Qantas Reviews

Pros

Passion for excellence right throughout the airline. Genuine care and concern for health and well-being of its employees. Great family atmosphere.

Cons

Whilst there are great opportunities for anyone willing to work hard there is also too big a gap between the remuneration of senior staff and the average employee. Qantas is not alone in this.

Advice to Senior Management

The leadership is doing an excellent job at a very difficult time for aviation in general. Feedback from ex-colleagues indicates that they are sick of the constant change and restructuring and want some stability and much faster decision taking.

Pros

Great opportunities for advancement if you can learn to put yourself forward; Travel benefits are ok as long as you don't expect to fly at peak times (they have a seniority system as well as 'time-served' in deciding who gets on a flight); Generally management has great skills and will actively teach you if you want to learn, but you need to have that conversation with them. Do not assume they know; You definitely need to be a self-starter and self-promoter to do well in this business. If you want an opportunity in a different role or area, think about it well in advance. Talk to people that work in that area and the manager in that area about the skills you need to acquire to be successful in that role, and then go and get those skills on your own time. You need to have great networking skills to find and secure the roles you want.

Cons

Not a lot of information seems to be passed along about what is going on in your area unless you are in management; Review periods were not handled as well as they could have been - you need to document all your achievements yourself (keep everything you create in a file) and be sure to keep records of praise from others (such as emails) to justify the score you give yourself (yes they ask you to self-rate). Management doesn't see all the work you do and will generally give neutral scores if you have no evidence to provide; Hard to get time off when it is needed and it definitely seems to be frowned upon; Long hours tend to be expected in finance roles and tend to go unrewarded or unrecognised; Hard to secure promotions unless you can network. Go join the Qantas 'Toastmasters' group if you're not confident in this area. Don't think that hard work alone will get you the job you want as there is usually already someone already lined up for most of the internal job ads posted. You need an 'in'.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a greater interest in the employees and be sure to give verbal recognition when they do a good job. Acknowledge that staff travel is not the great incentive for working there that it once was as it is generally not useful for lower level staff unless they travel at non-peak times (which doesn't tend to happen as time off seems to be frowned upon). Be more flexible with time-off, particularly given the long-hours worked for no extra pay or recognition.

Pros

Safety culture is great. Old Superanuation plans are great. Senior management focus on change is good. Benifits such as staff travel and staff credit union.

Cons

Low morale and inablilty to move troublemakers and non proforming managers on. More time spent on spot fires than a structured focus on improvement. Very thrifty when it comes to the purchase correct tooling. Unions focus on wrong aspects and don't deal with the issues.

Advice to Senior Management

Get a better plan for engineering, focus on 3rd party work more. The end figure of our pay is made up of shift work and overtime, our basic wage will not support a family. Allow more flexability for additional employment.

Pros

There are some great people, some fabulous employee benefits (although they do have a significant downside) and all of the opportunities that come with a very large organisation - if you want to achieve something you can.

Cons

With the size of the organisation comes sluggish and slow reactions, overt bureaucracies make getting the job done very hard. Small pockets of inept senior managers ensure that talented people don't always get recognised which is sad. There are however many more people in the organisation that want to see it prosper.

Advice to Senior Management

Engage in staff truly, and invest in two way conversation with them as much as you do your customers.

Pros

good benefits although eroded slightly since 2002. Some very good people working there and a good sense of pride in your work.

Cons

extremely sydney-centric. little or no opportunities unless you live in sydney. contact centre in hobart was run poorly with very little real people skills. kept poor workers and let excellent workers go to keep inflexible rules. Some signs of halo effect around certain employees so there was almost a class system in place where some could get away with murder whereas others are unneccessarily micromanaged

Advice to Senior Management

Offer some different options for careers outside of sydney and also start thinking of other cities and locations as equals. Gain a little more flexability in order to keep excellent staff and not to be afraid to get rid of those who are a detriment to the organisation.

Pros

Staff travel team work international recognise company family commitment Australian pride Premium product constant changing challenging rewarding travel discounts travel

Cons

limited promotion opportunities for cabin crew . no autonomy Micro managed poor pay truth not delivered to Senior management unreal expectations no recognition for great work

Advice to Senior Management

stop micro managing . Listen to Alan and tell him the truth don't tell him things that make you and your department look good He will find out eventually

Pros

Good co-workers and there is still enough community pride in the brand to make you feel good about working there. That is till you step through the door.

Cons

very poor culture. Deffinately an us and them feel about the place where teh senior folks act as if Qantas is their play-thing.

Advice to Senior Management

The business is a service business, and unless the people that are delivering that service feel valued and empowered, customer satisfaction is going to keep plummeting. I think AJ is probably the best person to fix this but he needs to act fast.

Pros

great people
good airline
work life balance

Cons

short term
lack of succession planning

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on people and succession planning

Pros

Excellent training initial training package with a good starting salarly during this period.
Immediate assement by the training panel of persons for initial career advancement.
Fair application processes internally for roles which become avaialble from time to time.
Regular feedback, with a good no blame policy.
Well looked after downroute, good hotels.
Fully supplied uniform, with all the trimmings and fitted for each person
Bupa & Staff Travel benefits after initial prohbation period of 6mths
Extremely helpfull BOS support, Attendant Managers and crewing department who will try everything to help with roster changes for you as well as suggestions to you if changes are proving difficult on your roster.
Think I should stop here however there are many many more best reasons !!!

Cons

Holiday start days are from Mon - Mon Only
Initially it can be a long process from application - online with many hurdles such as initial training contract, followed by 6mth prohbation contract once training completed it can feel like a long up-hill struggle however once you get yourself through this process it is worth it.
Honestly apart from being really picky there is nothing else - I promise.

Advice to Senior Management

Please keep the same