You want to fly from Dallas to Houston, so you telephone Southwest Airlines, the Texas-based company that pioneered low-cost air travel, and join the line for a reservations agent. After a while, you hear a recorded announcement.
"If you have been on hold for more than five minutes, push 8," it says. So you push 8, and the voice comes back again. "This didn't speed your call, but don't you feel better? You can push 8 as often as you like until an operator is free to take your call."Eventually, you get your ticket. A few days later, you're on Southwest Airlines Flight 280 from Dallas to Houston. As the aircraft touches down, the public address system crackles into life and you await a routine announcement.
Instead, to the tune of the theme song from the 1960s television series, "The Beverly Hillbillies," flight attendant Holly Becker sings: "On behalf of Southwest Airlines, Captain Jed and all the crew, We would like to thank you folks for kindly dropping through. You're all invited back next week to this locality to have a heaping helping of our hospitality."
Then, spoken in a broad, southern drawl: "Southwest-style, that is: fast planes, strong drink, and gooooooood-lookin' women."
The passengers roar with laughter.
Welcome to Southwest Airlines, the seriously funny company. Here, life is a hoot. Sometimes flight attendants play tricks on passengers by hiding in the overhead luggage bins, and the safety instructions are usually an excuse for a comic turn. ("Those of you who wish to smoke will please file out to our lounge on the wing, where you can enjoy our feature movie presentation, `Gone With The Wind."')
It's the same at the Dallas headquarters. Everyone, including the boss, wears casual clothes. Practical jokes and wisecracks aren't just tolerated: they're encouraged. Celebrations and awards break up the routine, and the walls are festooned with rib-tickling pictures of employees in fancy dress.
Perhaps more than any other large company in the world, Southwest has taken to extremes the notion that work can be fun. But the serious side to the business is that it is also highly successful.
Southwest's low fares and relentless expansion have transformed the U.S. air travel industry. Alone among U.S. airlines, Southwest has made a profit every year for the past 23 years: last year, it made net profits of $183 million on revenues of $2.8 billion. It has never had a crash.
Increasingly, Southwest has become a model for management gurus who argue that fun can be a big contributor to profitability. If people are enjoying their jobs, the theory goes, they're likely to perform them better.
And this seems to apply at Southwest, which pays good wages but keeps fares low by achieving extraordinarily high levels of productivity from its employees.
Indeed, the atmosphere at Southwest often seems more akin to that of a religious sect than a business. Employees seem to be almost fanatically committed.
"I love coming to work every day," says Irene Schoenberg, a customer service supervisor at Dallas Love Field airport. "It's the lively atmosphere, the flexibility they allow us, and the fun we have. There are lots of parties, celebrations, and rewards for working here. What we give the company, I think they definitely give us back."
How does a company achieve such high levels of commitment? It helps if you have a boss like Herbert Kelleher - or Herb, as he's always known. He sets the tone for Southwest with his remorseless enthusiasm for jokes, pranks, laughter and warmth.
Kelleher traces the spirit of Southwest Airlines back to the company's origins 25 years ago, when it was a small, entrepreneurial outfit pitted against the might of the big airlines.
He says all organizations that have managed to bring off something spectacular have had an us-against-them mentality. "I guess another way to put it is that to bring out your best efforts, you need to have an enemy."
From the start, Southwest used wackiness to attract attention to itself. Catering for a predominantly male, Texan clientele, it launched itself with a "love" theme under the slogan "Somebody else up there loves you." Its air hostesses wore hot pants and white go-go boots; drinks were "Love Potions," peanuts were "Love Bites" and tickets came from "Love Machines."
Southwest's stock market ticker is still LUV. But adjusting to a more politically correct era, the company has dropped the "love" campaign in favor of a mission to deliver "positively outrageous service" at unbelievably low fares.
Oddly, Southwest believes the best way of achieving this objective is to say that customers come second. The company's top priority is treating its own employees well, out of a firm belief that if its people are happy, everything else will fall into place.
"The fun is not just the practical jokes: it's the recognition, it's treating people right on a daily basis," says Gary Kelly, chief financial officer. "Every company I have ever gone in, they say people are No. 1, but they're just not. They don't live up to that, and we do."
A lot of the feel-good effect is achieved through simple gestures. Even though Southwest has grown to 23,700 employees, everyone gets a birthday card from Kelleher and Colleen Barrett, the company's second highest-ranking executive. There are cards, too, when people get married or have babies, and promotions are marked with a bottle of champagne.
Effort is recognized through countless awards and celebrations, ranging from formal employee-of-the-year awards to daily acts of recognition for good service. Informal rewards include gifts of candy or ice cream, an hour off work, an impromptu party or - very highly valued - a parking space close to the office.
At another level, Southwest has long believed in trusting employees to exercise their own judgment rather than tying them down with rules.
"People are very, very gifted," Kelleher says. "They can do a whole lot of things. And if you give them the opportunity to expand beyond the horizons that the organization tries to define for them, you will be amazed at what they can produce."
So how does Southwest manage it? Much of the credit is due to Barrett, officially corporate secretary but known internally as the keeper of the company's culture. She has created a culture committee to perpetuate the Southwest spirit, made up of more than 100 employees from all parts of the company.
They meet in their own time to exchange ideas, and they convey the company's philosophy and values to their co-workers, often far removed from head office.
Another key element in preserving the culture is recruiting the right people.
"We couldn't have the atmosphere that we have without having the people that function well in this kind of atmosphere," says Libby Sartain, vice-president for people. "So the whole recruitment process is designed to get at more than just the skills and background of the person: to get at what their attitude is."
Southwest seeks out people who show an ability to work well with others, a positive attitude, a good sense of humour and a commitment to service. The company can afford to be selective because so many people want to work there: last year it received 124,000 applicants for 5,473 jobs.
But Kelleher says Southwest's image can be a problem if applicants think working for the airline will be just one long laugh.
"We tell them the good news is that you will have a lot of fun," he says. "The bad news is that you will work your a-- off."
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)