The Importance of Celebration

August 2021

We just wrapped up one of my favorite months. There are so many reasons to celebrate this time of year! First, we got to celebrate my favorite holiday, Independence Day, with family, sunshine, food, fireworks, and all things freedom (and a lot of things that sparkle!). We’re also well into the summer travel season, and the airports and planes are filled with people taking vacations and visiting family. Every single day in the summer at Southwest we get to play an important role in fulfilling our Purpose: Connecting People to what’s important in their lives through friendly, reliable, and low-cost air travel.

Celebration is an important aspect of the Southwest Culture, and I would even say we might be experts at it! Part of showing up for your co-workers (or as we call them, Cohearts), is genuinely caring about their lives. Do we celebrate service anniversaries and special awards for excellence at work? Of course we do! But we also celebrate the personal milestones—birthdays, marriages, babies, pets, new houses, and even special vacations.

In addition to those personal milestones, celebrating organizational milestones is key to our Culture. We see it as an opportunity to reinforce how much we value both our Employees and Customers — because without either, we wouldn’t be here. For example, on June 18, Southwest celebrated our 50^th Anniversary. We held an epic birthday party and invited all of our 56,000+ Employees to join us online to celebrate, and we unveiled the newest member of the Southwest fleet, Freedom One!

That entire week, our Employees all across the Southwest system decorated, played games, and celebrated the milestone birthday with our Customers and, of course, with tons of Heart.

Colleen always encouraged our Employees to bring their whole, authentic selves to work. Celebrating together tells Employees they are a valued and appreciated part of the family. Without our Southwest Family, we can’t get you to see your family this summer. And we know you are counting on us!

We have a couple new items to check out in the Institute this month, including some heart-warming Employee recognition in the latest installment of LUV Mail, and a new podcast as part of our 50th Anniversary celebration. I hope you can feel our love and virtual confetti sprinkles from here!

XOXO,

Whitney Eichinger

Whitney Eichinger

SVP and Chief Communications Officer (at the time of publication)

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