When I commuted out of MCI all the airline workers rode the crew bus together from the employee parking lot. I will say that the SWA employees were the most optimistic and happiest of the bunch. Every employee knew who the CEO was (Herb for most of this period), and all but the newest employees had actually seen the man. These were not the highest paid airline employees, but the were paid well and they knew management cared about them and would look after them. During this same period I probably would not have recognized my airline's CEO if he stood in front of me. In spite of the headquarters being about a mile from the main concourse we NEVER saw management. Every once in a while a memo would come out asking for input on how to make the company better and I wanted to know why they did not just come out of their offices on a crummy day and see how things actually operated. Why not come over and see how the gate agents treated fellow employees, much less customers? Why not come over and see rampers sitting around yaking while airplanes where waiting to be parked? (Most of the rampers were good, but it seemed that about 75% did the work while 25% sat around).
It also seemed that for the most part SWA management is promoted from within and takes their lumps for messing up. Kelleher came out of retirement and showed Parker the door when things did not work out. In contrast other airlines seem to have a habit of bringing in outsiders, some of whom have track records of failure. I remember listening to one retread at my airline tell us how things were done when he was at Braniff and TWA. I really had to bite my tongue and keep myself from raising my hand and asking, "So, how did those policies work out at Braniff and TWA?" Why in the world would we hire someone who has helped two airlines fail???
What's funny is that the SWA workers were referred to as "cool aid drinkers" in the 1990s for not demanding the same contracts that the other airlines got. They did not get the gold plated retirements that other pilots got, their pay was not as high. Yet they were paid well and treated well. In the end (at least up to now), the company has done fairly well.
"Years ago, business gurus used to apply the business school conundrum to me: "Who comes first? Your shareholders, your employees, or your customers?" I said, "Well, that's easy," but my response was heresy at that time. I said employees come first and if employees are treated right, they treat the outside world right, the outside world uses the company's product again, and that makes the shareholders happy. That really is the way that it works and it's not a conundrum at all." (Kelleher, 1998)
