I'd like to believe that Southwest is known for not treating People, either Customers or Employees, like numbers. It wouldn't fit with our Corporate Culture. Yeah, numbers are a big part of any business--and we have a lot of departments that crunch, compile, chart, and report numbers. Numbers measure. Numbers represent progress and gains and losses. Numbers project and forecast and summarize. But a number can't describe a person--can it?
In a way it can. Do you remember what it was like to go from being a freshman to a sophomore in high school? This little passage brought you up a step from the bottom rung of the ladder, and it was really huge. It didn't make you better, or that much different. But it did give you that "I've been around a little--I've seen some stuff" swagger to your step. Out here at the airport, we don't wear our "class" years on the sleeves of our jackets, but boy, do we pay attention to numbers.
Southwest is a Company of over 32,000 people, each of whom has their own Employee number, and the numbers are assigned in order of your hire date. The older (in terms of seniority, of course) the Employee, the lower the Employee number. I was in a class at the University for People where we had to form a line, as fast as we could, in order of seniority--without talking. Everyone immediately grabbed their ID badges and compared numbers to see how quickly we could sort through 28 people with a range of service from 18 years to 18 months. I was thrilled to see that one of my classmates from Las Vegas had a number only two off of mine--it turned out we were hired within a day of each other. But he was "senior" to me, and he kidded me about it for the rest of the week. It was a terrific example of how that little number mattered.
I've seen our numbers grow by the thousands, and the tens of thousands. I've heard the change of inflection in the question: "Your Employee number starts with 20,000?" Once that meant I was new. Now it seems like permission to question my memory and my ability to digest solids.
As each new addition to the Southwest family comes aboard and gets his or her "number," he or she passes a little something up the line to those of us here to welcome them. It serves as a reminder that we're fortunate to be here leading new People, doing work that we like, for a Company that sees us as more than just a number.
I don't know how long it will be until the New Hires have six digits, and I wonder how my "20,000" will look to them. It won't take long for even these Employees to look at their "low" numbers with pride and accomplishment. You can count on that.
Comments
As a member of an organization who assigns membership numbers by year, then by sequence (my number is 1414 - I was the 14th company to join in the 14th year of the organization's existence), I understand exactly what you are talking about here - lower numbers have status.
And I'm a numbers geek too. So:
Who has the lowest active number? (I'm guessing Herb.)
Who has number 100?
Number 737?
1,000?
5,000?
10,000?, 12,345?, 20,000?, 25,000?
What number would a new Employee get?
How many of the first 1,231 have an employee number that matches their birthdate?
Are 'unlucky' numbers like 666 and 1313 skipped?
What is Brian's employee number?
And yes, when the 100,000th Employee meets you and sees your 20,000-something Employee number, you know he or she will be extremely impressed - you will have been working for SWA for about 25 years by then!
Can we guess Brian's number like on The Price is Right's Clock Game, with him responding "higher" or "lower"? :D
Mary's post got me thinking about when I first started flying and the subject of my emp. # came up. It was June 29, 1984 and I was "signing in" at my first overnight. I had just completed my very first day of flying and was anxious to take off my heels and put my feet in a bucket of ice!!! My other two crewmembers AND both pilots were shocked when they saw my emp. #. My number is in the low 7000's and they could NOT believe employee numbers had gotten that large. Needless to say, they found it quite amusing. I was so proud to have my new job, so I just laughed right along with them. In early 1987 we began hiring "zip codes". Wow, someone had a 5 digit employee number. We are now well into the 80,000's and my number is no longer laughed at. People are still shocked when they see it, just in a different way. And I've come to realize one thing. There is always someone senior to you and always someone junior to you. Unless of course you are our most senior F/A (Sandra) or the lowest one on the totem pole! And how fortunate we are to all work for the best airline in the world!! I proudly tell folks I've been here 23 years and hope to have many more wonderful years working and laughing and having a great time!!
My dad, a retired 21-year Employee, had a 4-digit number in the low 1,000s. Just over 60,000 were hired between us! :-)
As a Customer and a fan, I love finding Employees with less-than-ZIP-code Employee numbers (Hi Carole!). I don't mean to make them sound like senior citizens, but I enjoy hearing their Southwest stories.
I have worked for SWA for a little over 11 years and I am a 34thousand something or the other. :o) At ORC we just hired some brilliant new Reservations Agents in March and they are 83thousand somethings. The funny thing is, most of us can guess pretty close to the year at least when someone new was hired. You are a 54 something, aah....that means you have been here about 7 years. It is just a number, but the memories it holds are priceless.
Robin Sell
Oklahoma City Reservations Center
Okay Drew, I take the bait!
I may be off a number or two, but I think Sandra's number as the number one flight attendant is 182. I remember saying on the PA, "And on behalf of SWA and over 4,000 employees we welcome you to ______." I liked our litle group that was all in one building with everyone knowing each other. But, I would have missed knowing a lot of wonderful people if we had not grown - Mary being one of them.
I was also hired in 1984 - one month before my friend Linda Kirby - which makes me #6888. I'm grateful I have an easy number to remember, being a Senior Citizen and all! I can't wait until I get my first Social Security check!
Carole
Hi Jim and Paul T. Okay my Employee number is the same as the zip code for Eatonton, Georgia. (I'm in the 30,000s.) We would need Bob Barker to play higher/lower. Herb does have the lowest number of active Employees, and naturally, he is Number 1.
Number 100 isn't in the online Employee records, but it would have been assigned to an Original Employee. A retired Captain holds 737--fittingly enough. I couldn't find a 666 or a 1313, although one of our original Mechanics holds number 13.
Blog Boy
31024 :-P
Ding! boy's parents are coming here in september! Finally got them on $50 fares from phx.
Joe
Yeah, Ding! boy, zip code 31024 is at the base of the Eatonton, Willard, Imperial triangle. At least you aren't flying Mom and Dad to Motown in February!
Blog Boy
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