Pros
"Free" standby flights offered on Delta Airlines US flights and cheap international flights cheap standby flight tickets on other participating airlines (ZED Fares) flight benefit extends to Spouse, children and parents / step-parents of employee Allows you to shift swap with others to get more time off than you usually have. Can be a con too though because you cannot earn overtime with shift swaps so don't go over 40 hours with them and you can't earn vacation time either so if you do a lot then you wont have much paid time off at the end. Fairly good work/life balance, you usually work 4 days a week with 3 off, this can also be problematic for your home life too because a lot of people work straight weekends on the day and night side so they don't get as good a home time as I did because my shift was straight days during the week. Lots of opportunities for more hours through open lines (because someone go fired or quit), charters or working diversions to help out.
Cons
$50.00 nonrefundable yearly fee for flight benefits (kinda negates calling them free). Used to allow for a "companion" to be listed so that someone like your girlfriend/boyfriend or brother/sister could get cheaper tickets but they took that away because a few people were selling them (DGS punishes the many for the actions of the few) Provides work hours based around flight schedule which fluctuates greatly and has never provided a full 40 hour work week. The most I have ever been scheduled is 38 hours, 30 minutes of which they automatically take for a lunch "break" even though no clearly defined lunch time is given. Does not pay a livable wage compared to parent company. Delta uses DGS at smaller stations to pay less and offer less to keep their overhead down, we also don't receive the same level of flight benefit as a Delta employee. Pay for agents below supervisor level is capped at 3 raises no matter how long you have worked for the company or your experience level. I started at $8.00/hr, received a $1.00 bump when I moved to an office style position, then 3 raises, one at 3 months, then another at 18 months then the final one 20 months after that i think. That capped me out at $10.20/hr so if you remove my 1 dollar increase for changing jobs then that's $9.20/hr for ramp agents and that's a wage that will NEVER increase. They said in the interview that they do this to encourage upward movement and promotions which is funny because at my station there are exactly 4 to 6 positions that receive regular increases and those are already filled so you're stuck unless you are willing to move and the jobs I'm talking about; supervisor, HR person etc; still don't pay enough to make it realistic to uproot yourself and your family. DGS has performance reviews that serve no purpose other than to nit pick small things about your work and to bring up that one time you were 10 minutes late 2 months ago. Reviews have a point system that will tell you what level of bonus you will receive at the end of the year but the bonus is tied to all of DGS employees at your station, even the ones contracted to other airlines and sections so if they mess up enough then no one gets a bonus (it equals to only one extra paycheck anyways) DGS offers 2 options for vacation or extra pay, you can choose option one which is a payout of the hours you worked at a taxed percentage so it equals out to less than a paycheck so it's not worth it. The other option is for actual paid time off, you receive hour of vacation time for i believe every 50 hours worked, this is not a lot at all, especially when you factor in that your work hours fluctuate every month so a lot of times when you go to take a week off from work you could get paid less than what you're scheduled to make that week. Long and fluctuating shifts. You are expected to work the flight schedule, that means if the last flight is delayed an hour... you're staying an hour. Three diversions coming in but you need to go to go to your other job or home to sleep? to bad, you're working the diversions or being written up. If they need more people and you're not at work they will call you in at any hour to get you to come help out.
