Probation Story: TeNisha
TeNisha Olipant loved her job. In August of 2022, she began Inflight New Hire Training at SkyWest because “it was one of the best companies.” Her IOE was completed on September 22, 2022. A savvy flight attendant who studied policy to make sure she understood exactly what was required of her, TeNisha was looking forward to getting off probation and was even beginning to look into the Cadet program to possibly start training as a pilot with a future at SkyWest. After her one-year anniversary, with a successful CQ under her belt and only 4 of the allowed 5 excused absences over the past year, the only thing that she needed to be done with probation was her Release from Probation meeting, which was supposed to be scheduled by September 22, 2023. Wanting to ensure all her ducks were in a row, she contacted her probationary supervisors and requested the meeting.
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According to TeNisha, it never happened. The following is what TeNisha explained happened to her from SkyWest management:
On October 7, two weeks after the date her probation should have ended, still with no meeting scheduled, TeNisha says that she called off sick and visited an ER in New York. While there, she received the appropriate doctor’s note as required by SkyWest and submitted it to excuse her absence; her fifth allowed excused absence. On October 13th, still waiting for her Release from Probation meeting now three weeks after it was supposed to happen, she received an email from Kathy Makasian, Director of InFlight Ops, to schedule a meeting for October 16, not to end probation, but to “follow up… regarding a recent PAX complaint.”
On October 16th, the same day TeNisha received word that her absence had been excused and would “no longer count against [her] reliability,” she tells us she attended a virtual meeting about the “recent PAX complaint.” How recent? June. Four months previous. The complaint? As TeNisha recalls, she was told in the meeting that a man had complained that after TeNisha had allowed his wife to use the lavatory during service, helping her maneuver around the cart, his wife then had to wait to return to her seat until service was finished. It’s something that happens on pretty much every single flight SkyWest operates, given our narrow aisles. TeNisha was asked to explain the situation, but since it was an utterly innocuous event from four months prior, she had no memory of the specific event and could only speak in generalizations. After her explanation, TeNisha recalls that Kathy then told her without any warning or any indication that anything other than the single passenger complaint would be discussed, that her last doctor’s note, the one that the Occurrence Admin had already accepted, “looked fraudulent” and demanded that she had to get another doctor’s note to excuse her absence.
As soon as TeNisha finished her current trip, she called the ER she had visited but was told she could only get a new copy of her excuse note in person. She was based in MSP; the ER was in New York. Nevertheless, she arranged to fly to New York to obtain the doctor’s note.
While she was working out flying across the country to get a doctor’s note to replace the one that Occurrence Admin had already accepted, she got another email on October 24th requesting another meeting on the 26th regarding her “failure to submit requested documentation.” She recalls that she called and spoke with her ROM, saying she had to fly to New York to get the note, and she was working on it. On October 26, she was put on administrative leave pending termination, with a termination meeting scheduled for the same day. She says that at that meeting, she was given 24 hours to submit the new doctor’s note and a letter stating why she should remain at SkyWest. She says that despite submitting both within that time frame, she was terminated for “not meeting the standards of probation.”
Exactly what standards did she not meet?
She was required to do a year of probation after finishing her IOE. Check. Her year was over on September 22, 2023.
She was required to successfully complete CQ. Check.
She was required to have no more than 5 excused absences. Check.
The only thing she had left was the Release of Probation Meeting, which she says the company failed to schedule for more than one month after she should have ended probation. Another smart flight attendant, with passenger compliments on her Step It Up and dreams of possibly becoming a pilot with SkyWest, gone despite having done everything required by policy and even meeting further demands made of her to get a new doctor’s note to replace one that had already been accepted, even flying to New York to do so.
As we hear more and more stories like this of probationary flight attendants following all the rules and policies they’ve been given but getting fired anyway, the question many are asking is, how would having a union help in these situations?
The answer is absolutely. A union would have made a difference.
First, if we had a union, we would also have a union-negotiated contract that stipulated the length of probation and the reasons it could be extended. No other airline has a one-year probation, let alone one that is longer than a year. If we had a union contract in place, then TeNisha would not have been on probation 13 months past the completion of her IOE. She wouldn’t have even been on probation when she called in for her fifth absence on October 7. Probation would have been over, probably within 6 months, like most union contracts, but even if one year had been stipulated in the contract - unheard of in the industry - the company would not have been able to delay the end of probation waiting for a meeting they failed to schedule. They are held accountable to the contract. She would have been done.
Another thing a union can do, even for probationary flight attendants, is fight on our behalf to hold the company accountable to policy. That doctor’s note had already been accepted. Why was she being questioned about its veracity after the fact? What policy allows them to question a doctor’s note after it has already been accepted? A union could have fought for TeNisha and not allowed the company to make her jump through hoops to prove her already-accepted doctor’s note was real.
All provisions of a true union contract apply to Flight Attendants from day one. Management can’t violate the contract just because you’re a newly hired flight attendant on probation. While union reps wouldn’t have an official place in the disciplinary process with Flight Attendants on probation, our SkyWest AFA union would do everything to ensure the company follows its own policies as written and applied evenly across the workgroup. SkyWest’s policy allows for five excused absences. Why are flight attendants being fired for “reliability” or “not meeting probation standards” if they don’t have more than five excused absences? That is the policy that is taught at New Hire Training; it’s the policy that’s in the eFAD Probationary Guidelines. The fact that being on probation makes a flight attendant an “at will” employee should not be an excuse to provide them with policies that the company won’t follow. How are flight attendants supposed to get through probation if it’s a minefield with no map? It’s a system that sets up flight attendants to fail.
TeNisha Oliphant, like many of us, loved her job. But she expected Skywest management to treat her fairly, to honor the policies it told her. In this, SkyWest has failed her, like it is failing many of us. We are held accountable to policy every day, but no one holds the company accountable to policy. We can change this. We must change this. The current trend of looking for reasons to fire probationary flight attendants even if they are following policy to the letter is unsustainable. Only a level playing field and a real union’s binding negotiated contracts can fix this. Send in your cards today! The sooner we can get a vote, the sooner flight attendants like TeNisha can be protected.