When wondering why Qantas is flying ever closer to the edge, one of the important but seldom-mentioned issues is the age of its fleet. Relative to other carriers, Qantas planes are geriatric. And as planes age, they need increased maintenance plus, like any machine, they are more prone to faults. Since Qantas has cannibalised itself via Jetstar and is now unable to afford to update its own fleet, it is only a matter of time before one of its decrepit old planes will be involved in a catastrophic incident.

Suncorp’s personal insurance corporate affairs team continues to get smaller (see earlier tip). On average, a member of the team resigns each week. In response to a recent resignation in this team, a senior leader within Suncorp sent an email to some key business leaders including the head of personal insurance. Only they ‘accidentally’ cc’d in someone from the team who had recently resigned. The email in a nutshell stated while there have been a few resignations in recent weeks it wasn’t necessarily a big deal. That in fact there isn’t a “strong compliment” in the team and this will “save us a big cost in the long term”.  Now they can get some quality people in, they said.

Given this team has been in limbo waiting for its structure since December, has only recently had a head appointed but had months without a leader and has been operating in an uncertain and anxious environment as a result, this probably wasn’t a good message for them to send. And they wonder why people continue to leave?