Working at FlightSafety International — Reviews by Employees

I have been with FlightSafety in Long Beach for a very long time! I agree with everything negative that has been documented here and for those that wrote positive reviews…they haven’t been with the company long enough to see the writing on the wall.
Long Beach in particular, under current center management, is a hot bed for unethical and criminal behavior. Furthermore, this behavior is not only encouraged by Center Manager, but it is rewarded with raises and promotions. The Long Beach Center Manager has a favorites list. The list contains at least 2 Program Managers, 2 Customer Service Representatives, and the Customer Service Manager who was recently promoted to Director of Quality, AFTER getting caught stealing from the company for as long as 11 years. She wasn’t alone though, 1 other CSR and the 135 records girl were in on it as well. All three were more concerned about getting their stories straight than they were about getting caught stealing and lied about the whole thing. So then they all got caught lying.
Speaking of the former CSM, I’ve seen her open employee files and share personal info with other employees (salaries ETC.), when she had an H.R. function. Thank God she no longer has that responsibility, now she’s in charge of Quality. The 2 CSR’s that worked for her, one is also a thief, a liar, and incompetent. The other just likes to lie and say Slanderous things, about her co-workers. She has been responsible for two people leaving FlightSafety, one Pilot instructor and the other was a Director. Then she has the audacity to joke with everybody else about what she’s done, she was also recently promoted and given a raise. A side note here, several people have heard the Center manager, on more than one occasion, make suggestive comments regarding her physical attributes, kind of makes you wonder what’s going on there…
Program Managers, one was handpicked and moved in to that position and when he ran tight of funds at home he was allowed to go and contract fly with companies that train with our competition. His Pal the Center Manager signed off on it, despite what one of our Vice Presidents said to the contrary. The other one was promised to be the PM for a new start up program in Long Beach. She ran around the learning center bragging about it for a few months, and then got promoted, despite the fact that there were significantly more qualified people interested in the position.
Makes you wonder, what does someone have to do to get on the Favorites list? 4 females and 1 male.
I know it looks good on the outside, like a dream job, but it’s all just another lie. Do yourself a favor, don’t come to work for Flightsafety, you will live to regret it.

Agree on the co-workers, everyone is very competent. Great environment, vast majority are happy. Management is management, but they try their best, nice recognition programs, there's even one coming out for the sim techs. The pay is good considering I get to go home every night, that's almost unheard of in aviation. I don't know about others, my PM is great, works with me all the time, I get loads of time off (worked 17 of the last 30), just a great place overall.

It's amazing really. FlightSafety used to be the best company known to man; under the founder anyway. The current corporate management is a huge joke. Espically when they quit caring about the people that generate the money they so love to spend, We now have bogus positions in corporate management like director of this and that, I mean who needs a director of recruiting when we layed people off and hiring someone is next to impossible! It's the buddy system in corporate management. Center management isn't so bad. We know they are losing ground quickly to the politics from up high and its very dishearting. Everyone in New York just cover up the mistakes the other corporate managers make and they feed us lies. They decided to take away bonuses and made us give up 10.5 days of vacation last year. This year they have decided to make up give up 7 days so far but hey...it's January! Let's see what the next 11 months bring. The center employees work hard and the center management does too. The problems are all steming from the ones sitting in New York that eat their donuts and laugh and don't care about anything but the financial figure at the end of the day. I'm not a union fan, but maybe it is time.

FlightSafety has a lot of good things going for it. The buildings are nice, and comfortable. Co-workers, whether Sim Techs, other Instructors, Support Staff, or Building Maintenance are all very professional and courteous.
The Simulators are well maintained, and the Instructors are very well educated regarding their assigned aircraft.
BUT, FlightSafety has some serious problems that should be addressed soon.
The Instructors are underpaid and often times disrespected by managment.
FlightSafety is often recognized as the premier aviation training provider in the world. This is largely due to the efforts of the Instructors to provide the best learning experience possible. The company doesn't recognize this. We have allowed ourselves to get to a place where we are underpaid, significantly!

The company has manipulated us, claiming to need drastic measures to stay in business. This meant cutting Instructor pay, knocking Instructors to part time, and flat our laying off many Instructors.

Hey the airlines do it, right? Most of us our ex-airline, right? Our union will renegotiate when the economy improves, WRONG WRONG WRONG!
We DON'T HAVE A UNION!!!!!
Maybe it is time we start protecting our jobs, our income, and our futures.
I got the email last week, and am anxiously awaiting an update.

I worked at flight safety for several years.The salary was pretty bad.The only good thing at flighsatey for me was the people. The people I worked with were very nice. You don't get credit for any thing you do,even if you work your ass off.

I went to work in the Broken Arrow facility in 1999 and retired in 2009. My starting pay was very good, 10% more than I was making at my previous employers. Over the 10 year period I worked for them m received excellent to good pay raises every year. I found that most of the employees and managers respected each other with few exceptions. I got a lot more respect from the managers than I ever got from my former employer. The benefit package was good and better than my former employer. Job security was very good and the company had only one layoff while I was there. I believe they have had only three in their history. If your job required travel there was usually a lot of it, 50% or more but I was told that during the initial interview. Career growth potential was excellent as most jobs were advertised internally and anyone could apply for them if they were qualified. For me, the location was very neutral as I lived in the area before going to work there. C0-worker competence was very good and people were willing to help each other out. Of course there were a few incompetents, but they were few and every company has some of them. The work environment was OK. I agree with the comment about vacuum cleaning the carpeted areas but I seldom saw "filthy" restrooms. The offices and cubicals were sometimes cramped but generally minimally adequate.

Flightsafety is by far one of the best jobs I have ever had. The West Palm location is great and the co-workers highly qualified professionals. The maintenance instructors quickly became great friends, and management relations with instructors and staff are good. Highly recommend to anyone looking to work there.
PV