Even on a normal day, the hallways at Southwest Airlines Headquarters are far from ordinary—every wall is covered with framed photos and memories from floor to ceiling. But today, Mardi Gras, the hallways of our building on Love Field Drive were especially boisterous and filled with more SPIRIT than usual!
As a Correspondent in the Executive Office (EO), I am also part of our Team’s Culture Committee. My job on this Committee is to work with several other EO Employees to plan a once-a-quarter “Random Act of Culture” event for our Department. And today we had our first 2011 internal Culture event—a Mardi Gras “mix and mingle!”
All the Teams within the EO were given a week to put their heads together and make homemade Mardi Gras parade floats out of empty boxes, and then this morning we gathered together to have a contest for the best floats while enjoying music, King Cake, and all the festive colors of Fat Tuesday. It was a great way to enjoy a once-a-quarter Culture event outside of our normal work responsibilities and have some FUN together!
Naturally, we couldn’t have our beautiful parade floats sitting around unused, so we extended our Executive Office event to the hallways of Headquarters and spent the 30 minutes strutting around with our creations—along with some beads, masks, music, and other Fat Tuesday frills. As the lucky Employees who got the slices of King Cake with a plastic trinket inside, Valerie and Raquel were elected our Mardi Gras Parade Queens and lead us fearlessly around as we spread joy and SPIRIT to each Employee who ventured into the hallway as we passed!
I should share that the winners of our parade float contest were the Pass Bureau’s “Black Swan” float for Most Original, and the Culture Services Outreach Team’s “Culture Gumbo” float for Most Traditional (that’s my Team!). Also, both the Administrative Services Team and Distribution Services Team received Honorable Mentions for their floats. Our judges were Employee volunteers from other departments—all of whom are relatively new Employees to the Company.
As you can see, we all LUVed sharing a little bit of Culture with our Southwest Family! I hope that you will also find ways to have FUN this Fat Tuesday!