When I supposed to go to Ms. Anoma Manuel’s office for a meeting, I have printed out a list of 10 companies which are the best to work for and 10 companies which crumbled due to management’s greediness. I never showed her those lists since that meeting turned into complete surprise, especially as Amanda Maxwell – MHR-HRBS-EKAS & SKYCARGO was present. Ms. Amanda’s behaviour was far away from professional as she told me in one moment (in a hysterical manner) – “I’ve had enough of you!”. All I did was telling Ms. Anoma and Ms. Amanda that I think that Dubai Labour Law is violated, and I’ve got this reaction from Ms. Amanda. I was surprised at first. Never in my professional life I have seen such a condescending behaviour of one manager towards their staff. Later on, when I got to know Ms. Amanda better, I’ve seen her treating employees like children, speaking with them in a, paradoxically, immature and inappropriate way. Ms. Amanda Maxwell also told me that I will “never advance in this company because I will always be known as a girl who wrote five pages e-mail to DVP” (my warning appeal). I was honestly startled with this sentence as well, since it is inconceivable for me that one HR manager can threaten their employee in such a shameless way. I have asked Ms. Amanda about the meaning of this statement at our Open forum, but it was explained to me that I have “misunderstood” her. Ms. Sophia Panayiotou former SVP HRBS even included this question of mine in the list of reasons why I was fired.
I will publish another article about Ms. Amanda soon enough, since she is an HR manager who has a direct contact with EKAS staff.
Seems like my intention to present a list of companies best to work for was prophetic because Emirates Airline president Tim Clark wanted to use the results of a recent survey about employees’ satisfaction in Emirates Airline (conducted soon after publication of Open Letter to His Highness Ahmed) to put EK on the list of 50 companies best to work for, apparently. According to my source (screenshots below the article), survey results were devastating, so presidency decided to terminate contracts of several SVPs and VPs. And while we are waiting for the official result of this survey (although we can not trust it much), we can only speculate about names of managers whose contracts have been terminated:
- Sophia Panayiotou, SVP HRBS,
- Katarina Ciumei, SVP HR (Remuneration and Planning),
- Rick Helliwell, VP – Corporate Leadership and Talent Management.
Some of the managers were just moved to another position, so besides Anoma Manuel, former DVP EKAS, Kevin Griffits, SVP Cabin Crew was moved to another position as well. If I made a mistake in this list, please do notify me. I am ready to apologize if I am mistaken or if I have a wrong information.
Seems that presidency didn’t know or did not want to know the true, catastrophic state of working conditions inside their own company. And while we can read all over the internet how Emirates “can hardly train its staff fast enough” due to “high business demands and huge and successful company expansion”, only thousands of cabin crews and ground staffs who resigned, can testify about the true nature of these fast recruitments and trainings: due to massive staff dissatisfaction, cabin crew (and all the other staff) massively resign, so Emirates Airline has no other choice than to quickly hire new staff to cover the lack of staff on board and at the airport.
I have also heard the story that cabin crews are forced to return from long flights travelling on duty travel tickets (if the type of the aircraft is, for some reason, changed at the destination and company doesn’t need all crews from the first flight). Extra crews are sent back to Dubai as regular passengers so that company doesn’t need to pay them their flight hours for a return flight. If the new aircraft requires more staff, existing cabin crews just work more for the same pay cheque.
I will conclude this article with my two cents: the answer to the question from the title is a big NO. A company which brutally exploits its employees, endangering their health and mental conditions, for, often, barely surviving salary (of 700 euros, which is how much ground staffs have), with almost no opportunity for advancement and very present nepotism, corruption, arrogant staff treatment and unfair dismissals, can only be listed on some very unpopular and unflattering list.
HR SVPs fired.
VP fired.
Cabin Crew is suffering
Do Not Fly Emirates 
November 20th, 2014 at 23:28
I’ve only got ONE THINg to say : “HEADS WILL ROLL”
Troop on Dragana ! Brilliant work !
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November 21st, 2014 at 01:06
Haha, catchy disco, S.
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November 21st, 2014 at 16:26
I’ve worked with Emirates for over 10 yrs. Earlier things were much better, work was stressful but still had its good moments. Post Sir Maurice Flanagan, it’s taking on the shape of a Dubai labour camp. The management ploy is to bring in more people on high grades to do nothing( usually people with the right contacts but no brains) so the actual labour force of people doing work is lesser now than before. In this scenario, with such a lot of expansion, how else can they get things done besides “slavery”…forced overtime, forced overtime without pay, no leave. After all they need to make up for salaries of the non-working management. This is rampant in throughout EK Finance.
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November 21st, 2014 at 17:21
At the same time, I was fired for asking a small raise because me and my colleagues couldn’t have dignified lives.
EK managers literally live on the expense of staff’s sufferings, and literally do nothing. This kind of system is doomed to fail.
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November 21st, 2014 at 17:12
it’s called GREED
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November 25th, 2014 at 07:54
Hey Dragana, huge thank you for this blog from all of us who still work in EK. Management re-shuffling has started and let’s hope for a brighter future. You never know how much impact you can make until you actually do. Thank you and don’t stop writing!
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November 25th, 2014 at 11:49
Actually, we all contributed because this blog couldn’t make it if it wasn’t for your (written) support in comments and e-mails.:)
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January 13th, 2015 at 05:25
I am writing this out of disappointment in EK rather than malice. We may be guests in the UAE but we share the same mission. We all have vested interest in the continued success of this company and country.
I have worked for Emirates for over ten years in flight operations. Whilst I am still happy here, Dragana and the contributors in this blog do make very sobering points. I have personally witnessed draconian and reckless policies being implemented in the past, more so in the last year. There are many cost neutral ways to improve productivity and enhance staff welfare at the same time but it seems the company shuns welfare in preference of arrogant attitudes such as “if you don’t like it, you can leave”.
A person should always do their due diligence before joining a new company. There is still a lot of good in this airline but there definitely some truth in this blog site.
Dragana, I don’t know you and have never met you, but it takes a lot for a person to do what you have done for the benefit of staff, future staff and the airline itself. I respect you for your courage and determination.
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November 7th, 2015 at 05:33
Dragana- I have one question to ask you? Many of us even me have seen the real side of what happens in this company. they use their brand and service of Emirates to hire talented people but inside its a huge mess. You have taken a bold initiative of making this blog happen and running. But with so much feedback coming from staff from all corners not just Emirates but the entire group, there seems no real reason for the company to re think a real good change is required in not just culture but also the type of unscruplous management they employ. While this blog created the awareness the same old non sense continues inside the company. Will all the feedback made in this blog make any difference to them to change?
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November 7th, 2015 at 07:45
No.
All the best to you.:)
D.
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November 7th, 2015 at 11:54
Emirates is under ever-growing scrutiny for alleged subsidies and they way it is not governed by UAE Labour Law. Not to mention the attempted bullying of Canada. I disagree with Dragana. This blog (visited nearly 1,000,000 times) has caused reputational damage in a big way. EK tried to gag the website using legal means. They failed. EK bans unions. We can all read the tales of nepotism, bullying not to mention allegations of corruption. EK has enormous staff turnover and relies on getting new joiners of the previous high quality. These people are not joining in the same numbers that they used to. Aviation is central to the UAE policy of diversification from oil. They are fighting (to various degrees) wars in Yemen, Syria and Libya. They want nothing to impinge on the glamorous image of EK and indeed Etihad. Keep posting and keep reading. Let us hope to hear about the departure of the delightful Hala Mansour. Let us keep her name in the light she so deserves for slapping one of the crew she is supposed to “manage” I am sure we will also see some replies from the lower rung sycophants telling all and sundry that everything is wonderful at EK. By the way, where are the promised reslts of the HR survey? Also, please tell us on what basis EK withheld Dragana’s EOSB?
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November 7th, 2015 at 20:32
I just wish to say that Etihad is even worse, whether you believe it or not. You know why? Because it operates with minimum crew, so imagine all that work onboard aicraft in Emirates, with that slight difference of fewer people. Chaos.
But, what’s the point? They don’t care, they don’t give a damn. I am convinced they categorize people, there are people they like and people they don’t like, just the same treatment when they recruit. I was actually told once that they follow certain people and arrange set-ups on purpose.
I felt the need to write this, although I think that there’s nothing to be done. Money is very powerful and majority of people will do anything for money. It’s reality. And compassion, understanding towards other people do not exist anymore.
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November 7th, 2015 at 20:46
They do exist, just not in that desert.
Stay well.
D.
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