A spokesman for BA, Mr Willie Walsh, said : “The combination of unprecedented oil prices, economic slowdown and weaker consumer confidence has led to substantially lower first quarter profits.” “But,” He said ”British Airways is well prepared and has adapted its plans in the event of further economic uncertainty.”

These reported performance figures for BA and their smooth denial of concern reminded me of the last time BA management hit the news.

It was several years ago and Rod Eddington, the then chairman of British Airways, was responding on TV to concerns about the profitability of British Airways.
He was having a moan about how the budget airlines were cutting into his market share,
but he was still being quite bullish about it.
He told the interviewer how, in the last three years, he had cut the operating costs of British Airways by 5% and that although the competition was tough they fully expected to maintain their market share.

What he didn’t say was that in the past three years, to make that 5% saving, he had made redundant 16,000 members of his workforce.

He must have had some idea of the consequences of those redundancies for the remaining workforce. How did he think they felt about it?

Did he think they still felt good about working for British Airways?
Did he think they still felt their jobs were secure?
Did he think they felt proud of what had happened.

At the time Rod Eddington seemed supremely unconcerned by any of the consequence of his actions other than the ability to boast about the financial savings he thought he had made.

The men and women who worked for BA had. in the main. been in  their dream jobs.
Pilots, who as schoolboys had pictured themselves wearing Raybans while they lounged around in the cockpits of big jets.
Cabin crew who used to dream of all the exotic destinations they would go to.
Baggage handlers and support staff who at the time could use BA to nip over to Paris for the weekend for the price of a cup of strong coffee.

And then, by making 16,000 redundancies, Rod Eddington had at a stroke completely changed the way that the remaining BA employees felt about what they did.

He had changed their attitudes and behaviours from those of a proud group of motivated people, dedicated to the service of their customers, to a bunch of disillusioned job hunters.
By making these redundancies British Airways changed the behaviour of their whole workforce from a powerful group of people who were proud of what they did, to an apathetic, untrusting workforce who were only interested in where they could send their next CV.

In the latest twist in the saga of the failure of BA we read of the appeal from the current management for the workforce of BA to give the company one months work without pay to try to save the company.

Since the days of Rod Eddington, management at BA have completely lost the loyalty of their staff by the way that they have behaved towards them, creating a morally bankrupt organisation,
Make no mistake, this moral bankruptcy was caused by BA management.
Now we see the current management attempting to cash a cheque against the BA account that they themselves have already emptied.

It is possible that the company will fail without these individual contributions from the workforce, The workforce must be aware that it is just as likely that the company will fail even after they have put themselves into personal debt to try to keep it afloat, the only difference being that when the company fails, even after the workforce have given their time for free, the workforce will be in an even worse position to support their families.
Either way, management have already broken the trust of the workforce and since none of the management team seem to have offered to work for nothing it seems even less likely that any of the workforce will be persuaded to stick their necks out.

Do BA management truly believe that the workforce, working for nothing, will save them or are they working a spin, which when the company goes to the wall will enable them to say
“It was not our fault, We were let down by the workforce who would not support us.”

In this ongoing crisis we have to be very careful about what we do to survive and how that changes the way that our remaining workforce feel about they are asked to do.

Ride roughshod over the workforce during the recession because you can, and like BA you will have a very hard time continuing to trade even when the rest of the world has resumed doing business, Or, take care of your people when they most need it and they will take care of you when you need it.

We can’t have it both ways.
What goes around comes around.

I lost my job.

Funny how fast I became an actual victim of this worldwide earthquake. It took me about a couple of hours to understand that all my certainties were somehow linked to the idea of having a job, a fixed income, a wealthy lifestyle, the power to buy and acquire goods. And how a significant part of me had been actually deprived of basic needs such as time, joy and health, in the name of Production – the goddess of contemporary masses.

I spent a full week wandering around with a wide open smile on my face. I couldn’t help feeling just good and I happened to experience guilt while talking to people, realizing how lighthearted I was, in spite of all.

The decision came soon after the D-Day.

You know, I came to the sad – and yet understandable – conclusion that most of us live a double-dimensional life.

For someone like me, born in the early eighties, the concept of wealth was never questioned. I was raised with the equation Work = Wealth stamped on my passport. Go wherever you want but make sure to jump on board before it’s too late. The machine won’t wait for you forever and the best that you can do is to mould yourself properly, in order to fit in the system.

And so I did. I did it my way, of course, which was never precisely in line with the actual pre-made scheme, imposed by “society”. But I managed anyway. I joined a New York law firm first, to then experience a breakdown, followed by a series of random and very useful parentheses as a waitress, Italian teacher and so on. When I finally joined Barcelona, I thought I was over all confusions and I devoted myself in full to the search for a stable and secure lifestyle.

Wishful thinking…towards the wrong wishes, though.

Now I find myself in my apartment, there are rays of sun entering my room and nice sound from my music system. I am enjoying the destruction of the perfect, fake and illusionary balance I built for myself.

I made someone else rich with my innocent and professional commitment, that’s for sure. But who cares? Does it really matter? Is it truly the end of the world?

This last question deserved a closer and deeper look.

I spent sometime reading my very own words, which I lightly spread around the world in shape of stories, articles, blog entries. And I managed to recognize the answer, hidden in between lines and commas.

No, it is not the end of the world. It is quite the opposite, indeed.

We are experiencing a unique opportunity to enrich ourselves and learn how to sustain our lives in a considerable manner. Considerable for our own happiness, the health of the planet and the potential creation of a newly balanced general system.

Practically speaking, I looked for an answer to a trivial though fundamental question. What?

The “what” issue struck me in a moment when people are seriously struggling to make their way out of the employment crisis, because we must keep in mind that this is a human earthquake, first of all. And I couldn’t help thinking about families in need to feed and educate kids. A friend of mine, who is a teacher, told me that lately her young students are complaining because of hunger and that never-seen-before fathers are showing up to pick them up at the end of the school day. Unemployment causes food issues, first, but also reunites families. Just to prove once more that this is a double-sided medal. I devoted a closer look at small businesses, where bored employees are probably studying a degree while wishing for customers to miraculously appear and make their day. They most likely won’t sell an item throughout the day but hopefully are learning something practical for their next venture.

But my situation is different, I am lucky. I don’t have kids to feed and I do have a higher degree. After days of inner ponder and mind-mapping, I came to an astonishingly simple conclusion. I will make my way out there and help people, travelling where I can afford the luxury of not making someone else rich, while collecting diamonds for my very own soul.

Just like the character of one of my Tickles, I will be the one travelling all the way to India to actually put into practice my human rights degree and devote my energy to something that will enrich myself enormously and, hopefully, others.

I will pack a smile, strength, willingness and energy. This is all I need. In my pocket I will store drops of love I have received, which I will make sure to spread around with the same intensity they came to me.

I wasn’t responsible for this gigantic mistake that is currently affecting us all. My illusions are still up high in the sky but they deserve to be projected towards change. Change of perspective and direction. Turning illusions into reality is now a priority in my agenda and I firmly believe that more people are joining the club, right now.

This is a will. These are my last words about this moment, which I won’t call crisis ever again. I cannot speak for everybody, our stories are coloured with different shades. But to be myself completely, I had to let go and realize that I am still sure, now more than ever, and that nothing will be able to change my course of action towards my mission: enlighten my steps through hard work, spreading a renewed wave of energy among us, trying to put down a heavy stone to make my world a real better place.