Southwest Airlines Community

 What’s better than working with some talented Leaders? Listening to them play some great music! Two of our Employees from Customer Relations/Rapid Rewards, Jerry Davis, Assistant Manager, and Jeff Skaggs, Operations Team Leader, are the driving force behind the band Floyd and the Writebacks.   The entire group has performed a number of times at Southwest Airlines headquarters for other Employees, and they were recently chosen to play as part of the Summer Sunday Concert Series at the Southwest Porch at Klyde Warren Park in downtown Dallas! In keeping with their desire to feature solo artists or duos only, the invitation to the band was limited to two people. As a result, “Floyd” and the rest of the group took the day off, so Jerry and Jeff (not to be confused with Jerry Jeff, for you country music fans…) appeared simply as The Writeb acks.  Naturally, part of demonstrating Southwest Hospitality is being supportive of your Cohearts, so on Sunday afternoon, September 4, nearly two dozen Southwest Employees, from several Departments, spent part of Labor Day weekend “relaxing on the Porch” downtown. It was a hot and steamy afternoon, so sitting in the shade of the Southwest Porch, where they conveniently serve a nice variety of ice cold beverages, was a treat in itself. However, the real draw was the musical talent of our friends. Since we work for the ontime airline, Jerry and Jeff started promptly at 2 p.m. as scheduled.  At first, the audience of Southwest Employees outnumbered the rest of the Customers at the Southwest Porch. Very quickly, though, that changed as the sounds of The Writebacks filled the air around Klyde Warren Park, drawing folks from elsewhere in the park, along with pedestrians walking by on the sidewalks.  The dynamic duo from Customer Relations played with Heart and passion for 90 minutes (minus a short ten-minute break), showcasing their instrumental and vocal skills. A big part of the feeling of Family at Southwest Airlines is fostered by shared experiences, and those can be both in and out of the workplace. In this instance, job titles and workgroup borders were forgotten as Friends gathered to enjoy some great music and each other’s company. And, based on the enthusiastic reaction of the crowd, everyone, especially the Southwest Employees, thoroughly enjoyed themselves and the music of The Writebacks! Although neither Jerry nor Jeff seem anxious to give up their day jobs (nor would we want them to!), the exposure they’ve gained by this Sunday afternoon gig is already leading to bigger and better things. Jerry told me the entire group has already been booked to appear at Klyde Warren’s large Muse Family Performance Pavilion adjacent to the Southwest Porch in October. Could a Grammy-award winning album be far behind?  ... View more

There’s an old saying, “Time flies when you’re having fun,” and while it does not specifically refer to the airline industry, it certainly seems true at Southwest Airlines!  Recently, I was privileged to spend some time with a group of Employees who came together to celebrate their Fifth SWAnniversary with the Company, and they enjoyed sharing some of the highlights of the chapters of their own Southwest stories. On July 6, 2010, one of the largest classes of Customer Relations New Hires walked through the front doors of Headquarters for the first time.  It was a collection of 18 people from a variety of backgrounds, excited to join the Family of the LUV Airline.  After an intense training curriculum designed to teach them our policies, our operating procedures, and the myriad of computer programs they would use on a daily basis, this hearty bunch began serving our Customers. Two of the Employees from that class remain in Customer Relations. Nancy Turnipseed is an example of growth within the Department.  After two years as a Phone Representative, Nancy was promoted to Senior Representative. In her fourth year, Nancy decided to step into a new role.  She accepted the position of Executive Assistant to Jim Ruppel, Vice President Customer Relations/Rapid Rewards.  By Jim’s own admission, Nancy keeps him organized and focused, and very ably administers all of the logistics of a Vice President’s office.  The other remaining CR Employee is Stephen Summers.  He was promoted from Phone Representative to Senior Representative in February 2012, and then to Team Lead two years later.  He enjoys his role as a Coach and mentor to CR Reps on his Team, and remembers his own time as an Intern with us and gives a big shout out to Greg Muccio of the People Department. As for the rest of the group, they’ve literally “scattered to the wind” over the last five years into various other Southwest roles. Brice Taylor advanced from Writing Representative to Writing Team Supervisor and then Operations Team Leader within his first two years.  By January 2013, Brice took a leap and moved to our Revenue Management Department where he has continued to earn new responsibilitie. Brice has served as Market Team Analyst, Yield; Market Team Senior Analyst, Yield; Senior Analyst, Operations Research; and currently as Manager, Operations Research. Many of the members began as CR Writers. Charity Murdoch spent more than two years as a writer before transitioning to a Multi-Channel Representative.  She was attracted in a different direction in 2013 when she moved to our Supply Chain Management Department to serve as an Administrative Coordinator, supporting her Department in general and two Directors specifically.  Deborah Roach moved over to the People Department in February 2013.  She now focuses on Internal Customers, and says she really enjoys assisting our Employees in dealing with medical benefit questions in the area of Health & Wellness. Another Writer alumna who departed CR in 2013 is Kayla Cermak.  She also joined the People Department, initially serving as a Coordinator before transitioning to the role of Recruiter as a part of our Campus Reach Team.  Kayla recruits Interns and new college graduates (especially from her beloved Texas A&M!) to work at Southwest Airlines. After serving our Customers as a Writer for several years, Neal Gorman returned to his roots and his passion when he transferred to our Finance Department.  He continues to serve our External Customers as a Member of the Sales and Refunds Services Team.  After a short stint as a Finance Associate II, Neal was promoted to Senior Finance Associate, where he works with his former Customer Relations Coworkers in providing refunds and vouchers to our Customers. Paige McKinley spent nearly a year as a Writer before moving to the Marketing Department.  In September 2011, she joined the Product Team to manage a variety of products available through southwest.com.  That role touched on merchandising, vendor communication, and revenue and reporting.  After three years, she slid over in her Department to the Distribution and Air Programs Team under the Corporate Sales group. There, Paige manages the Meetings program, the Groups product, and the block seat program. During her first two years in the Customer Relations Department, Tiffany Adams was simultaneously working on earning a Dispatch License.  Completing that goal allowed her to move into the position of Flight Information Agent in the OCC (the former Operations Coordination Center, now known as our NOC—Network Operations Control).  Tiffany learned much about our Operations there, and her exposure to the Dispatch Department led to her next change, when she was hired as a Dispatcher in June 2014. After delivering Positively Outrageous Service to our Customers through her written responses for a couple of years, Customer Relations Writer Tiffany Hedgemon had the chance to pursue her dream.  Now, she delivers that POS at 35,000 feet as a Flight Attendant.  As a Member of our Inflight Department, she is able to combine her background in CR with her natural people skills to provide the best possible onboard experience for hundreds of Customers per day! Each of the Employees in this Member Class have credited the training and their time spent in Customer Relations with preparing them for an exciting career at Southwest Airlines.  The foundations of Hospitality, empathy, and understanding they developed in CR have empowered each of them to grow as Employees and deepen the richness of their journey along their Southwest career.  From their common starting point, these Employees are continuing to contribute in a significant manner across the Company, and after five years, are definitely still Living the Southwest Way!  Who knows what they’ll be doing in another five years! ... View more

One of the best ways to learn about our history is from People who were directly involved.  Each day, Employees from every department are hard at work creating tomorrow's "history."  But how many people can actually say they were there on day one in 1971?  This week we celebrate Original Employee Dan Johnson who—after a career spanning five decades—starts the next chapter of his life with his retirement. Prior to our first flight on June 18, 1971, Dan was hired to help start service at the Houston Intercontinental Station before Hobby reopened later that year.  Traditional airport roles as we know them today did not exist at the time. The same Employee who checked you in at the ticket counter may have been the one who helped you board your flight (and then headed down to load your bags before the door closed)!  Since there were no Saturday flights when all three planes were in Dallas for scheduled maintenance, that Employee may also have answered the phone to take reservations calls. Dan helped with security screening at Southwest-exclusive Hobby—which didn’t have the same services in place as Dallas or San Antonio—after DB Cooper made the need for airport security obvious. In 1977, Dan moved to Dallas to start as one of our first three Assistant Dispatchers when our fleet size was anticipated to triple (to ten planes by the end of the year) and several new Stations opened.  He was already accustomed to transcribing dispatch releases while working in the capacity of what we now consider an Operations Agent and was promoted to a full time Dispatcher about a year later. With Southwest expansion rapidly picking up pace, the new role of Air Traffic Control Specialist was introduced in 2000.  As a result of an increase in complicated airspace traffic around the Northeast, Dan transitioned into this new role to help Dispatchers maintain awareness of what was going on around the National Airspace System. Like several other roles in his career, there was a lack of established procedures and a steep learning curve.  In Dan's words, it was more like a cliff! Dan has enjoyed quite an eventful career, going from the early days in Houston with a handful of flights to the 3,700+ daily departures his Team at the NOC handles each day.  He plans to return to his hometown of Salt Lake City, but we hope our new nonstop service starting later this summer will send him back from time to time to the place he has called home for the past 38 years. ... View more