District 3 Representative Randy Barnes

What's FAIR got to do with it?

Recently there have been several grievances over discipline issued to members accused of unacceptable and inappropriate behavior. This behavior has ranged from yelling and using profanity, making threatening gestures and overtures, lying during the course of an investigation, and making inappropriate comments about, or toward, a fellow employee. These represent a few examples of things agents are being severely disciplined for, all the way up to termination. I have not even mentioned job performance but that is another article for another newsletter. All of these issues are very serious in nature and on their surface represent behavior that is not acceptable to any work environment, but it seems as though we have all of a sudden over the last couple of years become the super conservative Ozzie and Harriet generation of Southwest Airlines. But how did we get to this point in time? How did we get here? In order to answer that question we must examine where we came from as a company culture. If you have been here for over a few years you have heard some of the stories about how “loving” we all were years ago. Southwest was known for being the young, mini-skirt wearing, booze drinking, sexually free spirit airline. All the way from our world renowned CEO to our most junior new hire employee you were expected to conform to this environment. How many of us have heard (or been a part of) the wild company functions that led to the many “comat” relationships. What about the manager who had been spotted having relations with a fellow employee, unbeknownst to their better half. Oh, and how about the supervisor who was caught having relations with an agent in one of the offices. Then there were the inappropriate comments about the agent over his sexual orientation. What about all of the times when employees had come to work after a company party openly intoxicated and have locked themselves in their offices so they could sleep it off. Do you remember the time when you heard someone use profanity at work and when you turned to see who said it and saw your supervisor or your manager standing there? Have you ever attended one of the old “deck parties” at the G.O. years ago? If so, then you probably know about all of the hook ups that took place. This was at our company headquarters, our G O. These were our company leaders, the very people who establish company policy. These same individuals are now creating the Ozzie and Harriet culture that we are currently working in.Now don’t get me wrong. I believe that there is acceptable behavior for the work place and unacceptable behavior for the work place. I also believe that there should be a companywide behavioral standard in place that applies to all of us, not just ramp, ops, provisioning and cargo. In the past year I have witnessed the company spiral into the direction of “do as I say not as I do” mentality. The very same behaviors that many leaders have been, and are still, guilty of are causing our agents to be disciplined, up to and including termination. The Basic Principles of Conduct states that dishonesty is a terminable offense and it will not be tolerated, yet managers and supervisors are admittedly being directed or in some cases are choosing to make up stories just so a member can’t have a fair chance at a justifiable resolution. I do not say this lightly; this has become a substantiated fact, not speculation. I am here to tell you that the company is setting a standard that says that if two supervisors state the same thing then it must be true. They believe that they have no reason to lie, but agents do. I am not making this stuff up. It is documented. The very BPCs that we must sign every year do not apply to our so called leaders. Our leaders—that’s a curious choice for a title. Where are our leaders leading us at this time? Are they leading us to an environment where you lie and cheat just to keep your job? Are they leading us to the point where anything that we might do we make sure that there are no witnesses or that we get enough of our fellow agents to agree with what we say? Where in fact are we being led? Into the Ozzie and Harriet company cultural generation? I don’t know. What I do know is that it used to be that there was an inference of fairness in their actions. Not any more. Don’t get me wrong, not all leaders are like this but the good ones are steadily be pushed out. I was recently representing a fellow member in a system board whom had been disciplined for his alleged behavior. During these proceedings I and the employee resource manager that was presenting the company’s side excused ourselves to the hallway to discuss a document that he wished to present. While in the hallway away from the room that the system board was taking place we stated our positions regarding the document. After a brief minute of discussion in which neither of us wished to yield our position concerning the document, the “manager” jumped directly into my face, throwing his hand towards my face and stopping his hand within a centimeter of my eye and screaming threatening obscenities at the top of his lungs. As you can imagine I was a little surprised by this inappropriate behavior. Here we were arguing different positions about acceptable and unacceptable behavior in the work place and out of nowhere this so called leader conducts himself in the very same way that many agents have been terminated for. This is a person whom the company has entrusted with determining what level of discipline is appropriate when an agent commits a conduct violation. Well, you might be asking yourself what happened to that manager. The answer is nothing. He is still employed without receiving any form of discipline. Still able to work and provide for his family, unlike many of our fellow members who weren’t afforded the same option that this so called leader was. I don’t believe for one minute that any of us want an environment without consequences. I believe that we all just want a level playing field. We all just want things to be done fairly. With that said, I challenge you all to think about some of the things that your managers and supervisors have been able to get away with. Write it down with names, dates, times, and places. Everyone get together, corroborate these events, and keep them because we will be calling you one day, maybe one day soon, for your help. We have to protect ourselves because it appears that some of the people leading are pointing us in the direction of a cliff. Do as they say not as they do, that’s leadership all right. What’s fair got to do with it? Everything!!!

If you need to get ahold of Randy  Barnes the best way to do so is to call him on his cell phone at: 216-798-2220