The roster arrives: the two minute ritual, the group chat explosion, and the five stages of roster grief
-
#1 The 20th of the month at my base and the roster drops at some point between 17:00 and 23:00, nobody knows when, and the whole base refreshes the app for six hours. This is the roster day thread. I know every base does it. Let us compare the ritual.
The two minutes
The app updates. You scroll. Days off first, always. Then the sign on times. Then the routes. Then the standby blocks. In that order, every crew member, every month, and in those two minutes your next month is decided.
The group chat
Explodes. Within ten minutes: 'who has the 14th off', 'anyone want my Manchester', 'why do I have four standby in a row', and one person who has a good roster and is wisely silent. The swaps begin. The swap market has a rhythm: the first hour is desperate, the second day is negotiation, the last week is resignation.
The five stages
- Denial. This cannot be right. They have given me the 5am on my birthday.
- Anger. The group chat. The base manager's inbox. The captain, who has nothing to do with it and is asked anyway.
- Bargaining. The swap market. 'I will take your Christmas Eve if you take my Saturday.'
- Depression. The last week of the month, when the swaps are done and the 5am on your birthday remains.
- Acceptance. The 5am on your birthday, which turns out to be a nice crew and a Faro, and it is fine, and you buy yourself a cake in the terminal.
What I have learned
Roster requests work sometimes, never for the things you most want, and the crew who put in three modest requests do better than the crew who put in one big one. The swap market rewards the people who accept the bad swaps sometimes. And every roster looks worse at 22:00 on the 20th than it does on the 1st.
Your base's ritual?
-
#2 Same base, and the 'one person with a good roster who is wisely silent' is me this month and I am not saying anything.
-
#3 Gatwick, and the app refresh hours are the same. Our group chat has a rule that nobody posts 'good roster' because it started an argument once. Only bad rosters are discussed. It is a support group.
-
#4 Dubai, and the roster drop is at a known time for us, which makes it worse: everyone is on the app at once and the app crashes, every month, for years. The five stages start with the app crashing.
-
#5 Reserve, so my roster is days off and question marks. The five stages for reserve are: hope, hope, hope, hope, and a call at 4am.
-
#7 JAL, and the roster is more stable for us and the group chat is calmer, but the two minute scroll order is identical: days off, sign on times, routes. Universal.