Southwest slam clicks- c'mon captains....

[waveflyer]

This is a bit of an internal thing, but there are a lot of lurkers from SWA on FI, so here goes.
We all know the culture has taken it on the chin through stagnation, older crew, lots of change, and a CEO with an accountant mentality following one of the most dynamic and personal ceo's in airline history.

BUT!
If you're flying with a probation crew, IT IS NOT OPTIONAL TO COME DOWN AND BUY A BEER OR TWO, AND MAYBE SOME FOOD.
IT WAS DONE FOR YOU.

That part of the culture is on us. Step up

 

[densoo]

Sounds good to me. Not at SWA but fly with a lot of probies. Always offer, about 50% on the takers. The ones that take make up for the ones that don't though! Great times in Boston, Philly, Redondo Beach. The Irish FO flying on a green card was there.

 

[waveflyer]

I've seen it done at almost every airline I've worked at. Even my legacy, albeit much less. At SWA though, it is big.
Guys usually have a decent reason- commute day, kids wore you out on off days, etc- but at some point it just gets easier (and lazier, more depressing) to just hole up in the room- which leads to a more negative attitude, then it gets easier to find things to complain about on the job and the whole thing snowballs in the wrong direction.

Come down- you don't have to go wild and do shots- be you, hang out, chill out - relax with a beer- if it gets funner, great. If it's just a good chill relaxing drink, great.
But hang with your people guys.

Probation and air tran or not, pilots, I will always step up and buy a round or three.
It's what you give that makes you happy

 

[PCL_128]

Sorry, but I've never seen the appeal of hanging out with the people I've just been locked in an aluminum tube with for 8 hours. If that's considered mandatory at SWA, just one more reason I'm glad to get out.

 

[shootr]

He's not talking to you, PCL. he's talking to the CA's not buying the probies drinks by not coming down.

 

[Juniority]

It's just a different world now. It's not 1995 anymore, things have changed...

These days, you go down to the bar, have a couple drinks and some casual conversation (you thought, anyway) with the crewmembers and two days later you get a call from the Chief Pilot because some FA (male, female, gay, straight, whatever) took offense at something you may or may not have said. The Chief assures you that you're not in trouble, but he's obviously very curious to hear about the evening.

During the conversation you find out that some FA culture-warrior (who the Chief will not name) has accused you of "hating women" in an IR that went all the way to Employee Relations in Dallas. He finishes up the conversation by once again assuring you that you're not in trouble, but he warns you that the Company sees "bar time" as being "on duty" with regard to the part of your job that involves "representing Southwest Airlines" and therefore subject to review by Dallas.

You decide to take up running. End of problem.

 

[orangebellyav8r]

I have no problem doing that to real SWA pilots

 

[humveedriver]

It's just a different world now. It's not 1995 anymore, things have changed...

These days, you go down to the bar, have a couple drinks and some casual conversation (you thought, anyway) with the crewmembers and two days later you get a call from the Chief Pilot because some FA (male, female, gay, straight, whatever) took offense at something you may or may not have said. The Chief assures you that you're not in trouble, but he's obviously very curious to hear about the evening.

During the conversation you find out that some FA culture-warrior (who the Chief will not name) has accused you of "hating women" in an IR that went all the way to Employee Relations in Dallas. He finishes up the conversation by once again assuring you that you're not in trouble, but he warns you that the Company sees "bar time" as being "on duty" with regard to the part of your job that involves "representing Southwest Airlines" and therefore subject to review by Dallas.

You decide to take up running. End of problem.

Lol! Right!

The first thing that pilot has to realize is he is 50+ years old now and not 35. You are not pulling them in like the good old days and can't figure out why. You have a harder time relating to the younger crew members. For some reason your tail hook approach to your crew members just isn't as well received as it was in the Top Gun days. Re read Waves post. Go down and have a beer. You don't have to try and make it a Main Sail night every night. If you are worried about saying the wrong things, let the other folks do the talking.

 

[Pattern-Master]

Even though i fly part 135, i once had a Southwest captain buy us a few rounds up in ISP last year. He saw us checking in in our uniforms and gave us a friendly invite to join their group, we had a blast!

 

[27 driver]

I've seen it done at almost every airline I've worked at. Even my legacy, albeit much less. At SWA though, it is big.
Guys usually have a decent reason- commute day, kids wore you out on off days, etc- but at some point it just gets easier (and lazier, more depressing) to just hole up in the room- which leads to a more negative attitude, then it gets easier to find things to complain about on the job and the whole thing snowballs in the wrong direction.

Come down- you don't have to go wild and do shots- be you, hang out, chill out - relax with a beer- if it gets funner, great. If it's just a good chill relaxing drink, great.
But hang with your people guys.

Probation and air tran or not, pilots, I will always step up and buy a round or three.
It's what you give that makes you happy

Wave, It still happens. I ran into RSW crew at JAX a few months ago and we walked down to Hooters for dinner. The RSW Capt bought all the beer and food.......even for me.....the lowly Trany. He was a senior DAL capt. Super nice guy.