Working at FlightSafety International — Reviews by Employees

FlightSafety is a terrific company with one of the most talented and experienced workforces anywhere. People and management are respectful and there is a caring atmosphere that pervails through out the company. I believe the people that complain would complain no matter where they worked. Mr. Buffett should be very proud that FlightSafety is part of Berkshire!

Why did I rate the company this way? The simpliest answer is leadership and greed. They lack qualified leadership and the greed factor underlies much of the poor decision-making process. A training company that does not value training its employees regularly and adequately is evidence of their smug attitude toward customers and employees alike. The ratings don't begin to ask enough about the poor conditions of this and other organizations posted here. Retirement? Why would anyone stay here that long? Who cares about a career at this place when employee treatment is better elsewhere.

FlightSafety has a lot of good things going for it. The buildings are nice, and comfortable. Co-workers, whether Sim Techs, other Instructors, Support Staff, or Building Maintenance are all very professional and courteous.
The Simulators are well maintained, and the Instructors are very well educated regarding their assigned aircraft.
BUT, FlightSafety has some serious problems that should be addressed soon.
The Instructors are underpaid and often times disrespected by managment.
FlightSafety is often recognized as the premier aviation training provider in the world. This is largely due to the efforts of the Instructors to provide the best learning experience possible. The company doesn't recognize this. We have allowed ourselves to get to a place where we are underpaid, significantly!

The company has manipulated us, claiming to need drastic measures to stay in business. This meant cutting Instructor pay, knocking Instructors to part time, and flat our laying off many Instructors.

Hey the airlines do it, right? Most of us our ex-airline, right? Our union will renegotiate when the economy improves, WRONG WRONG WRONG!
We DON'T HAVE A UNION!!!!!
Maybe it is time we start protecting our jobs, our income, and our futures.
I got the email last week, and am anxiously awaiting an update.

I must agree with my fellow teamates who have posted. Flight Safety is probably the worst managed company that I have ever been associated with. Any other company would have used these tough econimic times to build market share, not Flight Safety the increased their prices to the user and drove existing clients to our competitors. What they don"t realize is that some of the clients will find that this traing more than meets their needs and will never return. it is my belief that not everyone feels that being trained by Flight Safety is the equivelant to being blessed by the Pope. Each of our competitors facilities has some great instructors. With that in mind Flight Safety has cut salaries by 20% and laid off instructors. How short sighted, yet they have rozen instructor pay for two years.
In reguards to the Union, personally I was never in favor of Unions, But the timing is perfect. Where else can the instructor turn when center management is no help, and in fact in agreement. We need a voice. I know from a reliable source that The Teamsters have been contacted and are reviewing the situation. As you know they represent Net Jets, Another Birkshire Hathaway company, and have made their life worth living. I can only hope that they cando the same for FSI. I am anxiously the web address for Union Information

I must agree with my Teamates in Savannah and Orlando. Let me first explain that my negative comments are not based on my co-workers necessarly, some of them are the best in the business. As you know we train in large business jets at this center,training pilots of fortune 500 companies to operate these state of the art aircraft, at a salary that is sometimes less than one half the salary of the pilots we train. All this to have a percieved better life style than the pilots we train. Well I don't know about you guys but after a week at FSI I don't know wether I am coming or going. When the issue of schedule is brought up to the program managers who are really schedule jugglers, the standard answer is well at least you have a job. The morale at this center is the lowest that I have seen in years. But there is hope Union talks are being discussed. So teamates keep your chin up and use the time off to search for other employment. And keep your eyes open for direction to the union info website.

It's officially happening. Flight Safety is randomly shutting down training center's for a week at a time. This shutdown isn't based on lack of clients wanting to train with us, rather, it based on the corporate strategy to not pay instructors for that week. We can use vacation pay or not get paid. Many instructors have already used up their vacation pay because last year they told us to use vacation pay as we were not be able to be carry vacation pay to the next year. We have 3 different weeks to expect this for the remainder of 2009. Thanksgiving and Christmas weeks are planned shutdown weeks. NO PAY for the salaried instructors. It should be noted that our center has to turn clients away to pull off a shutdown week. Great business strategy! The president Whitman needs his head examined! His bonus plan should cover the cost!

I worked at flight safety for several years.The salary was pretty bad.The only good thing at flighsatey for me was the people. The people I worked with were very nice. You don't get credit for any thing you do,even if you work your ass off.

I went to work in the Broken Arrow facility in 1999 and retired in 2009. My starting pay was very good, 10% more than I was making at my previous employers. Over the 10 year period I worked for them m received excellent to good pay raises every year. I found that most of the employees and managers respected each other with few exceptions. I got a lot more respect from the managers than I ever got from my former employer. The benefit package was good and better than my former employer. Job security was very good and the company had only one layoff while I was there. I believe they have had only three in their history. If your job required travel there was usually a lot of it, 50% or more but I was told that during the initial interview. Career growth potential was excellent as most jobs were advertised internally and anyone could apply for them if they were qualified. For me, the location was very neutral as I lived in the area before going to work there. C0-worker competence was very good and people were willing to help each other out. Of course there were a few incompetents, but they were few and every company has some of them. The work environment was OK. I agree with the comment about vacuum cleaning the carpeted areas but I seldom saw "filthy" restrooms. The offices and cubicals were sometimes cramped but generally minimally adequate.

I have worked in the Orlando Center as an Instructor for about 3 years. On the surface Flight Safety seems to be a well run company with happy employes. But nothing could be further from the truth at the Orlando Center. When I first started I was told that one of the advantages of working here was the quality of life, much better than anything anyone could expect as a corporate pilot. Little did I know that working 10 to 12 hour days with barely enough time for lunch or a break was there idea of a better lifestyle. This is not the same mindless job at the instructor level that it apperently is at the management level. As an instructor we are face to face every day with clients that spend anywhere from 12 to 40 thousand dollars to train with us. These are not only professional pilots, but owner operators,some CEOs, who are retired from sucessful businesses and are operating their own aircraft. When they come to our center they are rewarded with the best training that money can buy. The instructors however are not rewarded at the same level for the instruction provided. When the economy was booming, and instructors were leaving like rats from a burning ship, Flight Safety instituted an instructor incentive pay plan. With this plan in place you were rewarded extra pay for extra work, which wasn't really extra, now we just getting paid for it. No with the economy in a downturn the incentive plan has fallen to the wayside. This represented a net loss of about 20% to the average instructor. Keep in mind that hours worked by instructors in my department have not decreased and have in fact slightly increased. When a supervisor is asked about the demise of this program the standard response is " Well they never said it was permenant". This may be true but several instructors, two in my department, were hired when this program was in place and it was presented as part of their total salary package. Keep in mind that our clients have not enjoyed any of the benifits of our cost reductions, in fact the prices for our courses have increased without reguard for the current economic climate. There have been layoffs at our center, which seems strange in light of the fact that we are still profitable. Some instructors were layed off, at least two that I know were kept on part time to handle the work load. However these instructors are making about one third of their previous salary with none of their previous benifits. Now as we enter the second half of 2009 we have learned that there will be no pay increases untill 2011, this from a company that is so short sighted. We are now also faced with forfieting three weeks vacation or or recieving no pay in the wake of center closings. As I reread the above I have to remind myself that this is a Berkshire Hathaway company and not a sweat shop that prays on the employees in the name of profit. It is my hope that as I direct other employees to this sight that we can come toghther with one voice to make some constructive and much needed changes. I will also make our clients aware of our current conditions when possible

Work Environment is Good, however the length of the workdays can be too long 12 hrs with one short break! Starting times can be as early as 4:30 am and going for 12 hours or starting at 4 pm and ending at 3:00 am. Recently, the company reduced it's pay to instructors by 20% and producing rolling shutdown days with no pay at during the upcoming holiday's. The moral is fading fast and the few individuals at the corporate level are shooting from the hip with these cut back measures all to save DOUBLE DIGIT PROFITS! Corporate will not provide any discounts to established customers in this tough economic climate and are letting them pass to our competitors. While most instructors with an exceptional amount of aviation experience are the front line to the client the corporate strategy is to kick'em down - most will not retaliate because their employment options are reduced because of their age. The management style is taking full advantage in this tough economic cycle and they're still profitable despite the slow down. When you're working for a Berkshire Hathaway company it's extremely disappointing! I'm sure Mr. Buffet would not approve of the short sighted management style it has shown this last 8 months.