All Down Hill From There

It was so much fun spending time with my cousins at the beginning of October. Because I took those two days off, I ended up having to work 5 days on, one day off, and 6 days on at the end of the month. The rest of October was a little rough. I was used every day that I was on reserve except for 2 days. I was really lucky not to get used those two days because I had been throwing up from the flu and it took me about that long to recover. I had been watching Myca's kids when she worked and slept because Jared was away for the month with the military. She and her kids ended up sick so it was only a matter of time. Brandon went to Northern Idaho with our brother-in-law to go hunting for a week so between that, the girl reunion, and work I feel like I didn't get to see much of him. It was just a long month.

The worst part was feeling a little abused at work. I had a trip that started in the morning that was suppose to end in the early afternoon and then start early the next morning. I had gone to bed the night before at 8pm and woke up at 4:30am to get to work. I received a call from crew scheduling that they had a change to my schedule. The change included working 5 flights and ending at 10:30pm. I was not pleased. I called right away to express that in the interest of fatigue and safety I did not believe the change to my schedule was a good idea. Mind you, I am the type that always does what I am asked. I really don't give them a hard time. When I expressed my concern they pretty much told me there was nothing they could do. They told me I could call in fatigued if I wanted to. They were putting me in a really bad position because I had shown up to work "fit for duty" and now they were making me unfit. I was in tears by the end of the call. Everyone around told me to just call out fatigued. The problem is that I care about my passengers not being stranded and my crew too. I didn't want to just randomly call in fatigued at some random airport and have flights cancelled. I ended up calling someone in management (in tears) and then talked with crew support again. Eventually we reached an agreement that I would work until Sacramento at around 8pm and they would find someone to meet up with the trip there. I didn't have to fill out a fatigue report form.

To add insult to injury, the next day continued to be a disaster. They switched my schedule a number of times. In the end, I was at the airport for 12 hours. At around 11pm I was suppose to fly to Palm Springs so that I could work a flight out at 8am. If they give you anything less than 9 hours at a hotel it is considered reduced rest. So after a day that I have to call in fatigued they give me a schedule that requires reduced rest. Nice. Again I asked if there was anyone else that could do the assignment. The answer was NO. They only had 3 reserves system wide. I would have dealt okay with the situation but when I arrived into Palm Springs at nearly midnight and called the hotel, there was no reservation. I called crew scheduling and sure enough someone had dropped the ball. They had over 7 hours to get me hotel but didn't. Luckily, the crew that flew in with me were very sympathetic. They couldn't believe I was so composed because they all said they would be irate. The captain of that crew ended up giving me his room since their report time was at noon. He waited for crew scheduling to find him a room. The flight attendant gave me some almonds since I was completely out of food. I made it to my room by 12:30am but it would have been much worse without their help.

I felt so spent by the end of the month. I am so glad to have a normal schedule for November. I don't know if I would have been able to do another month of full reserve like last month.