PROBATION STORY
She followed every rule. She was fired anyway.
TeNisha finished every requirement of a year-long probation. Then SkyWest never held the meeting that would have ended it, and fired her 34 days past her end date.
Her First Year
TeNisha Oliphant loved her job. In August 2022, she began Inflight New Hire Training at SkyWest because “it was one of the best companies.” She completed her IOE 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. She was even looking into the Cadet program, with an eye toward training as a pilot and a future at SkyWest.
After her one-year anniversary, with a successful CQ under her belt and only four of the allowed five excused absences, one thing stood between her and the end of probation: her Release from Probation meeting, which was supposed to be scheduled by September 22, 2023. Wanting all her ducks in a row, she contacted her probationary supervisors and asked for the meeting.
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The Meeting That Never Came
According to TeNisha, it never happened. What follows is her account of what SkyWest management did next.
A Sick Call and a Doctor’s Note
On October 7, two weeks after the date her probation should have ended and still with no meeting scheduled, TeNisha says she called off sick and visited an ER in New York. She received the doctor’s note SkyWest requires and submitted it to excuse the absence, her fifth allowed excused absence.
A Meeting, Just Not That One
On October 13, still waiting for her Release from Probation meeting three weeks after it was due, she received an email from Kathy Makasian, Director of InFlight Ops, scheduling a meeting for October 16. Its purpose was not to end probation. It was to “follow up… regarding a recent PAX complaint.”
A Four-Month-Old Complaint
On October 16, the same day TeNisha learned her absence had been excused and would “no longer count against [her] reliability,” she says she attended a virtual meeting about the “recent PAX complaint.” How recent? June. Four months earlier.
The complaint, as TeNisha recalls being told: a man said that after TeNisha let his wife use the lavatory during service, helping her maneuver around the cart, his wife then had to wait until service was finished to return to her seat. With our narrow aisles, that happens on nearly every flight SkyWest operates. Asked to explain, TeNisha had no memory of a routine moment from four months earlier and could only speak in generalities.
Then, TeNisha recalls, with no warning that anything beyond the passenger complaint would come up, she was told that her last doctor’s note, the one the Occurrence Admin had already accepted, “looked fraudulent.” She was told to get another one.
Across the Country for a Note
As soon as she finished her trip, TeNisha called the ER and was told she could only get a new copy of her note in person. She was based in MSP. The ER was in New York. She arranged to fly there anyway.
While she worked out a cross-country trip to replace a note that had already been accepted, she received another email on October 24 requesting a meeting on the 26th about her “failure to submit requested documentation.” She recalls calling her ROM to explain that she had to fly to New York for the note and was working on it.
Terminated
On October 26, she was put on administrative leave pending termination, with a termination meeting the same day. She says she was given 24 hours to submit the new doctor’s note and a letter explaining why she should remain at SkyWest. She says she submitted both in time. She was terminated for “not meeting the standards of probation.”
days past the date her probation should have ended
Exactly What Standards Did She Not Meet?
Another smart Flight Attendant, with passenger compliments on her Step It Up and dreams of becoming a SkyWest pilot, gone. She did everything policy required, and even met the extra demand to replace a doctor’s note that had already been accepted, flying to New York to do it.
A Contract Sets the Clock
As more stories like this surface, of probationary Flight Attendants following every rule they were given and getting fired anyway, many of us are asking how a union would help. It starts with time. With a union, we would have a negotiated contract that sets the length of probation and the only reasons it can be extended.
SkyWest got to 418 days by moving the start of the clock to the end of IOE, then adding a meeting that only management can schedule. Under a typical contract, TeNisha would have been off probation months before she called in sick on October 7. Even under a one-year term, the company couldn’t have held her there waiting on a meeting it never scheduled. Of the eleven regional airlines on our chart, SkyWest is the only one that requires a meeting with management to end probation, and the only one that can extend it with no time limit.
Just Cause, Not “At Will”
Once probation ends under an AFA contract, management can’t fire a Flight Attendant just because it wants to. It has to show just cause, and we have representation and a grievance process to challenge an unfair decision. Today SkyWest has no just-cause standard and no appeals process, for new hires or anyone else.
Arbitrators test just cause with plain questions. Run TeNisha’s case through a few of them.
Held to Policy From Day One
Every provision of a real union contract applies to Flight Attendants from day one. Management can’t ignore the contract because you’re newly hired. Union reps may not have a formal place in discipline during probation, but at the unionized regionals, Flight Attendants on probation still have representation for contractual disputes. Our SkyWest AFA union would push hard to make sure the company follows its own policies as written and applies them evenly across the workgroup.
TeNisha was taught at New Hire Training that five excused absences were allowed, and she says the eFAD Probationary Guidelines told her the same. Being an “at will” employee on probation should not excuse the company from honoring the rules it teaches. How are Flight Attendants supposed to get through probation if it’s a minefield with no map?
We Can Change This
TeNisha Oliphant, like many of us, loved her job. She expected SkyWest management to treat her fairly and honor the policies it gave her. SkyWest failed her, the way it is failing many of us. We are held to policy every day, and no one holds the company to it.
Looking for reasons to fire probationary Flight Attendants who follow policy to the letter is unsustainable. A binding contract with a shorter probation and just-cause protection is what fixes it. Send in your card today. The sooner we get a vote, the sooner Flight Attendants like TeNisha are protected.