
from his family was a healthy way to deal with conflict. “Being upset
comes and goes in 10 minutes,” he said.

But upset seems to come
more than it goes with Mr. Ornstein. Ms. Heath, who spent nearly six
years as his gatekeeper, said: “Maybe 60 percent — maybe even higher
than that — he was not in a good mood. Sometimes he would come in to
the office in a bad mood in the morning and it would set the tone for
the whole office.”

P.S. Frank, thanks for pointing this out!

Comments

8 responses to “Would You Want To Work For This Guy?”

January 21, 2007

Wally Bock

As a strictly practical matter, why would this guy want to continue to act this way. He’s increasing the negative stress levels of everybody around him, which is not good for creativity and productivity. He’s got folks more focused on his mood than they are on performance. And he’s probably setting himself up to miss important information because people will be afraid to tell him. I’m reminded of those stories about how Stalin didn’t hear about the German invasion for two weeks because no one wanted to tell him.
I’m sure the rudeness will flow downstream, too. That leads to the question: “How can you build a company with long term competitive advantage and profitability if you acti this way?”

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January 21, 2007

ann michael

The sad fact is that you can get away with it if people let you – and they will for a very long time.
It seems as though once someone achieves a certain level in the corporate hierarchy they develop a following – “groupies”. These groupies seem to revolve their careers around worring about the leader and his/her actions, moods, signals, etc.
Sure we all want to be aware of the moods of others, but the groupies take it too far and feed, what is often, an already over developed sense of self worth!

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January 21, 2007

peter vajda

Such behaviors are often “blind spots”; even though those on the outside can readily see them, he may not; in fact, his blind spot is supported by his saying, “…the high-decibel communication style he learned from his family was a healthy way to deal with conflict.” He may be in denial as manay are when it comes to blind spots. It’s quite easy for others to “see” how his moods affect others albeit he cannot see it himself.
Curious how many of us manifest daily behaviors such as verbal abuse, bullying, sarcasm and gossiping “for the fun of it” or as “just kidding”…as see it as “OK”…perhaps blind spots that are the equivalent, in my perspective, of workplace violence.
And, vis-a-vis Ann Michael’s comment, how many of us get on these groupie bandwagons to “fit in”, be part of the crowd, even though we engage in such “abusive behaviors…sometimes even more devastating to others than being in a bad mood?

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February 22, 2007

MesaPilot

The 1800 pilots at Mesa hate this man. Look for a strike later this year. People are leaving in droves for better companies.

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February 22, 2007

Ex-Mesa Flight Attendant

I left Mesa after a year and half. I slept like a baby for the first week after I quit. This man torments his Flight Crews in so many ways it isn’t even funny.

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February 23, 2007

Tormented Daily

This man is so cruel he will do things to hurt his employees, even if it is at the expense of the business. He has said multiple times he doesn’t like pilots and he would replace flight attendants with a vending machine in the back. He’s short changing maintence, cleanliness and comfort will soon come to an end though. He can keep lying to the board members, but eventually these planes will start to fall out of the sky. They are already being hailed as dangerous (maintenance is not properly done on them), dirty (they sport more than 100,000 bacteria per swab), and the lowest paid pilots, flight attendants, and baggage handlers while the top executives are receiving by FAR the highest salary/incentives. There is a website – Mesahub.com that tells all. Why isn’t the media on this??

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March 31, 2007

Chuck

I worked at Mesa for over three years, and I don’t miss it a bit. JO thought that my department (flight control) was completely unnecessary and mandated by the feds. Our turnover rate was astronomical and the product we delivered to the flight crews suffered as a result. Working at a larger carrier where they treat us as an important part of the operation makes me realize how bad things were there.

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May 6, 2007

dontflygo

Having frequently been disappointed with the quality of products that I have purchased that were imported from China, I think it is sweetly ironic that we are exporting Jonathan Ornstein — America’s low-quality, low-cost, bargain basement CEO — to China to ‘help’ them set up a regional airline over there. This little disaster in the making is going to be a joy to watch! Let’s just hope they don’t send him back!
http://www.dontflygo.com

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