If employers want a relatively easy way to give their aviation maintenance team a morale boost, do something about the workspace. From the numerous comments, one can visualize hangars resembling something like a medieval dungeon. Take a good look at your hangar and haul out the trash, wash the floor, paint the walls, install new lights, and for Pete's sake, get some heating or cooling put in. But more importantly, help lift the spirit by acknowledging jobs well done. The sentiment that they are not recognized as highly trained, skilled, and conscientious professionals continues to sound loudly in comments from respondents.
Management needs to realize the potential of people who feel appreciated.
When people feel appreciated, they will bend over backwards for the company. If not, people can die. That alone is a significant responsibility and one deserving a sound pat on the back. In closing the book on this year's salary survey, here is an excerpt from a chapter in the Department of Labor's 1999 Occupational Handbook describing the aircraft mechanic's profession. The text is directed to young people trying to determine their future, and it is written in a style that describes the daily working conditions of aircraft mechanics.