A Random Walk Down Wrong Street

Why did we get into aviation? Many of us were infected at a young age. Do you still look up with amazement at a flying aircraft? I still do after more than 50 years in this business. The rest of the plane gazers and me are lost causes. We are diseased with an incurable ailment and the symptom (aside from gawking at a machine in the air) is job satisfaction. We found our calling — not too many people on this Earth can say that.

Let me set the record straight. My career has not been a continuous bed of roses. My career in aviation has had its ups and downs (pun intended). We must separate job satisfaction (what we do) from work satisfaction (where we do it and for whom). I was almost always satisfied in the job, but not necessarily satisfied in the work. There are some crappy jobs in aviation (literally).

If you are like me, then you are plagued with this fascination for aircraft and what makes them fly. Not to detract from the guys who fly them — they share in the fascination as well, but ours runs deeper. We can fix them and many of us a fly them as well. As the saying goes, “God made aircraft mechanics so that pilots can have heroes, too.” Without an aircraft mechanic, a pilot is nothing but someone with a leather jacket and a neat pair of sunglasses.

All the jabbing aside, I find myself addressing a decreasing number of true airplane geeks. Our numbers are dwindling as a result of the economic environment in the aviation industry that is failing to attract new mechanics. In addition, the very term “mechanic” has a perceived stigma attached to it. Maybe that mystique and allure of aviation isn’t there anymore. This has caused many aviation maintenance schools to shut their doors, exacerbating the situation. Regardless of the reason, the aircraft mechanic shortage that was predicted 15 years ago has gotten worse. Some students are lured by the great opportunity for jobs as aircraft mechanics, but they often lack the passion that we had. We might have had choices of a career path as well, but our destiny was carved in stone at an early age. We had to either be aircraft mechanics and be happy or choose something else and continually think about what it would be like to work on airplanes. One path might have made us wealthy, but we chose aviation maintenance instead.

The level of job satisfaction is directly proportionate to the level of passion we have for the job. Those of us whose destiny was ordained are at one end of the job satisfaction scale but most are not. If a person enters the aircraft maintenance field as a means to a job, then the reality of the job itself may be in conflict with their original perception. Their job satisfaction level dwindles with the degree of disparity. Even students who are really excited about aviation maintenance, if their perception of the realities of the job are distorted, will experience job dissatisfaction once they are on the job. It is a form of cognitive dissonance and was a finding of my dissertation.

Our level of job satisfaction is related directly to the accuracy of the perception one has of the reality of the job. If we go into aviation maintenance with a clear understanding and vision of what the job entails, we are more satisfied in our career choice overall. Although my research was focused on aircraft mechanics, I would venture to say that it applies to other fields as well. Longevity is not a measure of job satisfaction, as we stick with a job for a number of reasons: security, fear of starting over and money, to name a few. Many years ago I read a study that found that up to 60 percent of medical doctors state that if it weren’t for the money, they would be in another field. There is no passion there. The number is higher for males than females and this gender distinction is not relegated to just the medical profession. A study of college students showed that money was rated high on career choices and altruistic reasons were down the list for males, while altruistic reasons were rated highest on choosing a career for females and money was further down the list.

Aside from that gender anomaly, what is the difference if a person goes into aviation for the passion of it versus some other reason? We need mechanics wherever we can get them, right? We are making progress with a few aviation maintenance programs starting up around the nation and an increased emphasis in high school on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs that include aviation technology. My fear is that these students are being sold on aviation maintenance and being lured into the industry. Yes, there are jobs available in an economy with high unemployment, so it is a relatively easy sell. Plus, the stigma of “mechanic” was removed and now we must be referred to as an aircraft maintenance technician (AMT).

As I said, job satisfaction is directly related to the degree of passion a person has for the career and the clear and accurate understanding of what that job entails. If we are selling a perception and these students later discover that the perception doesn’t match the reality, job satisfaction will be affected. Job satisfaction is also directly associated with employee engagement. How enthusiastic would a person be to engage in their work if they are not satisfied in what they are doing? I used to quote a research study done many years ago that employees are roughly evenly distributed as 1/3 actively engaged, 1/3 actively disengaged and 1/3 neutral. How dismal is it that we can’t engage more employees? Now the latest poll shows only 17 percent are engaged in their work. Fortunately, those who are actively disengaged remain about 1/3 but those who are neutral have grown. We are growing a working population that seeks mediocrity, doesn’t do much and only does what is needed to keep from getting fired.

This minimalist attitude affects performance, efficiency, quality, safety and productivity. Just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so it is that an organization is only as strong as its weakest culture. You need to build that group before building the rest. You don’t maximize the performance of your car by installing a giant carburetor if your exhaust pipe is only one half inch in diameter. People’s passions are developed at a young age. Those passions are already established by the time they get to high school. They might not know what they want in a career and will have to iron that out later. That is why so many college students change majors halfway through — they discover their hidden passion in a career path, maybe. Don’t get me wrong – promoting STEM programs for aviation maintenance in high school is great, as those programs might trigger that passion in someone. They might also lure someone who has a passion for French literature into aviation maintenance. If the students are logical, and few high schools students are, so this would be directed to their parents, they will ask which is a better economic decision — a career in aviation maintenance or in French literature? They have just lured someone away from their passion and potentially set them up for future job dissatisfaction. Of course, they can justify this by saying they provided the person with a viable career and filled a void in the declining aviation maintenance ranks, but they also contributed to the growing ranks of neutral engagers.

If you have been in this business long enough, you have run into these people who have a passion elsewhere. I met one mechanic who only talked about being a pastry chef and even went to school for it. Another guy I knew just wanted to be a farmer like his parents but he needed a job so he went into aviation. These two people were good and conscientious mechanics, but just didn’t have that extra spark. The reverse is also true. A good friend of mine who was one of the passionate few aircraft mechanics took a job in manufacturing because of a layoff. He is still in manufacturing after 20 years. When I had lunch with him recently, we talked only about airplanes. He still has the spark for aviation and said he wished he was still working on aircraft but he couldn’t afford it now. He was making too much money as the chief manufacturing engineer for several plastics plants. (As a side note, what made him so successful was his knowledge of aviation maintenance. Additionally, he introduced preventive maintenance, periodic checks, predictive maintenance and failure rate tracking into the field of manufacturing.)

How do we keep from attracting people that are taking the wrong career path? Drive the promotion of STEM programs and aviation maintenance programs down to the grade school level, including students’ parents, and continue that promotion all the way through high school and college. It’s not the hard sell in high school to make a choice now, rather a soft informational communication stream slowly fed throughout the student’s educational journey, later introduced as an option amongst many career options. Water seeks its own level, so let the student seek theirs. 

Patrick Kinane is an FAA-certificated A&P with IA and commercial pilot with instrument rating. He has 50 years of experience in aviation maintenance. He is an ASQ senior member with quality auditor and quality systems/organizational excellence manager certifications. He is an RABQSA-certified AS9100 and AS9110 aerospace industry experienced auditor and ISO9001 business improvement/quality management systems auditor. He earned a bachelor of science degree in aviation maintenance management, a master’s of science degree in education, and a Ph.D. in organizational psychology.  Kinane is presently a senior quality management systems auditor for AAR CORP and a professor of organizational behavior at DeVry University.

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