The Largest Airline Meltdown in Aviation History! 29 Dec 2022
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- Over 15,000 flights cancelled by one airline (as of 29 Dec 2022)
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Juan, did you read this?
Larry Lonero
What happened to Southwest Airlines?
I’ve been a pilot for Southwest Airlines for over 35 years. I’ve given my heart and soul to Southwest Airlines during those years. And quite honestly Southwest Airlines has given its heart and soul to me and my family.
Many of you have asked what caused this epic meltdown. Unfortunately, the frontline employees have been watching this meltdown coming like a slow motion train wreck for sometime. And we’ve been begging our leadership to make much needed changes in order to avoid it. What happened yesterday started two decades ago.
Herb Kelleher was the brilliant CEO of SWA until 2004. He was a very operationally oriented leader. Herb spent lots of time on the front line. He always had his pulse on the day to day operation and the people who ran it. That philosophy flowed down through the ranks of leadership to the front line managers. We were a tight operation from top to bottom. We had tools, leadership and employee buy in. Everything that was needed to run a first class operation. When Herb retired in 2004 Gary Kelly became the new CEO.
Gary was an accountant by education and his style leading Southwest Airlines became more focused on finances and less on operations. He did not spend much time on the front lines. He didn’t engage front line employees much. When the CEO doesn’t get out in the trenches the neither do the lower levels of leadership.
Gary named another accountant to be Chief Operating Officer (the person responsible for day to day operations). The new COO had little or no operational background. This trickled down through the lower levels of leadership, as well.
They all disengaged the operation, disengaged the employees and focused more on Return on Investment, stock buybacks and Wall Street. This approach worked for Gary’s first 8 years because we were still riding the strong wave that Herb had built.
But as time went on the operation began to deteriorate. There was little investment in upgrading technology (after all, how do you measure the return on investing in infrastructure?) or the tools we needed to operate efficiently and consistently. As the frontline employees began to see the deterioration in our operation we began to warn our leadership. We educated them, we informed them and we made suggestions to them. But to no avail. The focus was on finances not operations. As we saw more and more deterioration in our operation our asks turned to pleas. Our pleas turned to dire warnings. But they went unheeded. After all, the stock price was up so what could be wrong?
We were a motivated, willing and proud employee group wanting to serve our customers and uphold the tradition of our beloved airline, the airline we built and the airline that the traveling public grew to cheer for and luv. But we were watching in frustration and disbelief as our once amazing airline was becoming a house of cards.
A half dozen small scale meltdowns occurred during the mid to late 2010’s. With each mini meltdown Leadership continued to ignore the pleas and warnings of the employees in the trenches. We were still operating with 1990’s technology. We didn’t have the tools we needed on the line to operate the sophisticated and large airline we had become. We could see that the wheels were about ready to fall off the bus. But no one in leadership would heed our pleas.
When COVID happened SWA scaled back considerably (as did all of the airlines) for about two years. This helped conceal the serious problems in technology, infrastructure and staffing that were occurring and being ignored. But as we ramped back up the lack of attention to the operation was waiting to show its ugly head.
Gary Kelly retired as CEO in early 2022. Bob Jordan was named CEO. He was a more operationally oriented leader. He replaced our Chief Operating Officer with a very smart man and they announced their priority would be to upgrade our airline’s technology and provide the frontline employees the operational tools we needed to care for our customers and employees. Finally, someone acknowledged the elephant in the room.
But two decades of neglect takes several years to overcome. And, unfortunately to our horror, our house of cards came tumbling down this week as a routine winter storm broke our 1990’s operating system.
The frontline employees were ready and on station. We were properly staffed. We were at the airports. Hell, we were ON the airplanes. But our antiquated software systems failed coupled with a decades old system of having to manage 20,000 frontline employees by phone calls. No automation had been developed to run this sophisticated machine.
We had a routine winter storm across the Midwest last Thursday. A larger than normal number flights were cancelled as a result. But what should have been one minor inconvenient day of travel turned into this nightmare. After all, American, United, Delta and the other airlines operated with only minor flight disruptions.
The two decades of neglect by SWA leadership caused the airline to lose track of all its crews. ALL of us. We were there. With our customers. At the jet. Ready to go. But there was no way to assign us. To confirm us. To release us to fly the flight. And we watched as our customers got stranded without their luggage missing their Christmas holiday.
I believe that our new CEO Bob Jordan inherited a MESS. This meltdown was not his failure but the failure of those before him. I believe he has the right priorities. But it will take time to right this ship. A few years at a minimum. Old leaders need to be replaced. Operationally oriented managers need to be brought in. I hope and pray Bob can execute on his promises to fix our once proud airline. Time will tell.
It’s been a punch in the gut for us frontline employees. We care for the traveling public. We have spent our entire careers serving you. Safely. Efficiently. With luv and pride. We are horrified. We are sorry. We are sorry for the chaos, inconvenience and frustration our airline caused you. We are angry. We are embarrassed. We are sad. Like you, the traveling public, we have been let down by our own leaders.
Herb once said the the biggest threat to Southwest Airlines will come from within. Not from other airlines. What a visionary he was. I miss Herb now more than ever.
Spot on.
Sounds like what happened at Boeing ... when the accountants and MBA's take over, the engineering and operation side suffers as management focuses on short term quarterly results while missing the big picture.
@gardbruce, thank you for posting this. There are lessons for all of us here. SWA is not the only organization that is a victim of entrenched management, and a CYA mindset.
This needs to be plastered all over the news. I had no Idea and I work at DFW. ( Freight side though) Also, This exact thing is happening at my job. Money driven management is absolutely destroying us.
Unfettered capitalism. Plain . and . Simple.
Nashville decided that people who showed up to the airport with a valid ticket, had a valid ticket long enough to get through security, and since they were still in the airport, didn't cancel their own tickets, were trespassing because a third party cancelled their tickets? I'd love to watch the trial for that.
Presumably the airline and police department would be writing a very large check.
They probably got written a very big check by the prison
It doesn’t matter why the ticket was canceled. No ticket means you have no license to be airside in the airport.
You would be the one writing the checks to cover court costs.
He said the people were cleared to protect the gate employees from abuse.
Your explanation of the airline meltdown was very well disected and explained. I was not aware of he 200 employees quitting at the same time. I was very unfortunate for the passengers at the airport to be threatened with a trespassing citation.
It never dawned on me that the airline was unaware of each pilot’s flight and rest hours. Keeping the airline in compliance with the Dept. Of Transportation/FAA laws contributed to the airline forcing each pilot and aircraft to stay grounded to reset the number of available hours for a pilot to fly an aircraft.
Thanks for making this video!
I fly almost every week on Southwest. My happiest day of 2022 was when I made A-list. Southwest is a great airline for frequent travelers. I love that company. However they screwed up big time. Watching them go through this is like watching a loved who should have gone to rehab a year ago ruin their life. I am angry, I am sad. I am embarrassed for telling my work colleagues how much I love Southwest. Thank you Juan for the best coverage of this incident that I have seen. Please get it together SWA.
It may sound like it's a ton of processing power to keep track of those variables, but it really isn't. The problem is implementation, which equates to a hit in income. They realize now that the bigger threat in revenue is not implementing a newer, more robust system but that old system not being able to cope with demand. This has happened on smaller scales in so many other industries, why did they not see this coming? At some point the chickens come home to roost.
I fly for another airline which is always on the edge of having the same problem…upper mgmt will never learn. I now simply jumpseat home on day1 when these meltdowns begin.
I think the most significant element of this story is that a big company tried to bully its employees and the employees walked. Good for them.
@@micanro Ignorant comment.
These upper management ppl expect everyone to just take it but now employees are calling their bluffs and actually moving elsewhere. You can’t just tell people to quit and not expect them to walk away, especially when the alternative is worse treatment that they don’t deserve simply because the company they work for is incompetent in its structure and technology. If you asked them they wouldn’t want to stay mandatory overtime to get yelled at by angry customers all day because the company left them in the lurch so I don’t know what they expected.
@@doug112244 What's the matter with you? You sad because someone insulted your boyfriend, Fauci?
factully wrong and very ignorant comment.
@@airgliderz If you treat employees as if they're no more important to you than disposables, how you reckon that's 'ignorant'. It goes to the core of the matter. Every employee in a well-run organisation deserves respect, not treating like shit and telling what they can/can't do. Remember, organisations fail at the weakest link, especially very large organisations (like SWA). The 'trick' when running one is to avoid creating that weak link. It's systemic failure when it happens.
I work for Southwest ramp and this video couldn’t be more accurate. My station had about 30-40% of workers call off. Leaving whoever was leftover overworked, understaffed, and underprepared. Still, we were being pushed to turn flights and getting mandoed for later turns and terminators. I overheard that management was going to “play it by ear.” The ramp was not shoveled, barely salted, equipment stuck in snow. Crew forced to dig out our own equipment out of the snow, which is dangerous. Unfortunately, due to negligence of my station I had a slip and fall on my head, resulting in me being hospitalized and with a head injury. It wasn’t worth the $17 an hour. As an incentive, crew was given time and a half if we work from 12/23-1/08. Still, I don’t know if it’s worth it. Work started to feel more like going to war because every detail going into loading a plane had a problem.
nice piece´s of 💩 that 30/40% coworkers..
I hope you are feeling much better, and will have NO lingering effects from your fall! 🙏🏼
Holy cow. Us rampies and ACS teams have it hard to begin with. Come rain, cold or blazing heat. It’s very demanding work at the best of times, with a lot of responsibility on our shoulders. Occasionally it hits me how many people could die when we mistakes are made. It’s horrific to think of what you and the others endured during the cyclone bomb. And then to have that too… you have my sympathy and my respect. And I hope you recover soon.
Your experience illustrates an important point. When those in leadership show a commitment to those under them, people are willing to come through in a crunch. An excellent illustration of that came when Ernst Shackleton's ship was trapped in the Antarctic ice. A safe return seem almost impossible, but Shackleton, showing incredible leadership, pulled it off.
In contrast, when leaders make harsh demands and adopt a threatening, punitive attitude, those then abused will often quit en masse at the worst possible moment. I describe how that happened at a major children's hospital where I worked and offer a solution in _Senior Nurse Mentor_. After many months of abuse, almost a quarter of the hospital's floor nurses quit in just a few weeks, creating a major staffing crisis.
Sounds like Canadian healthcare for the last year. I have great empathy for these employees. Same issues, slow moving tidal wave for 20 years. Only focus is financial.
If the _first_ thing a CEO talks about is “increasing value to our shareholders”, you know a meltdown is coming. It’s a commendable goal, and it should be on a CEO’s shortlist, but it’s difficult to achieve if you’re not taking care of your customers and employees first.
I so agree Fred, you see this across industries. Shareholders only do well in the long run when they are an afterthought, and normal investors (ie not "in the club") would be wise to take note. These quick bull runs and crashes are for those at the very top trying to squeeze water from a stone.
The key goal for CEOs should be “increasing LONG TERM value for shareholders” and all that entails. Including putting in place the systems and tools to enable employees to generate all the complex pieces of work that create value.
SWA did not do that. Disappointing but enlightening.
He mentioned Boeing, which prior to the merger with McDonnell Douglas, was a premier first-rate corporation focused on performance and safety. Then it became about short-sighted cost-cutting and share price maximization with safety and quality de-emphasized. The results eventually spoke for themselves.
They are legally responsible to increase value as much as they can for the shareholders. However, going about it this way is doing the opposite of increasing value. Keeping your employees happy is the best way to reduce turnover and increase productivity, therefor value
@@la7era1u54HA!
I retired from Alaska Airlines after 35 years, three years at Evergreen International, 4 years at various commuters. Management in the 90’s quit caring about the operation and focused on profit. We were told that they report to the stockholders. What they were actually reporting to was BlackRock and Vanguard investments who were major stockholders. Neither of which knew how to run an airline. We see it with the railroads, media and the medical industry. What we have here is the classic case of the monkeys running the banana boat.
Wonder if it had anything to do with Flight 216's eventual occurrence.
@Gundog55 this is facts. All they care about is the bottom line. In the long run, it destroys the company and makes it's an empty shell of what it use to be. The top guys run off with something on their resume or golden parachutes after burning the company to the ground all the while acting like everything is going great.
And heavily armed monkeys at that!
@@Torturephile I think so. Alaska was formerly (as far as I know) a respectable mid-cost carrier.
But after taking huge hits during the financial crisis, and with rising competition from low cost carriers like Southwest, they drastically cut back on maintenance procedures and generally cut costs in any way they could.
@@phucgougle4279 At some point CEO’s are going to have to grow a set and stop pleasing the investment firms that are going for the fast buck and actually “lead” for success”.
I been working at Southwest for 16 years as a Ramp Agent and I can tell you this upsets all of us employees.
I can feel for you it’s a gut punch to those who have the traveling public in your hands
It doesn't build confidence and that's what the public is considering before they book. How many future flying public tickets did this incident negate? Super Pete is going to hold them accountable and their survival is in question.
PREDICTION - SW will be holding out their please give us tax dollars so we don't collapse in on ourselves hand before summer.
Quit Southwest
Yet you continue to show up for work.
It shouldn't. This is capitalism working as intended. The company isn't loyal to you so you really shouldn't be loyal to the company.
Any company who plays the "do what I want or I'll fire you" card these days is going to get their bluff called, especially in short staffed industries. Thank you for the great analysis sir!
yep, and the executives will have to take a pay cut and pay the workers more. heaven forbid.
@@rw3497 Yea. If you don't want someone posting the stupid shit your company is doing... stop doing stupid shit
It's like these idiots that post themselves doing something stupid on Tiktok, then getting mad when someone else reports it
Many airlines have been short of help. SW Airlines no doubt is suffering the same thing as other airlines.
@Rhaspun many companies are short right now and having a hard time hiring/retaining employees. Right now is the wrong time to be screwing over your workers because there are plenty of jobs that pay the same or better with less bullshit
Edit... autocorrect keeps changing my "there's" and "you're"s
@@jimlthor Yes. I saw a thing about how some people have simply stopped working. They aren't seeking another job after quitting. We've seen in the news about the great resignation happening and it is over a couple of million people.
If Herb was still running Southwest they wouldn’t have this problems. Since his passing the airline culture has changed. He always took care of his team members. It’s so sad to see.
You are right on the dot ever since they started bring top leadership from outside the company,the company has gone down the drain. IT group has been hiring ppl with no experience but just plainly based on who they knew in the company.
Could the meltdown could have been avoided if they simply added a $15/hr bonus pay for anyone who could work the ramps? Instead of pissing off 200 ramp agents...
@@brianwest2775 Meltdown probably couldn't have been avoided since it was largely the antiquated computer scheduling system problem, not the ramp employees. You just responded to the letter that spelled it all out. If the aircraft is stuck at the gate because of scheduling, then there is nothing the ramp workers can do other than sit inside the terminal and wait. I don't buy the story that hundreds of them quit that evening.
Man, who knew that threatening your employees, treating them like children and making unreasonable demands would piss them off and possibly set off a chain of events that would expose decades of poor management decisions?
Sad thing is...the lower management and employees working thru poor management decisions and NOT pushing back is also another reason it festered and grew to critical mass...
Pushing back against poor management and stupid decisions is hard, but allowing it to grow is what causes this kind of mayhem
Whoever wrote that threatening memo probably knew what a house of cards the whole system was. His fear of what could happen may have ended up triggering it to happen.
@@haydenc2742 the sad irony is that pushing back on bad management decisions is what gets you fired. And in the USA, losing your job means that you can easily be out on the street.
Lovely how we toot our own democracy horn but when it comes to business we think that petty autocrats are the best way to do things.
@@Nathaniel-L96 a business is not a democracy. I repeat; a business is not a democracy. That's said America is one of the few countries that has an unemployment system, free retraining, AJCs, VRs, and social welfare package to prevent you from immediately being out on the street. If you don't agree with management decisions, voice your opinion - respectfully. If they don't want to listen, start making plans to leave. In the end, management is put in place to execute the plans that the C suite has enacted, even if they themselves do not agree with the plan. That's how a matrix based organization works as well as the chain of command. Because, it's not a democracy, it's a business.
I don't know if you didn't read the second half of my comment, but I am perfectly aware that businesses aren't democracies. It's why I say they're run by "petty autocrats".
The social benefits in this country are meagre. They incentivize and reinforce poverty by having income limits. I've heard stories online and from friends who avoid work so they don't lose their cheap or free plans, or people absolutely fucked because their boss made them work overtime too much and they were just a few dollars over the income maximum.
I've also heard stories of people working 40 hours per week or more and are unable to pay their bills. Nobody should work and still be poor.
Another parallel to this disaster is the rail labor issues that have been in the news since around September. Rail companies invested in executive pay, stock buybacks, and shareholder dividends while their employees quit because of poor conditions or were threatened with firing if they took time off of work to go to the doctor. And President Biden and almost all members of both parties in Congress sided with the bosses, preventing so many quality of life benefits to workers.
Covid really fucked us but things have been fucked in this country for a long time.
I used to work for Southwest Airlines as a baggage handler. They didn’t get electronic scanners for baggage until 2019, if that gives you any perspective on their tech stack. Was literally counting bags by hand on a clipboard before then 😂
0.0 I felt better before I knew how the sausage was made
As someone who has been in the industry for 10 years, that’s freaking wild 🤣
Wow!
The FAA was concerned with misloading. They made them invest in the scanners.
Well said! Never let a CFO become the CEO, or else you get this very situation.
Better yet, never let a CEO, CFO, CIO, or any "XEO" be in charge of an engineering firm. Or health care. Or just about any other critical business venture. Bean counters & profiteers will destroy what you've built. But they'll drive away in a Ferrari for their trouble!
A doctor friend of mine left private practice in favor of group medical care. Every so often, some new (never the same person) MBA in a shiny suit would enter his office and provide "feedback" on how he delivered health care. What a joke to have MBA's directing HEALTH CARE! Again, never the same nitwit twice. After a few years, he returned to private practice, much happier, despite the dwindling pay. Once returning, his patients who followed him hither and back finally admitted they hated the medical group and were SO GLAD he returned to private practice.
Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal examines the phenomenon of interjecting business ideas, functions and motive into health care in detail in her 2017 book "An American Sickness." This is a stain on American professions and will continue to undermine American prowess for decades to come if we don't address it.
Just look at BestBuy. CFO to CEO what could go wrong.
Saying "the goal of a business is to generate profit for its shareholders" is like sayjng "the goal of life is to procreate". A prerequisite for existence is not a purpose. Without understanding the purpose a business and a soul can die, even when all prerequisites are met.
Qantas just appointed its CFO to CEO 😂😂😂😂
Thank you for this, I've been trying to explain this all week to folks. While the Denver situation was the spark, the fuel that exploded has been lying their in a pool for a long time. Their operating model (the PtP routing) coupled with their homegrown and archaic software plus their refusal to establish interline agreements has been a house of cards for a long time. (Side note, the 90's were 30 years ago not 40. I'm old enough already, please don't make me older :) )
You still look marvelous
@@asymptoticsingularity9281 creepy!
The 90's are as long ago from today, as the 60's were from the 90's.
If you think that's bad just wait until you see how old the systems that manage social security, the IRS, department of defense, nationwide energy (hint, they are older than SWA)
@@sheldoniusRex 🤯 thanks for forcing that realization! lol makes me feel 👴😉
Nice analysis. I heard a SWA captain of a flight boarding near us pick up the PA mike at the ticket counter and tell everyone within hearing that the CEO and Board of Directors of SWA should be fired. I'm a corporate pilot, never, I mean never have I heard anyone say something like this. If it gets this bad, management better get on the stick real quick or there won't be an airline anymore.
Replace the CEO with Tammie Jo Shults. She'd know how to get the planes there safely.
It wouldn't surprise me if SW has to lower their prices in the near future to get passengers back.
@@Rhaspun Given a choice, many customers will avoid SWA at any price. At least for a while.
The problem is, those who profit most from those companies don't have any connection to the company. The shareholders, board of directors and the CEOs, COOs etc. They only think of themselves these days and just want to make as much money as possible by milking companies to death rather than to think long term and socially responsible. Modern day capitalists are like parasites. We need to go back to a form of economy where a few people at the monetary top cannot manipulate the market as it benefits them.
Pilot was frustrated because they have been telling the empty suits at SWA about the inevitable doom if upgrades not done.
Things are only going to get worse for air travel. I'm a retired pilot and I hate going to the airport here in Denver to try to get on a flight with a pass. TSA lines are getting ridiculously long, the flights are always overbooked, and the crowds of people in the terminals drive me nuts. It wouldn't bother me if I never flew on an airplane again. Let's hear it for RV trips.
I say bring on high speed rail.
Bring the Japanese Rail Company as an American franchisee over to whip the US Rail Network into shape.
Or just a scenic ride on Amtrak.
I bought an RV for this very reason.
I recently flew Alaska to Phoenix and back. Haven’t flown in years. Use to be a nice experience but I dreaded going. The crew was great! But I figure that will be it for me. Too many nonsense rules. I also dreaded TSA but I have to say they were very nice and helpful. Just way too many people passing through security. Too many people and not enough agents or equipment.
Wife and I were flying back from Lafayette, LA to Sea-Tac in April of this year. We had a connecting flight at DFW. We had about an hour and a half from the time our first airplane landed to when our second departed.
First one showed up about 30 minutes late so we took off late. Finally touched down at DFW with just under an hour til we needed to be at the next flight. I thought we’d be good. Then the captain gets on the PA and says there’s going to be a delay because there aren’t any available gates to park at. So we sat on the taxiway for about 45 minutes and by the time we got off the plane, our next one had just left.
So I go to the American Airlines person and tell her what happened and ask her to put us on the next flight. She says “Next flight to Sea-Tac isn’t til tomorrow morning and every seat is already sold.”
So she put us on standby then proceeded to not help us at all with finding or paying for a hotel. We ended up taking an Uber to a hotel which we paid for. Came back the next morning to find we were number 11 and 12 on the standby list. I was literally the last person they let on before closing the door.
After this experience I told my wife “if we can’t drive there, I don’t need to go.
Then 4 months later I got a new job that requires me to travel to DFW all the time. FML 🤦♂️
I used to consult for a variety of major US companies. Once, at a company meeting of a client, one of the senior managers said "the problem is not that we shot ourselves in the foot, the problem is that once we did, our first thought was to reload". Many, many company crises are self-inflicted. Good job, Southwest.
That is a great description of what happens at many corporate and government sectors.
@@mosa4688 it’s what will kill this country. Along with help from all the America haters in one of our parties. But once the bulk of us are broke and starving we will have a least achieved equality. And our overlords will still be flying comfortably in their private jets. To climate summits.
@@ronunderwood5771 Not only the US - here in Australia too they (the multi billionaires and multi nationals) are trying to dismantle the Industrial Relations structures we have had for years to follow the American system - all for the mighty $$$$
Good one. Yes. Many companies that get a second chance will do that.
@@TheFrenchPug GM
Juan… you mentioned the prioritizing of Southwest goals from operations to finances. Unfortunately in today's world it does not matter whether you are an airline, grocery chain, car dealership, bank, or any other financial institution. It's all about the money. Not about the employees and not about the customers. Once the company has your money they could care less about you. No matter which industry.
Its all about shareholder profits, railroads are going through the same too.
In a way it is about money. A company either earns a profit or it's going to go bankrupt. What was missed was that you make money through your day-to-day business operations. They also missed an important aspect of business operations called 'risk management.' And this is not 'risk management' as it applies to flying airplanes, but risk management as in looking out for problems that can severely disrupt operations. Since they had known issues with the software and those issues had disrupted operations in the past - then that software issue meant that a problem was extremely likely to occur and that the consequences of that problem would be widespread throughout the company's operations.
Very few companies have people at the management level who's primary job is risk management.
This works well until the cow that is being milked has no milk anymore. Then everything will collapse from which the honest worker will probably suffer the most from though while the super rich will hide behind walls and private armies as they still haven't learned that their own behavior caused this mess. Or they simply don't care because they fear no consequences. I hope this pride comes before the fall for them ...
And that route inevitable leads to failure. No amount of money in the whole world can compensate for a de-motivated workforce. Especially so when employment is high and they can go get a new job just like that. There's NO REASON to stay. Is that what's wanted ?
@@laaaliiiluuu "This works well until the cow that is being milked has no milk anymore."
The is something that happens to almost every business. At this point the business either fixes it' problems and returns its focus to operations, or the business goes away. And before you start going on about "the rich" you need to look into how our tax laws in investment income encourage this type of behavior. Our tax laws favor short-term investing and disfavors long term investing. This maximizes tax revenue for the government at the expense of business management managing the company for five years down the road instead of the next quarter's earnings statement. However, fixing our tax laws might mean that the 25% of taxpayers who pay 87% of the federal income taxes collected ("the rich") might only pay 86%.
Sent threatening email to ramp agents when you needed them the most. .. way to go SWA management.
Good management would go out on the ramps and stay there an entire shift and assist the ramp crew as best they could. There's a leadership saying in the US Army: 'You can't push wet spaghetti.' The worse the situation the more important it is for the troops to see their leaders out there with them.
Depends on how many we're being shit and not wanting to ramp in the snow. You shouldn't have a job anymore if you didn't have a doctor note proving fever and cold
@@colincampbell767 Exactly right - and make sure that they have hot drinks, that they are staffed right so they get breaks, and give them exceptional hardship pay. Leading means more than just having a title. This was a massive management problem, starting at the top, and starting years ago.
@@konichiwa3744 take the doctors note and shove it up, along with the draconian management.
Very common these days to dump on the workers at the bottom and accuse them of malingering, and there’s always going to be some who milk every opportunity to avoid work, but 200 (!) ramp agents quitting en masse means there’s certainly a problem with management.
I worked for AA 20yrs started at ORD on the ramp. Before jets, computers and wind chill factor. Ever Oct. we had winterization programs to to get ready for for all kinds of weather threats and be ready to work long hours and how to keep the operation going. Not once did management make threats. What impressed was their encouragement in making sure we were OK. Later on I became Management and carried out the tradition the best I could.
Exactly! I worked for ALLEGHENY AIRLINES in ALB and BUF in the early 70's and that's what was expected of you...just do the job, I remember bitterly digging out a DC-9-30 in ALB after a very heavy and blowing snow event...and our deicing rig was pulled behind a tug...ahhh THOSE WERE THE DAYS BABY!! ;))
What gets me is when ground handling companies enter the winter season thinking that things will work exactly the same way as they do in summertime. For instance, they roster the same amount of people working each day, even though winter conditions absolutely require more workers in comparison. They also never seem to take in account that people will get sick more often and that workplace injuries increase substantially out on the freezing cold and slippery ramp. Taking into account these two simple factors will save on delays, decrease the amount of money spent on overtime but most importantly, they will keep your customers happy. (Then there are the inevitable equipment failures as well, because nothing works like it should in properly cold weather)
I work for SWA ground crewand can say that management did not prepare us at all. I heard that they were going to “play it by ear”. About 30-40% of people called in sick, leftover ramp was overworked, understaffed, and mandoed. I had a slip and fall on my head at an area that was slippery due to negligence trying to work all days and became hospitalized. I realized it wasn’t worth it :(
we even had teams ready to launch to any city that had major employee walk out or sick out, what the hell are they thinking, they are NOT UN TOUCHABLEEEEE
@@petejay75 Bing Bing Bing...We have a winner.
Juan, you stated near the end of the piece that you hoped the bean counters would finally do the right thing, or words to that effect. Having previously worked for AA for 34 years, the bean counters NEVER do the right thing operationally, only for the stockholders.
As an FBO ramp rat, swa really fucked up by threatening my commercial siblings. Last thing you wanna do is threaten a group of people who are already stressed and exhausted.
AGREED
We landed BNA late morning of the 23rd. Absolutely dangerous conditions on the ramp. We had a total of 8 rampers to work 6 gates (all the rest called off due to the cold]. We held over an hour on taxiways and the ramp waiting to get on our gate. The ground crews were freezing yet continued to move from gate to gate doing everything they could to keep our operation (NOT Southwest) going. All the while I was worried we were going to disrupt Southwest’s operation. Guess I had little to worry about🥶🤣🤣🤣. My hats off to ANY ground personnel that chose to work anywhere east of the Rockies with that weather!
I would like to clarify that maintaining IT systems is not investment. Investment is when you buy something new. Maintaining the old stuff and upgrading it is considered business as usual, or BAU, activity.
So Southwest airlines failure here as they were chasing the dollar trying to show their loyalty to the stockholders, they fundamentally failed and destroyed their company from within which is going to destroy the stock value. And it wasn't because of a lack of investment, it was a lack of maintenance.
I've worked outside all my life. Going in on a day like that, knowing what you're in for...Then catch an attitude like that from the office boys. Good on these guys for telling them to pound sand.
Hell yes!
Say it right, office soy bitches. 😁
There are plenty of others jobs a person could get for 20 bucks an hour. No reason to stay in an abusive environment. Especially while the "suits" sit on their worthless rear ends and rake in the millions. Screw all that!
I totally agree. Employees who think they are so special they don't have to bring a doctor's excuse for a sick-out.....something by the way that many, MANY companies including various levels of government require as a normal work rule or during periods of high absenteeism....it's hard to have sympathy for those 200 workers who thought it'd just be a neat idea to up and quit like that. I hope none of them are rehired at SWA and I also hope they suffer economic devastation because of their stupidity.
Southwest Airlines is absolute garbage. Will never fly them again.
This has always been my pet peeve. Bean counters think they must do everything to cut costs, even if this means relying in one AoA sensor and killing redundancy (737 Max MCAS issue). Same for these CEOs who think investing in people, IT and other "hidden" areas are a waste of money. Profit should be a consequence of good service and management and not the opposite.
This attitude of bean counting pervades everywhere. Years ago I was told by a management consultant 🙄 that "if you cannot measure it (ie count the beans), it does not matter" 🤦♂
Sure. But you confuse bean counters with shareholders.
There was a time when accountants were kept working in the accounting department of corporations to offer advice to their corporate leaders. We see the results of placing them in top management positions in the examples displayed by Boeing, Southwest, and most other corporations.
Most other corporations, indeed. Intel is another big one that comes to mind.
Taking people's money is the main job of a corporation. Providing a service is an afterthought
Another great explanation. I was searching all over to find out what happened. You covered it all. In a nutshell! Southwest failed to keep up with technology and thousand of innocent travelers were the ones that suffered, along with all the flight crews. The folks in the thousand dollar suits aren’t suffering at all. They are still raking in all of their bonuses.
Bingo. That’s why we are still getting junk made over in China. It’s all about profits over quality. It’s all about profits over employee pay and benefits. It’s all about how much they can pull out of their stock dividends. It’s all about taking the family on the vacation in the company tax deducted bizjet to their second and third vacation homes.
Sounds just like upper management within our civil service system. Management often gets bonuses while the system melts down and everyone else gets the shaft
There's ONE way to stop this attitude. The 'suits' need to spend several weeks a year on the 'front line'. In customer service, at check in, at the gate or on the ramp. That way you're forcing them to accept reality. No choice.
@@grahamstevenson1740
That makes way too much sense, and would probably be helpful!
Hope springs eternal.......
@Graham Stevenson That will never happen. Maybe a couple hours once during their tenure.
As a truck driver, I picked up a load right next to DIA and spent the night there during this storm. It was brutally cold with wind chill of -38° F when I was there. I stayed warm running my heater, but I feel for anyone who had to be out in it.
Amazing when you are out there and see the truth of what is like. You can clearly understand. Seems the top management does not see the problems or the phrase my friend has said " I Can't see it (problem) from my house..."
@@terrancestodolka4829 What was the "truth" exactly? It's too cold to work? How did the other airlines stay open?
@@joez.2794 probably by not threatening their employees and operating at a reduced capacity
@@joez.2794
It’s a software problem not a hardware problem.
@@2K9s started as a hardware problem, turned into a software problem
Anytime you prioritize your investors over operations, it's only a matter of time before things go south. This applies to every major industry, from mass transit to health care.
A matter of time can be decades and you can steal a lot of money from customers and workers in decades
Only a matter of time before things go south west
About 5 years ago I quit a fairly good paying job as a helicopter mechanic. The company just. treated ground crew like garbage. The glamour of aviation .
Kudos to those guys for walking.
Really enjoy the updates on your projects.
@@carllsn8 Thanks, A quick update about the Otter at work, I checked the trim jack on the Horizontal stab and it looks like new. The one that Juan showed a few weeks back was indeed in rough shape. I was talking to a mechanic who has worked on the coast here for ages and He is of the opinion the Otter was kind of under built. When new and when kept well maintained it's ok, but the safety margin is not as large as the Beaver. Just opinions so take it for what it's worth.
Stay safe.
Time to push back to big business. It's not the ground crew wages that are too high. It's the ceo s that earn way too much.
I remember reading many years ago in an aviation magazine where this aviation expert said that I tell my kids you are better off working for a local car dealer as a mechanic than working as an A&P. Wages and long term benefits were better at car dealers then.
@@Dilley_G45 Being treated like a human goes a long way also.
But I have to agree with you.
Excellent presentation. You nailed the problem square on the head. I flew for SWA for 16 years, beginning my tenure during Herb’s time and then watched the disreputable cretans which succeeded him systematically take that great company down the s***ter with a pathetic combination of vulgar arrogance, short sighted stupidity and unadulterated incompetence. I retired just ahead of the MAX/MCAS debacle and feel fortunate for the escape; but knowing the machinations involved still distresses me while surprising me not at all. You’re right, Southwest’s people are and always have been the absolute best in the industry. It it their strength and commitment as a workforce which has kept the company off the rocks while every post Herb management mob has done everything in their power to run them straight on to a lee shore. Let’s hope the empty suits at the top figure things out before this great American institution goes the way of the dodo bird.
Sounds like Joe Biden’s management of the once United States.
Do you still fly SW?
Well a lot of that falls on Herb if he left such a bad management as his successor.
@@terryroth2855 Brandon only does what Nancy Pelosi tells him to do. Its now becoming The United States of Democrat Communists
This can be done manually with the right kind of brains. The problem is they don’t have the right kind of brains, because the computers used to do all the work. I bet humans would have done a better job from the beginning. Crew scheduling shouldn’t be 100% automated
I knew the meltdown was due to corporate mismanagement.
I worked for SWA as a IT Security contractor and they had some very old systems when I was there. Their IT staff were overworked .They were always quite thrifty with their IT expenses and now it's bit them in the ass.
every company
Sounds like an airline.
No you didnt.
This is a BIG BITE!
@@buzz5722
It's a big company!
Gee, maybe some new puters, and some relatively up-to-date software.....
This is what happens when people get tired of being forced into slave labor conditions, low IQ managers threatening to terminate you over ridiculous reasons. Times are changing in the workforce.
As a testament to Herb Kelleher's Hands-On attitude about Southwest Airlines, my mom on a trip offered to take care of a little child who was traveling alone. The flight crew obviously passed that on to Mr Kelleher, and my mom received a very nice hand written note from him in appreciation of her being such a great customer.
Typical corporate FUBAR. Like you said, upper management forgets who got them there. I was pushed out of my job after 46 years along with others due to dollars. Thanks for the update Juan. Stay safe.
Sounds like the Russian army.
I work in room that handles the backend side of the operation from crew scheduling to dispatch and I was there every day from start to finish. It was almost scary to watch things go from bad to worse every passing minute. There were things that all of us could have done better and it’s hard to place the blame on one single thing. The tools that we have in comparison to the rest of the industry are actually quite good, I just don’t think really anyone is prepared to handle the problems that were presented in the volume in which they were arising. Great video though, very insightful even to someone who was there while it happened in real time
Are you kidding me? Southwest utterly failed. They even called the cops on stranded passengers who had nowhere to go. They didn't help them at all. A employee posted the ticket contract agreement and until a refund is issued it was southwest's responsibility to shelter the passengers and straighten things out. Instead this corrupt corporation called the cops on families just standing in line with nowhere to go. They weren't yelling, they weren't belligerent, they were just standing in line calm and collected waiting for answers on what to do next. Southwest is disgusting.
Give us details ✨️
Seeing all those SWA jets parked reminds me of all the Sun Country and Delta jets parked at KMSP during the pandemic. I sure hope the new leadership at SWA can sort this mess out and get the airline back where it used to be. In 2010 and 2011 I lived in Irving TX near KDFW and was getting gas one day and 2 ladies in SWA uniforms were chatting and I remember one saying something like "things were different when Herb was around" but I gave it little thought at the time.
Yup. Pretty much covers it. A wise man once said; The two worst types of leaders of major corporations are Lawyers and Accountants. Yes, Herb was a lawyer, but he wasn’t afraid of the law. Gerry is an accountant, and he is afraid of the money.
The big question is how many people who got stranded by Southwest are going to keep using the airline? Now what was that definition of Insanity?
WOW! When I saw the video of the Nashville police lining up Southwest passengers and throwing them out of the terminal - I had no idea what had happened... (In case you missed it, the Southwest passengers with cancelled flights were determined to no longer have a ticket - thus the police determined they could not be in the terminal behind the TSA checkpoint - and threatened the passengers with jail for trespassing... Way to go Nashville! ugh)
(edit: oh, he covered the Nashville incident... glad to see others outraged!)
The police and Southwest employees who called them should be fired.
Can’t have people attempting to sneak on planes. Yes, that happens. Further, they were beginning to get Africanized… like the bees.
Yet the US government throws trespassers in jail cells for 2 years and counting, in solitary confinement, without legal representation, and no charges filed, and we have an entire political party and about half of the American electorate that declares this a good thing...
@@thatguy8005
Ummmm….
Bees we’re “Africanized” by a very specific process.
They were taken from their natural environment, shipped across the planet, forced to mate with a different sub-species, and then were left in an area where there was no food or natural pollinating process for the bees.
This is absolutely nothing like how bees became “africanized”.
Weird analogy.
This is a nationwide TSA rule and not a rule exclusive to Nashville. My inside source said some passengers were getting unruly, and to prevent further issues they cleared all unticketed passengers out of the secure area once Southwest informed then it was going to take days and not hours to get passengers rebooked.
Love the information you always give. As a locomotive engineer for 25 years, we have battled with the carriers about fatigue since the days of steam engines. I hope the best for you pilots.
And we hope the best for you guys on those cool trains!
This confirms what I have always believed: the little guy/employees in the trenches are the legs upon which the company stands. And that position commands, if not DEMANDS, respect. All those ramp agents quitting like that was the first domino in this disaster. And the CEO let it happen. Only when his company’s share price was tanked, did he act. Managements hyper-capitalistic focus on the short term financial gain is ALWAYS a recipe for disaster.
the CEO forgot about the people that do the grunt work .....big mistake
By any and all accounts Kelleher was a great guy to work for. He understood the value of taking care of taking care of your people and customers. The bean counters who replaced him only care about shareholder value. Spot on analysis!
What part of "rob the long-term profit-generators to fund quarterly bonuses and dividends" sounds like a "bean-counter" decision to you?
How is it the C-suites who are actually making the calls have you doing their PR for them gratis?
The WORST thing is it is not just happening to Southwrst Airlines but to private sector and government sector such as schools ,hospitals, public transit . All these bigshots at the top making the decisions are have never worked at the front line . It's like a person who knows nothing about cooking food runs a restaurant or hotel yet has never ever worked as a cook ,waiter ,chamber maid ect and just cares about saving money thinking 2 people can do the work of 10 people. After 25 years in food/restaurant industry I quit for good and found different work .
An unfortunate part of all this is that the new(ish) CEO (he joined in Feb 2022) has a degree in Computer Science and has worked in software for part of his career. He likely knew he was sitting on a ticking time bomb and was working on upgrading it. However, replacing something so core like that is a multi-year effort.
I duno, CEOs of software companies have a habit of ignoring the engineering teams when they want time to re-engineer things, because that costs a lot of money.
One major rule of business - NEVER let financial types run the business. They must never be more than an advisor.
Had a similar experience at my airport where a whole shift of rampers quit. It's not the job that's bad, just the corporate bs
Usually it is not the work, but the management that sours a job.
When you have bean counters in charge it is terrible news for employee-oriented staff, but when you have Masters or Ph.D. level bean counters in charge it's even worse.
I don’t doubt at all that a HUGE component of this is their IT systems. But honestly I don’t think one should “gloss over” the issue of this condescending memo being the “spark” that kicked off these series of events either. I’m generally of the opinion that anytime there is an instance of mass quitting, fire that mgmt chain pronto.
Nice video as always 😊
Herb Kelleher spoke for 3 hours to my capstone MBA class in 1984. He said the reason he treated his employees so well was for competitive advantage. Planes, gates, fuel, labor, are all similar costs among competitors. Weather, ATC, other, routinely screws up an airline operations. A loyal, well-trained staff will do things to recover operations that union-mentality, poorly-led staff won't. And a loyal well-trained staff takes years to develop. It is a competitive advantage, especially in a non hub and spoke operation. It made sense then. Fast forward. Herb is dead and SWA staff are no longer loyal and well-trained. SWA is just another airline run by mediocre managers staffed by people who are no better than their competition. The magic has been gone at SWA for a long time. It is just very visible now.
Thanks for sharing that story. The current leadership of SW is 180 degrees opposite of Herb.
I used to work at UPS, and that's exactly how it feels there as well.
When it was a private company the employees would bend over backwards for the company.
Now employees bend over backwards trying to hurt the company.
Almost always doing the right thing makes good business sense. The "bean counters" of the world can never understand that.
@@stevencooke6451 Absolutely right, because the bean counters always default to short-termism.
I used to fly SWA out of Denver all the time. I don't know what happened but as of ~3 years ago their pricing got completely out of hand.
SWA was always cheaper or, at a minimum, priced similarly to other airlines. Now when comparing prices I notice they're consistently at least 30% more expensive than other major airlines, with 100% more expensive not being uncommon. Anyone else have this same experience? I'm wondering if it's just my hub (DIA).
Why does it have to be when an Airline has a problem like a meltdown does it have to be referred to as a train wreck? As an Railroader with 19years experience I take exception to that phrase being so loosely used to describe said meltdown. Lol call it a plane wreck next time.
Couldn't agree more. And most train wrecks have a casualty rate of zero to a few dozen. To kill several hundred people at one go, you really need a plane. :)
Thanks for this Juan. It's a shame to see what happens when an industry leader loses its way. As a Boeing employee, I know this first-hand. SWA used to be such a great airline. I recently had the "opportunity" to fly them for the first time in about 4 years. Let me say that it was an experience, and not in a good way. It became obvious to me that they have serious scheduling problems. After 2 minor delays, the third one busted my connection in DEN. They rescheduled me on a flight leaving DEN at 10pm, arriving after midnight. I managed to grab an earlier flight that I could still make with my departure delays. We started boarding at 6-ish, and about halfway through, people started coming back off the plane. It was a mechanical issue with a door seal. They grabbed another plane (good thing they had some laying around in DEN), and we managed to get airborne about 9:30pm. Would NOT recommend them until they get their asses wired right.
As a retired NWS meteorologist, let me suggest another layer of swiss cheese - proactive decision making to cancel flights based on a small cadre of meteorologists. This storm was well forecast days ahead of time and you just about knew within an hour or two of when the strong winds and snow would hit the major airports AND when conditions would improve. The majors cancel flights to these airports for a part of the day so they don't get their planes and crew stuck there AND they don't overburden the local gate agents. This facilitates a quick recovery. My suggestion is that SW do this and develop their rescheduling software with this capability in mind.
I am an airline company software developer, and I wrote our company's Crew Scheduling "Acclimation" calculation software. FAA Part 117 is some of the most ridiculously complex software that you can imagine, just trying to keep track of Crews, Augmented Crews, Acclimation, 60 degree longitudinal travel, in theater and out of theater rest requirements, and even RE-Acclimation. We are a smaller airline than SW, so I can imagine their complexity is much more difficult.
In addition to the operational complexity for programming, the cost to overhaul a company's IT system is ballooning in price. IT system overhauls for large companies are now into the billions of dollars, where they would have often been in the tens of millions of dollars in the early 2000's. Despite the high cost, if you want to maintain a functional business, you need to see this kind of occasional big investment/project as a regular cost of doing business. This is a matter of individual leaders and board members saying "it's well past time to bite the bullet" and biting the damn bullet.
And I struggle sometimes writing a schedule for a couple dozen people 😅
@@RegulusOrigin Sorry but look at things like Amazon deliveries - millions of packages per day delivered by hundreds of thousands of drivers across every city in the US, plus they have different weights and sizes and truck capacities. Im sorry but i call BS.
@@RegulusOrigin Legacy software is proven but couldn't cope with the specific extreme circumstances. The focus should be to prevent that cause, not start a behemoth new IT system that nobody understands and creates new risks. There is no reason why it should cost billions either, it shouldn't need high computing power at all, probably a fraction of what a good chess program uses. The first Ryanair booking website was coded up by a recent graduate for a few thousand Euros (he didn't realise the competing quote was around a million when he made hs bid).
@@jamescaley9942 I did something like that once. Bid a few hundred bucks for a "quick" estimate/consulting gig that ended up taking 3 weeks.
This huge SNAFU is reminiscent of my days at New York Air at DCA during the PATCO strike. Excessive abuse of customers on customer service agents during this chaotic period made me realize that this wasn’t a good career choice. I made the decision to return to active duty in the Navy and retired 14 years later!
You made a life-changing decision, Shipmate. Bravo Zulu.
@@salty_flightdeck_cpo Absolutely 👍! Thanks for your kind comment! Semper Fortis⚓️
As a software developer, the amount of calculations you described sounded like a pretty small amount of things to compute for any modern system. No doubt the algorithms, data structure scaling or some similar issue is the true cause of the IT failure here.
Fixing critical software like this is going to be slow because they for sure don't have automated software unit tests and integration tests for such an old software. If you had adequate tests, certifying/validating new version of the software would be much much much faster.
In some cases, if the new software must be perfectly compatible with the old software for all the tasks that the old software was able to compute, the new project will start with writing the full test suite against the old version and only then starting to develop the replacement. This way you create and validate the test suite which allows to test the new software both during the development process and before release.
Expect the rewrite to take three years minimum and maybe 5 to 7 years in practice until the old software has been retired if they want to stay fully compatible with the old software.
And in the meanwhile, they have to stay within the limits of that 30-40 year old software... I guess you can say better late than never, but they are surely very late here.
It sounds like they were focusing their time and money more on making sure that nobody who worked for them put a toe out of line and maybe minorly damaging their reputation.
I would also bet money that the development and maintenance of this software was outsourced overseas. Maybe no one at Southwest even had access to the source code and any changes required lengthy, error-prone exchanges with a foreign vendor. That’s all speculation but it’s what you find under the hood of many companies. I’m fortunate to develop for a company that writes all its own code and where the programmers regularly speak directly with end users. When compared to how efficient and satisfying this is, outsourcing is completely insane but still the preference of many idiotic executives.
If Southwest gave a few talented, experienced developers the resources they needed, including access to real-time production data/activity of the existing system, and just let them run wild, they could get a robust and scalable system running in a year. Instead, they’ll probably hire consultants who will tell them to outsource to someone else, and if the company even survives, it will take 5-7 years as you said and the result will still be mediocre.
@@JG-zs8tr Oh, I was thinking the task of writing the software would take around a year even in-house but certifying it for production use would take the rest of the time.
That ramp workers decided to quit in mass sounds to me that this is much more than an IT software problem but a corporate culture problem.
This is what happens when accountants, MBA’s and draconian human resource policies take priority over operations and customer service.
I find it funny though that Denver management threatened to fire the workers for not having a doctors note. Like in this environment that’s a reckless move bc workers will call that bluff.
My dad flies for Southwest and it has been miserable the last couple days. Literally taking hours on hold to get ahold of scheduling, scheduling calling people to operate flights thousands of miles away, and literally scouring the airport for legal flight attendants and pilots to piece together flight crews!! Its a mess
Son a SW Pilot flying out of Phoenix. Texted me three days before Christmas saying he had a terrible weather trip compounded by scheduling.
Depending on his seniority number, it may be a great time for Dad to retire and remember the good ole days like so many of us.
My younger brother was a dedicated pilot for AirTran and got fired by southwest when southwest bought AirTran this was years ago he still is a pilot for another airline but he always shows up to work when called in.
I am a former gate agent for a major airline, one of my best friends recently left my former airline for southwest and they told me at one point they had worked 58 of 72 hours during this meltdown, they also added it was the worst day in their carrier in the airlines.
I am among the people who warned you all to not take those injections.
Unfortunately for so many others, too.
@@TheBelrick ??? Tf does a shot have to do with corporate incompetence.
@@th3oryO Does have to do with many people getting sick due to reduced immunity.
I work in corrections and just worked 4 straight doubles. If it weren't for the fact that I had a comp day for the 5th day I would have done 5 in a row. So I feel their pain. Of course the difference is I make $77 an hour on overtime.
Southwest doubled down with threats and forced overtime. This is probably the bottom for them but if they hurt more for a little bit longer a complete change in upper management would occur. My opinion is I'd want that to happen.
What goes on in these CEOs minds? Haven't they learned that we don't live in slavery times anymore? Narcissists in 10,000 dollar costumes believing they could behave like slave masters. What a world.
@@laaaliiiluuu " can I make another dollar by screwing the workers harder today?" is what they are thinking.
@@laaaliiiluuu They learned, tho. I mean, they HAD to have learned from this - those few employees that walked caused a cascade of events that put SW on the news, in a BAD way, for DAYS. If swift and effective action, along with expressions of humility don't happen fast, SW could go under. And in that case, those at the top get 100% of the blame.
@@NihongoGuy Yeah but what's going to happen to them at the top? I they lose their jobs at max and will soon be at another company.
@@laaaliiiluuu I dont care, just so they are gone.
In today's job market, responding brutally to low level employees calling out is the best way to get NOBODY to show up. Employers don't realize many of these people are just waiting for a reason to quit already. There are many, many examples of this happening in restaurant type settings-- a desperate manager writes up that same stern "show up or else" message, and suddenly they lose most of their staff. Right now it's just too easy to move laterally to a new job for higher pay. It's interesting to see a virtually identical situation happen at such a large scale. Basically, at this point in time stick doesn't work, and management is slow to consider carrot. It's too bad this misstep is affecting travelers so severely. Whenever you hear someone say "nobody wants to work", that means they are seeing this unfold first hand but can't comprehend the situation.
"Nobody wants to work" for THEM when their company treats employees like crap 🙄
This is what happens when you have incompetent management. Antiquated software and IT-systems is not the cause but just one of the symptoms of the managements utter failure to understand the operation of the company and arrogance to realize their incompetence. It is just another great example of the Dunning-Kruger effect in full operation.
I feel good for those that was in a position to escape their abusive employer and a bit sorry for those that are still there. You really need strong unions to make an effective stand against such abusive behavior.
So I’m guessing freedom of speech is not allowed at Southwest ?? The bean counters and greed for the mighty dollar won out at Southwest, certainly not the paying public.
Thanks for another very informative video Juan. Happy flying!
I'm so glad because it's so nice to have this bright, over-arching case study, that I know so very many good people are dealing with in their respective companies.
1.) Operational CEO builds a company, makes it awesome.
2.) Bean-counter CEO only cares about beans
3.) Workers talk about potential problems and fires and things, but if it ain't beans, it ain't beans.
4.) Eventually beans catch on fire. Now the CEO cares. Often pretends he wasn't told about it.
Yup, you see it a lot with companies. Walmart, Boeing, and many more. Sad.
I’m not a management type but I would have handled things differently. Instead of “Show up for work or you’re FIRED!” I might have gone with “I know you may need some expensive high-tech gear to work in the frigid conditions so everyone who comes in to work during the cold snap will get a nice bonus!” - but that’s just me. Would have been far cheaper in the long run.
And it would have paid great dividends. In any case, today is NOT the climate to bully employees - way too many jobs out there they can go to.
Having an attitude of compassion and appreciation is almost unheard of anymore. I think this idea would have worked. It would have worked on me.
If you have 200 people at one site quit in one day you do not have a great company. Southwest has more issues than just IT.
And what pisses me off is that the top management will tell themselves what a great job they are doing and award themselves big bonuses instead if investing in solutions.
unfortunately, that is the case for almost ALL corporate entities...the guys at the bottom catch the crap, the guys at the top catch the cash....
Oh yeah just get all MAD at people doing better than yourself. Just keep thinking about that & see how far that gets you.
And get bonus
I love it that employees said 'FU' to management who tried to builly them.
Since nobody has mentioned what I consider to be the obvious, let me run this by you Juan... if the bean counters are cutting Corners to save nickels and dimes everywhere what's really happening with their maintenance program? I hope we don't find out about that the hard way😞
My wife, my parents and I were planning on going to Seattle to visit in-laws for New Years but they cancelled our flight to Seattle yesterday, Thursday. Well we said screw it and cancelled the flight back home to Sacramento. Literally 6 hours later, southwest rescheduled our flight to Seattle for 5:30am this morning, Friday… We still aren’t going anymore. This is going to hurt Southwest for years to come.
So those ramp workers must have quit because they were being forced to work in insane wind chill, that went down to -40. That's crazy.
I am completely puzzled as to why the entire management team has not submitted their resignations for an effective date of June 20th, 2023. That would give them time to arrange a temporary fix, or give the appearance of fixing the problem while replacements are found.
Bravo to those Denver employees who quit - they really landed a punch to the bean counters 👏
And a punch to their own pocketbooks too. Where else they going to get $30 an hour?
And did a great disservice to many many passengers and fellow employee. Good luck trying to find a job that pays as well. Real losers.
Self destructive employees YAY!! 🙄
Bean counters still paying their mortgages/rent/car payments and bills.
Will minimum wage at Walmart or Target pay those?
How about the pressure on their spouses?
Not all these quitters live in Mommy’s basement right?
Sometimes ya gotta just “SUCK it up, Buttercup!🌻”
Yep, it really showed them didn’t it? 😂
Management probably gives zero F’s and can now go hire replacements for less starting $$.
They probably gonna write a bunch of rules and restrictions for all their airport operations now. Typically you never win in the long run.
Thank you for this video. It is very educational in many many ways. I also noticed the truth about CEOs and upper management applies to a lot more companies. I was employed at Waffle House during the 90s until I let in 2002. I watched how it changed from employee/customer driven to upper management straight from college all about the bottom line. Now I am ashamed to say I once worked there. As a assistant manager we did twice the work and business with half the employees. We delivered better quality of food and services at a far better price. I love how in your videos you get straight to the point. Keep it up because I will always make time to watch..
The bean counter’s focus is on the bonus structure. Their main worry is that the executives etc get their bonus money, the rest is just a big “who cares”. I worked as an executive for twenty years in a huge company and this was the case.
U got it right big buddy ! - Damn
Love the crews at Southwest - never had a bad flight with them, and used them frequently. Little did I know what kind of monster was lurking just below the surface. It touched us as my stepson was forced to get a $400 one-way rental car and drive back from Phoenix to San Diego on Christmas Eve (SW refused a hotel voucher & now I understand why). We were initially all up in arms, but in hearing the horror stories, we realize we were the lucky ones🙄. And to hear what those poor folks in Nashville went through, wow😖.
Similar situation except we were leaving out of San Diego going to Tuscon. Flight was canceled and agents had no answers. Had to rent a car and drove all night, through the mountains. Let's just say, that was not a fun experience. Still haven't been able to get through to customer service to see first when I will be refunded and what sort of compensation I will receive.
@@twodaend Your state AG probably has a consumer protection office.
Knowing the bad weather was coming, maybe they should have offered hazard pay and put their workers up in hotels close to the airport. The interline agreement is interesting and I didn’t realize that. I think the widespread weather event was underestimated by many, including passengers. I wouldn’t have even attempted to travel during that week.
Its not the biggest I've seen watching NWS radar but it started at the Gulf of Mexico stretching up to Canada, then like a broom swept eastwards. Out west we measured the snow in feet. Some of the overpasses of I-90 caused drifts up to 15 feet. Imagine getting stopped or slide into the ditch early in the storm and have snow like that pile on top of you. Hardly anyone carries survival supplies. Guess they don't think it'll happen to them.
@@LuvBorderCollies So sad that people just driving along going home ended up in dire straits freezing to death.
".... maybe they should have offered hazard pay....."
Re-read Mr. Lonero's (the SW Pilot) statement. The personel were there. The planes were there. You can't load luggage in 60mph winds, in the absence of snow falling. Add snow if you like, it won't help the situation. You do need a computer system, that can consider and manage the variables........
Southwest is my favorite airline when things are going smoothly. I hope they’re able to recover from this & that they get better management that values their employees.
I like their PtP model personally bc I like direct flights. But sounds like their system needs a big upgrade.
Back in the late 80s to the mid 90s, I worked for a charter carrier located in Dallas. The last 4 years or so I did crew scheduling for pilots and cabin crew. We didn't have a computerized scheduling system, it was all by hand. It didn't take long to learn the FAR restrictions by heart. Our crews bid on their monthly schedules, but because our sales department kept selling extra flights, I always felt I was ready to pull out my hair. You'd get a flight finally crewed, and they'd come in five minutes later wanting a new crew immediately for a light they sold. I definitely had to learn quickly to emphasize with their frustrations when they were pulled off their schedules, and how go offer alternative flights that the might prefer. But I have to admit, When I covered all flights with crews and left for the day, it was a great season.I worked with some really wonderful people, many of whom went to to work for SWA.
What's Jim Wikert doing these days?
Looks like someone stepped on their personnel's foot one time too many! I used to work as a technician for a railway, we were working inside a huge workshop. One thing to know is we were considered to be working inside so we were not given warm work clothing (it's a very dirty job so i'm not bringing my own clothes). The thing is, when a train had to enter or leave the workshop, the big gates had to be opened, basically making the inside just as cold as the outside. It's fine for the 5 minutes it takes for the train to move but when the guy in charge started to open the gates more than 30 minutes before any train moved, it became a real problem (try working outside in summer clothes when it's freezing). Our calls for them to close the gates were ignored. Until one day the guy told me to "suck it up and do your job". My hands were so cold i had trouble holding my tools, so i dropped everything and went for a hot coffe in our office until they closed the gates AND the temperature had become reasonable again. It took time but mister stupid finally closed the gates and we received warm clothes a few days later when management learned why the train got out late 😇 Don't let them disrespect you, YOU are the ones who get the job done.
The best explanation of the situation i've had yet, even with the employee sourced scuttlebutt now making the rounds. Much better than the boilerplate "it was a dark and stormy night" coming from management. Thanks a million!
It isn’t only the pilots that have limits but most planes need to be at a certain station at a certain time to make sure they do proper inspections. If N234WN is scheduled to be inspected at TPA for X after flight 1234 on Dec 30, 2022 then having it out of place is a huge problem. Since Southwest does point to point this issue is compounded since there are no central points which these planes can gather and adapt to a scheduling issue.
It seems to me only a fool would make such a threat to his workers when he’s obviously short staffed already. I’m surprised not many more people quit. He seems like the perfect person you would not want to work for.
As an operations controller for the ramp and pax agent for multiple airlines, I related to this HARD. Our pleas were never heard or respected. The pandemic accelerated the rotting bandaid fixes. It was a nightmare.
Management just left us to fend for ourselves while still expecting all work to be completed well enough so they could look good even if it meant overworking ourselves for months on end. There were a few who at least made an attempt to better things but it was just too much.
I genuinely enjoyed my job but sadly, I left for the sake of my mental and physical health.
This is why people are doing quiet quitting and act your wage. (which 18 USD an hour isn't terrible, but still)
You're not people, you're just funnels by which money flows to billionaires. People are getting sick of being money funnels.
Management can’t consider those who toil to be people, or they’d have a hard time justifying to themselves the disparity in material conditions
Thanks for this explanation Juan. My son got caught up in all this the Friday before Christmas and was lucky enough to find a seat via connecting flights to his destination. He started out in SF, ended up in Denver where he spent the night in the airport due to his connecting flight being canceled, got a spot on a flight to St. Louis the next morning and finally to DC. Unfortunately, his checked luggage never showed up and at last check was still in Denver where it's been since last Thursday. I guess we can say he was one of the lucky ones and got to spend Christmas with family.
Wow! This is absolute ridiculous ignorance! I know people were stranded for days in airports back east at the same time but that was because so many major airports restricted all activity. But this? Should be a good business lesson for them. Four days of lost business could probably have paid for the new system many times over! Hmmm!?
More bonus points for Juan! Another concise informative video. Excellent work as always my friend!
I was very angry to see the police officers threatening the passengers with arrest because they were standing in the ticket line trying to figure out what was happening to their tickets and what was happening to their flights.
Don't ever forget. Cops will just be doing their jobs. Which is always in the best interest of corporations. If you don't believe me watch the covid lockdown video from Australia. Alot of cops were just doing their job.
Oh yeah you still mad about it?
As a LEO I would have told the airlines to rub it on their chest.
@@daakrolb you still breathe through your mouth?
That wasn't just a short term stupid move. That was a brand burying decision.
Great report.
40 years in the corporate world, and you almost always know that the problems come from "upstairs"!
Management is always at fault.
Capitalism was a huge mistake
Southwest Airlines is absolute garbage. Will never fly them again.
By nature, that is the case. Grunts don’t make policy.
"The Spirit of Herbert D Kelleher" is a SWA 737 flagship at the Frontiers of Flight museum at Dallas Love Field. Seems like his Spirit and his work ethic has truly left the company. I started flying SWA the year they started in business, I was 8, it was my "go to" choice for personal and business air travel throughout the years. I hate to see this and I hope Herb's Spirit can be revived within the company. Great job shining the light on what happened, Thanks Juan B! Cheers from Texas.
Great Airline CEO's like Herb Kelleher and Bob Crandall are long gone. They both revolutionized airlines in their own way.
I was on the jetway waiting to get into the cockpit to retrieve the maintenance logbook in the early '90's. Bob Crandall was on the flight. There were a bunch of middle managers waiting to greet him. Damn suck-ups. He yelled at them "I don't pay you to shake my hand. Get to work!". He's a legend, and always had the utmost respect for us mechanics. He even stopped by for one of our guy's 35 year work anniversary, and shook everyone's hand and let us get selfies with him.
@@dougrobinson8602 was going to mention Crandall. His know how revolutionized air travel. Then Carty came in and screwed it all up. I worked for AA the last time employees got a profit sharing check. That was in 2000.
I used to work for Northwest Airlines for 16 years. The same abusive draconian rules. I guess I was lucky they hired scabs and booted us. I have a much better job. Better health too. Every one was always angry from the abusive management . I hated the emergency mandatory overtime notice at the time clock. Child care? Not their problem.
How did Southwest expect the ramp agents to get to and from work if the roads were all closed for 3 days straight? I live just outside of Denver and everything was literally shut down for at least 2 days. And some places were shut down for 3 to 4 days. I spent 2 days driving on closed roads pulling stranded drivers out of snow drifts and ditches. It was insane.
All the other airlines figured it out.
Are they not in a union? Juan keeps saying Southwest is a "great company". Surely they would have unionized workers then? So if this is true, that they threatened them with termination, they should be done for.
Back in the day, I had sweet neighbors that worked for Continental. That was when "Stapleton" still existed and had that hotel right along the airport. They even put up airline employees during a similar snow event (early 90's IIRC) because I remember working at a Hotel in Denver and driving home in a whiteout, on I-225 and wishing I stayed at my workplace too. This goes to show how failure of management during unprecedented weather events without any overrides or backups (storm coming, put critical personnel up, provide support...). And for those that never drove in Colorado, they don't salt roads, and drivers tend to tailgate...causing unnecessary accidents. Oh and you will replace your windshields annually, along with having chips of paint off the front of your vehicle from the small rocks, aka traction devices, CDOT puts down during snow.
Were trains running to airport? You know that would be the next demand.
roads were NOT closed - send pictures or you're full of crap - I drove from southeast Centennial to Denver Tech Center at 6 am this morning - I saw one stuck car -
You are correct about when the bean counters take over, I worked for a privately owned company and it was great. Once the owner decided to retire and sell the company(of which it was time and well deserved) it went downhill from there. It was no longer about taking care of the employees but how much the ceo is paid and how much money is made for the stockholders!
I wish I had known about the CEO change at Southwest. Back in June of last year, my flight from DFW to LGA got diverted to Philly. The flight attendants told us that it was due to "weather conditions in NY". The weather in NY was a perfect summer day with no rain. We were deplaned and the gate agents in Philly told us that there is nothing they can do to help us get to NY as the distance from Philly to LGA was too short for a flight. I ended up having to take an Amtrak from Philly to NY Penn station. I felt bad for the Passengers who flew from DFW to LGA who had to get on an international flight from JFK that evening. Its pretty sad to see an airline like Southwest Airlines starting to fall from grace due to poor management decisions.
Wow. You do not realize what a fine line everything is walking on in the airline industry from day to day. This was brutally informative. I feel really bad for the frontline employees who had to endure the brutality of heated and frustrated customers.
You mean while they were freezing to death?
It’s a ‘fine line’ in every aspect of this country…
Have you been in health care… please stay healthy.
Southwest phuckd me on a Florida holiday trip. They’re not talking or explaining. It’s really about staff and money $$$$. Once the weather cleared,no reason not to fly. Things snowballed but not in a weather sense.