To most people, owning a web site address with their name is something to truly covet. What better way to tell the world through a good blog what we think about everything that’s wrong or right with the world.
But what happens when someone else grabs the web site with your name on it first and uses it to give you a good swift kick in the rear?
The best person to ask that question of today might be United Airlines CEO Glenn Tilton. The pilots at his airline today unveiled their new anti-CEO web site at Glenn Tilton.com.
They want Tilton out, claiming he’s everything that’s wrong with the airline. Once a significant industry player, United has been rebuffed twice this year when it attempted to begin merger talks with Continental and US Airways.
The pilots say, “We’ve started this web site because we’re tired of seeing the Tilton organization play the blame game. To Glenn and his staff, responsibility for United’s predicament belongs to everyone and everything other than themselves. Their excuses include high fuel prices, increasing costs of security, more competition, and stronger regulation, and they see themselves as victims of these uncontrollable factors. It just isn’t right, and it just isn’t true. These same factors influence every airline, and all the others are handling challenging conditions much better than United.”
Although the anti-site is not new, this well-organized site is quite a clever tactic. It’s easy for anyone to choose a juicy topic from the menu like Tilton’s “Operational Failures,” strategic blunders, financial or even employee and customer service screw ups like, “Only 38% of United employees are proud to work for the airline.” Ouch.
Something Tilton is just going to love is the convenient message form tied to Mr. Tilton’s e-mail so anyone can send him a comment. My guess is that mailbox is going to fill up pretty quickly.
And BTW, the Air Line Pilots Association members that built the site say it was not meant as a personal attack of Tilton himself. “These dismal numbers speak for themselves,” said ALPA MEC Chairman Steve Wallach. “They are a reflection of his inability to lead, his incompetence as a manager and his failure in virtually every category that can be measured. We have tried every conceivable way to convince him to invest in, and maximize the goodwill of, his employees. He has failed miserably.” I wonder what an attack would have sounded like!
Hey all you air traffic control types. Did you know that Bobbysturgell.com is still available?