It was reported in today’s business news that Qantas executives and managers are going to be rostered into shifts to handle baggage. It seems that Qantas doesn’t have enough baggage handling workers and that is one reason behind the horrendous flight delays and lost baggage horror stories. It’s excellent news.

Qantas has been increasingly terrible to fly with for many years, I’d say going back 10 or so. There was bad customer service and an arrogance embedded throughout the whole experience. It was then topped off with wokeism shoved down the paying customers throats. Even before the pandemic, I’d stopped flying Qantas. Given the lengthy tenure of the current CEO, Alan Joyce, it is entirely his fault. He has been a complete twerp. Culture in an organisation is set by the behaviour and attitude of the CEO. Joyce must be one of the most unlikeable and unprincipled CEOs around.

Back to management handling the bags, I’m enjoying the prospect. Nothing like a bit of real airline work, helping customers, getting planes to fly on time, taking the bags to the same airport as their owners, ideally on the same day – what an enormous learning curve for them that will be. I’m particularly excited about hearing how the Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (DIE) management staff cope with these new diverse roles. They should be pleased, right?

As for Captain Joyce, I’m not holding my breath. I suspect he will stay in his office and continue to detract value from shareholders and customers. By my calculations, the total shareholder return including dividends from Qantas over the last 15 years (which is broadly entirely Joyce’s tenure) has been 0.25%pa. Why was he not sacked years ago? He’s a protected species.

Update: some readers have asked if I’m a homophobic gay hater. No, I’m not. I don’t care one jot about Joyce or his sexuality. But I do find it very distasteful for gay men to claim homophobia in the face of any reasoned argument. That is a clear marker of inadequate argument.