Southwest Airlines Community

In my relatively short time at Southwest Airlines, I have seen why we are such a tight-knit Family that unconditionally loves and cares for each other. It's who we are as individuals who share the passion for Southwest’s Golden Rule to treat each other as you would want to be treated. We don’t just say it, we mean it and live it. However, I’ve realized something profound about our Family that puts a completely different twist on my perspective of our Company. At Southwest Airlines, we always get to hear the stories about how we as Employees help and support our Customers in their times of need. We hear a lot of stories about how our Employees help fellow Employees in their times of need. What you may not hear as often is how our Customers, you, help us (Southwest Employees) in our times of need. The stories are out there and they are numerous but it wasn’t until recently I discovered this entire new Family I had never known. Many of you may have read my blog post earlier this year about the battle my nine-month-old daughter, Cadence, had been facing with a tumor on her brain stem. In short, doctors found a large tumor on her brain stem that was causing some extensive developmental issues and because of its location, was inoperable and could not even be diagnosed to determine if it was cancerous. It was my Family at Southwest Airlines who not only provided endless emotional support but thanks to the Catastrophic Assistance donations from my coworkers, we were able to provide all the necessary tests and MRIs we needed to help our daughter fight her battle. When I made the decision to share this story with all of you on Nuts, I received numerous messages via Facebook, email, blog comments, and even tweets offering support and assistance but not only from my Coworkers but from you, our Customers! The outpouring of support touched my wife and I and we cannot thank everyone enough for the thoughts, prayers and support of every kind. I am so excited to share the wonderful and miraculous news! Cadence had another MRI to track the growth of the tumor to find out if it would be necessary to do surgery despite the risks of paralysis if it was in fact growing. Much to our surprise and joy, the results showed the tumor was shrinking! The doctors at Dallas Children’s Medical Center agree that it appears that despite some challenges early in life, she is going to grow up to be a healthy girl who will one day beat her Mommy and Daddy’s swimming times across the board! I don’t know of many companies that can truly call their Coworkers "Family". I definitely don’t know of any companies that can call their Customers "Family," but that is exactly why we are so fortunate to have each other and have you on this flight of life. To my own Family, the Nields and VanDriels, my Coworkers, and to our Customers: thank you. Without a doubt, we are Family.  ... View more

  In January of this year, my wife and I were faced with what no parent ever wants to hear: a tumor had been found on the brain stem of our five-month-old daughter, Cadence. You can imagine the pain we felt in our hearts that this was happening to our little girl. We were brand new parents, who felt challenged enough to not mess up our first child as we learned our way through this new concept of parenting. At this point, we knew we had a challenge facing the three of us we could never have prepared for. To make matters even more difficult, my wife and I had just moved to Dallas from Phoenix, after I was promoted to a position at Headquarters.  We had no family or friends within a thousand miles, or so I thought.   After learning about the tumor, I talked to my managers, John and David, about what we had just found out and also shared it with my team. Soon after, I began to see how wrong I was thinking that we were not going to have the local family support we so badly needed. It started with a flood of emails, not just from Coworkers in my department, but from parts of the Company and People I did not even know existed. I was overwhelmed with offers to bring us dinners, babysitting, transportation, etc. My Coworkers were chomping at the bit to help our family. I realized then that these are not my Coworkers. These people are my family. Granted, regardless of what Company you may work for, caring and loving people are everywhere and many probably have similar stories. This is where the story begins to bring the tears to my eyes, and believe me, I despise crying. A couple weeks later, things really started moving with the doctors at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, where Cadence was being taken care of. Cadence had hours of MRIs and multiple visits with neurosurgeons to find the best way to treat a tumor on the brain stem of a five-month-old girl. Despite our fantastic health insurance, the bills were quickly piling up and we found our financial burdens way over our heads. After catching wind of this, my Management Team convinced me to apply for Southwest’s Catastrophic Assistance. This Employee-funded assistance grants money to Employees who find themselves in unexpected financial binds and need some help to get through it. There are absolutely no strings attached. I knew I needed to leave my ego at the door and ask for help and my family at Southwest did help. Thanks to the many Employees contributing to this fund, who likely do not even know who I am, we have been able to provide all the necessary care to give Cadence every opportunity to win this battle with her tumor. I also was floored by the purest example of a Servant’s Heart when David, my Manager, offered to pay for Cadence’s second MRI while insurance issues were sorted out. I also must thank the incredible Benefits Team we have, who took on sorting out all of Cadence’s insurance battles so we didn’t have to worry about it. We have such incredible People with the purest of hearts at this Company. Lara and I have been overwhelmed by our newfound Family’s support that appears to have absolutely no limits. I have never seen a Company so caring for not only the Employee base as a whole, but every single Employee as an individual and their families. In fact, we received a handwritten note from Southwest CEO Gary Kelly wishing for Cadence's quick recovery, and he has been in contact with us regarding her progress. We have a long road ahead of us and I cannot express how fortunate we are to be part of this Family. This is not an easy subject to share publicly but I wanted to share this incredible story of LUV and family with everyone and most importantly, I want to thank my family at Southwest Airlines for helping save our daughter’s life. Thank you.  ... View more

When I was first hired by Southwest Airlines back in September of 2009, I was told to prepare for the “Flight of your Life." They weren’t joking.    I realized, as I was coming up with a title for this post, how far that metaphor really runs, in light of the many career paths our people take here. Sometimes that “Flight of Your Life” has  a “change of planes” to get a person to their destination.  Sometimes, it is one of those flights that turns a person around in a completely different direction. That is exactly how my flight plan appears to be shaping up. For the past year and a half, I have been working in Customer Support & Services, the group which makes sure our passengers are well taken care of when calling our 1-800-IFLY-SWA line. This has been a challenging, eye-opening experience, and I will miss the many wonderful people I’ve had the opportunity to work with. So why am I “changing planes”? When I first meet someone, they understand in the first five minutes that I am obsessed with airplanes. I could sit beside a runway for hours watching planes take off and land, and breathe in that intoxicating smell of burnt jet fuel. In fact, I was one of the people who flew to Seattle on a rainy, freezing cold day in December 2008 to watch the new Boeing 787 make its first flight. My passion for airplanes is equally shared with protecting the safety of the Passengers, Employees, and planes. I now have the opportunity to follow my dream by doing just that as a Quality Assurance Auditor in Ground Operations.  I will go to each of our airports and help Ground Ops employees ensure that our operations on the ground are running as safely as possible. As an extra bonus, I’ll be working right alongside our planes and amazing Employees almost every day! Despite the challenges a “change of planes” brings, it presents opportunities to meet new people, see more of the world, and finally reach a destination, whether that be home, family, or that dream job. I am grateful Southwest Airlines invests into each of us a platform for success, and it is my hope we do the same for you in your travels!  I look forward to meeting y’all out there at one of our 72 airports!   ... View more