FlightSafety International reviews

Mid-level managers rise to their level of incompetence--promote the best of the best and let the incompetent ones fall to the wayside. Just because someone is good at "scheduling" WILL NOT make them a leader who inspire others to do great things. Also, in a customer-service business where the customer is A#1 (as they should be!), do you really have to have so many former military guys in management positions?? Having served in the military, I promise you that these personality types do not lend themselves to either "customer service" or high employee morale. A setup for failure, in my opinion. To come here for "quality of life" is one of the biggest myths in aviation! An instructor will not know their schedule for the week until the Friday before...and then it can still change at a moment's notice. There is no way to plan anything without taking valuable scarce vacation time. Schedules can swing from 4 a.m. for several days to suddenly showing at 5 p.m. or even 9 p.m. or later. The place can operate 24 hours a day and without management who have the capacity to actually plan and not just "put out fires", it can make life miserable for the instructor. Pay and benefits are average at best. "Merit increases" are paltry and there is virtually NO PAY DIFFERENCE between a self-motivated professional who consistently does an outstanding job and the guy who just barely gets by. Very surprised at the fact that there is no real difference in compensation based on an individual's contributions...everyone is paid roughly the same, with the only real difference being hire date. No tangible motivation for a go-getter to consistently go above and beyond--in fact, these talented and motivated people will actually be run into the ground.

A continual undercurrent of tension pervades the New Castle, Delaware FlightSafety International Learning Center. Management activities (such as monitoring employee activities with a security camera system, unfairly and unequally treating employees to give advantage to management politically-favored employees, and arranging for underqualified management members to attain a quickie aircraft type-rating (such as a GV) to bolster their "value" for promotion within FSI) have resulted in employees regarding management with suspicion and a complete lack of trust. When a "town hall" meeting for employees was arranged at the Center, only 3 of the over 400 employees showed up. Management personnel accomplish their functions through email, not by personal interface. They maintain a, "don't worry, be happy" attitude, as demonstrated by the daily "Care" briefings. These "feel good" sessions, conducted in the client lounge, are regarded by employees and clients alike as a bad joke. Career progression for instructors? There is none. At one time, FlightSafety had a clear career path for instructors, and promotions for center management positions were from the ranks of (usually) long-time instructor personnel. That has changed - key management personnel have little or no real instructional or aircraft experience, and appear to be selected by company headquarters personnel to mirror their own background. Since they lack any background in what makes the company function, they regard instructors as an irritant, unhappily necessary for the company to function as a money-making machine. Pay and benefits are marginal at best. FSI formerly had a defined-benefit pension plan. Woops! Gone - and, place taken by a 401k (have you looked at yours lately?). Pay is static. Going "above and beyond" (in terms of accepting additional responsibilities) doesn't even merit a simple "thank you" from management. In a way, this is understandable since they have no idea (again, no background) of what an instructor (or customer service rep) does. For those looking at FlightSafety International as a potential employer, regard working at FSI as a "bridge" position to better and much more rewarding work elsewhere in aviation.