Category Archives: My Job

Retirement for Jenny

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As expected, the larger Brenden gets, the less comfortable Jenny becomes. With less than 6 weeks left until his due date, it’s getting harder and harder for her to sleep at night and then get up in the morning for work. She has all her significant projects wrapped up, and she has trained her partner on the specifics of her job. With all of this in mind, she has decided to make July 3 her last day at SWA.

I am extremely proud that my wife not only works for SWA, but has done such an outstanding job. In less than 5 years, she’s gotten 2 promotions. She processed mountains of paperwork, decorated cubes, scheduled pilot interviews and welcomed the candidates when they arrived, interviewed potential employees, traveled all over the country, organized a variety of highly successful events for new hires including the Luv at First Bite luncheons and the Duck Derby, displayed crazy Microsoft Office skills, enriched the culture of the People department and the entire company, and shared her LUV, joy, and creativity with literally hundreds if not thousands of people. Even after Brenden started getting bigger and making it hard for her to sleep, she dealt with it and successfully completed her final big project, the Duck Derby. She has many, many friends at Southwest who will miss her greatly and plan to make her come back often with Brenden in tow.

If she chose, she could easily spend her entire career at SWA and do fantastic things for decades to come. But instead she’s going to stay home, at least for a while, for the important work of raising our son to be a healthy, well-balanced, and Godly little man. We’re both grateful that her staying home is an option and both willing to sacrifice as needed to make it possible. It’s not the right answer for everyone, but it’s what we want, and I am confident that we’ll be happy with this choice.

Congratulations on a job well done, love! You are awesome!

2009 Bid Results

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We just finished bidding for our Feb 2009-Jan 2010 schedules at work. My first choice of shift was 11:00pm, which handles departures from the western half of the U.S. I’m happy to say that I got my wish. That start time allows me to spend my evenings with family and friends and gives me and Jenny extra time alone after Brenden goes to bed. In general, the weather is better on that shift as well. We have a saying in the office: “West is Best”. I didn’t get Christmas off, but that’s to be expected for someone as far down the seniority list as I am (110/146). The fact that I have Christmas off this year is highly unusual. We’ll bid for our vacation time over the next couple of months.

Bid Time

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It’s that time of year again. Our office is in the process of bidding our schedules for Feb 2009-Jan 2010. Everyone has his/her own priorities and strategies for bidding. Some people want Christmas off above all else. Some people want a particular start time, such as 700c, the most senior shift. Some less senior people want as many day shifts as they can get, even if it means taking some afternoons or midnights. In general, the day shift is more senior and the afternoon shift less senior. Midnight guys are scattered throughout the seniority list. Strangely enough, even though I still sorta feel like a new guy, I’m number 110 out of 146 for this year’s bid. We’re adding a bunch of people this year, which is always good when you’re on a seniority list. I still like the midnight shift, and I’ve decided that 2300c (11:00pm) is my favorite start time. It will allow me extra time for events and hanging out with Jenny and friends after Brenden is asleep. It also has better weather in general since most of the flights are in the western half of the country. It is highly unlikely that I’ll get Christmas off again next year (this year was a fluke!), but if I can get 2300c starts, I’ll be happy. We’ll find out the results at the end of June.

Duck Derby Video

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In case you haven’t visited BlogSouthwest, here’s a perfect opportunity. My former boss films lots of Southwest events and came with us to SeaWorld to film the Duck Derby. Click here to see the video.

Duck Derby Pics

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I put together a slideshow of Duck Derby pics. Click the link and then click the “Play” button at the bottom of the screen. Perhaps you can join us next year! Here’s a little preview in case you can’t see the slideshow:

duck_pond.jpg

The American Effect

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The Fort Worth Star-Telegram ran this interesting article about American Airlines and the airline industry in general. As you’ve probably heard or figured out, $130/barrel oil makes jet fuel extremely expensive. The airlines need to raise their fares significantly with the same traffic level to cover the added cost. Unfortunately, since the airline industry is so competitive, no airline can instantly raise fares that much without driving customers away to other airlines who haven’t matched the increase. To make matters worse, many customers are price sensitive, and are unwilling to fly if the fare is too high. Most airlines are responding by reducing the number of flights and raising fares, hoping to cram in more people to each flight and forcing them to pay more by reducing their flight options. Meanwhile Southwest continues to grow, albeit more slowly than in previous years, and fill in the gaps left by our competitors. There’s no easy way to fix the Americans of the industry, and I don’t know if I would even want to try. I just thank God over and over that I work for Southwest and hope to maintain that privilege for decades to come.

Speaking of oil, a friend sent another article in the Star-Telegram that provides a fascinating and plausible explanation for the ridiculous rise in oil prices. Check out Part 1 and Part 2.