Professionalism: Just a Mechanic

May 12, 2010
The description should be "I am a professional"

AMT was contacted in February with a request for a copy of an article published in the mid 1990's titled, "Just a Mechanic." The person making the request wanted to give the article to her husband, who 15 years ago when it was originally published, felt it was a great article. As we honor the memory of Charles Taylor this month the staff at AMT felt it appropriate to provide this article again to our readers. Thanks go to Lori Bufalini and her aircraft mechanic husband Domenic for reminding us of this very applicable story.

Have any of you ever said the words: "I am just a mechanic." I have. In the past I have used it as an apology for dirty hands, or an excuse for not taking charge and solving a difficult non-technical problem, or to justify being lazy when the boss wanted something out of the ordinary done.

As I have grown older, and hopefully wiser over the years that I have spent in this profession, I have discovered, to my dismay, that every day, more and more mechanics are repeating those same words over and over again: "I am just a mechanic. I am just a mechanic." This negative mantra reinforces a belief in a flawed, fatalistic, and unproductive attitude that says to be a mechanic is to somehow in some undetermined way, to be something less.

This unspoken and undefined belief has cursed our profession for the last 68 years. As a result of this belief, we continue to remain stalled at the semi-skilled level when compared to other occupations. This belief is growing. It has now become a "self-fulfilling prophecy," a mind-set malaise that is slowly attacking our profession's very soul by infecting our self-confidence with tiny cankerworms of despair.

This "belief" is becoming more noticeable in our younger mechanics. They are becoming more cynical about their profession. In their eyes, I see the loss of confidence and pride in what we do. When we mechanics, especially the younger ones, lose our self-respect, we open our profession to outside ridicule, especially from the media.

Don't believe it? Turn on your television set. An actor playing an FAA-certificated mechanic working for a Part 135 operator is presently portraying one of us, on nationwide TV, as having a room temperature IQ, a village idiot. The mechanic is the outsider, the butt of jokes, and so completely lacking in social skills, that his idea of a good time is to take a six-pack to the town dump on a Friday night and shoot rats.

So conditioned are we to this attitude, this belief, this self-fulfilling prophesy of ours, that we sit in our comfortable chairs on any given night and with our families and laugh on cue at the TV aircraft mechanic. We laugh at the aviation throwback; we laugh at the fool with the dirty hands.

Shame on us, we deserve better. Thousands of lives, millions of dollars worth of aircraft are entrusted to us every day. With that kind of responsibility we should be recognized as professionals.

But, we are not recognized as professionals, and why not? Because not enough of us have a professional attitude! And just what is a professional attitude? While a professional attitude is difficult to identify and in words to explain, it can be recognized by the following characteristics and traits.

A true aviation professional loves his work. This is his or her chosen profession. He or she wants to be the very best that they can be. Aviation professionals are always seeking to learn and grow in their chosen profession. They have an insatiable curiosity about everything relating to their chosen field of endeavor.

An aviation professional takes the same amount of pride in a tire change as a turbine engine overhaul. To an aviation professional there are no minor jobs. Each task deserves and gets the same effort and attention to detail. An aviation professional seeks, performs, and maintains a high-quality standard in everything that they do.

An aviation professional dresses the part. He or she is clean in appearance, exudes confidence, and speaks from knowledge. An aviation professional would never use language which is offensive, regardless of the place or situation. For these and other reasons, professionals are sought out by their customers, colleagues, and associates.

So, how do we turn ourselves into professionals? How do we turn around a 68-year-old attitude? The solution is to be found in the root cause of the problem. We must change our attitude! We must change our daily mantra from "I am just a mechanic" to "I am a professional."

Once we convince ourselves that we can be, and are professionals, then act and perform as professionals, we will convince others in our trade that they too can become professionals. Then and only then will we shed the term "semi-skilled" like an old worn-out coat.

All it takes is a change in our attitude — yours and mine, a belief, that one individual can and does make a difference — a belief in the power of one. Let's start changing our attitudes today! Let's get rid of that old coat, "just a mechanic." You and I are the very best in the aviation industry today. Without us this industry would grind to a halt. So why settle for anything less than the recognition and pride that a professional expects and deserves? Let us be aviation professionals.

Repeat after me: "I am a professional. I am a professional. I am a professional."

Allen D. Booker was an FAA airworthiness inspector at the Baton Rouge, LA, FSDO, when this was written in 1995.