AA Employee Survey Paints Bleak Picture of Upper Management

This week, American Airlines released the results of its survey, "The American Voice," which was distributed to all of its employees to learn more about the sentiments surrounding their jobs. Now, we have the staggering results on which of the survey questions AA employees responded to most and least favorably.

The results of the survey emphasize a sense of employee distaste for the executives' actions within the company, while maintaining a feeling of longevity in work and positive relationships with surrounding employees. And while it's surprising that American would publish the results, especially considering how jarring they were, the results themselves don't come as a big surprise. As we've seen, American has become known for its mediocrity and unfortunate internal debacles lately.

Much of the dissatisfaction of American employees is rooted in the actions of higher-ups. The following three survey questions had the least favorable responses.

1. Leaders at American make the right decisions that take care of our frontline team members.

• Favorable: 26.4 percent
• Neutral: 22.3 percent
• Unfavorable: 51.3 percent

2. Leaders at American make the right decisions that support me.

• Favorable: 27.8 percent
• Neutral: 22.8 percent
• Unfavorable: 49.4 percent

3. Leaders at American listen and seek to understand the frontline team member experience.

• Favorable: 28.0 percent
• Neutral: 22.1 percent
• Unfavorable: 49.9 percent

Daily Newsletter

Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter

Join over 700,000 readers for breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG’s experts

Email address

Sign up

By signing up, you will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.

Each one of the statements have to do with the regard and consideration that AA leaders have for other employees. They all prompted unfavorable responses for around 50% of participants. Even more staggering, the statements only resulted in favorable responses less than 30% of the time.

On the other hand, here's what AA employees responded to favorably.

1. I see myself working at American Airlines for the foreseeable future.

• Favorable: 79.4 percent
• Neutral: 14.0 percent
• Unfavorable: 6.6 percent

2. I have meaningful relationships at work.

• Favorable: 74.5 percent
• Neutral: 17.2 percent
• Unfavorable: 8.4 percent

3. My manager acts in an honest and ethical manner.

• Favorable: 73.4 percent
• Neutral: 18.2 percent
• Unfavorable: 8.5 percent

While the content of these statements vary, they each involve the day-to-day functions of their jobs. Within employees' closer realms, they seemingly find more satisfactory conditions in terms of internal relations. And despite the ongoing internal fiasco, almost 80% of employees are able to see themselves with American in the future.

All in all, it seems that American Airlines employees are calling for leaders of the company to take them into consideration more frequently or more thoroughly. Efforts have been made to bridge the divide between ground forces and company leaders, such as AA's "Tell Me Why" podcast, in which executives explain company changes and decisions. However, there still seems to be significant progress that must be made in order for American to achieve greater employee satisfaction.

H/T: Inc.