- There are way too many people at DAA who's entire job description is attending meetings to report to the people above them, and then delegating work to the people below them. This results in an upper structure that is entirely disconnected from what's happening on the ground. You need look no further than the current staffing shortage in security. DAA has an absolute abundance of managers, yet only a small number of the people who run one of the most essential aspects of the airport. Go figure.
- Due to Covid-19, a lot of senior people who were on cushy legacy contracts left with a sweet pay deal to get them off the books. Others who might not have been as senior - but were high-skilled nonetheless - jumped off the sinking ship to secure better roles elsewhere. A huge amount of knowledge walked out of the business and the lower-level grunts who remained were tasked with picking up the pieces. Not a nice environment to be in at all.
- Extremely poor avenues for progression. If you were lucky enough to have the experience when some of the higher managers were leaving then you were likely awarded with a promotion. Those that weren't simply remained on substandard wages compared to what they would get elsewhere, with no avenue for progression given that the airport is constantly in crisis due to Covid-19. The only way to get a raise at DAA is if you threaten to leave.
- In general a greedy company. Rather than paying security staff a living wage (without whom, by the way, the airport cannot run at all, unlike a lot of the spoofy roles that exist within mid-to-upper management) they would elect to have people from other departments work in security instead. Applying for a job in HR, Operations, IT? Be prepared for the possibility of doing a few shifts in security because of the anti-worker policies that have been employed in an attempt to navigate out of the Covid crisis.
