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Southwest Airlines Employee Reviews about "work life balance"

Updated Dec 4, 2023

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Found 4,253 of over 5K reviews
4.1
80% Recommend to a Friend
Southwest Airlines CEO Robert E. Jordan
77% Approve of CEO

Found 176 of over 5K reviews

4.1
80%
Recommend to a Friend
77%
Approve of CEO
Southwest Airlines CEO Robert E. Jordan
Robert E. Jordan
664 Ratings

Top Review Highlights by Sentiment

Excerpts from user reviews, not authored by Glassdoor

Pros
  • "They provide great benefits and lots of opportunuties(in 581 reviews)
  • "They care about their employees and have a great culture!(in 345 reviews)
  • "very friendly and great people to work with(in 266 reviews)
  • "Flight benefits are great if you're the kind of person who loves to travel with no guarantees.(in 229 reviews)
  • "It is very fun and the pay is great.(in 194 reviews)
Cons
  • "They have a record of poor management at local cities.(in 130 reviews)
  • "The only cons I can think of are the long hours and weather conditions at times.(in 79 reviews)
  • "Managers do not do reviews the same way(in 34 reviews)
  • "salaries are low and they try to sell travel/401k match to make up for it(in 33 reviews)
  • "Initial training can be strengthened(in 28 reviews)

Ratings by Demographics

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This rating reflects the overall rating of Southwest Airlines and is not affected by filters.

Reviews about "work life balance"

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176
    1. 3.0
      Feb 14, 2018
      Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee
      Recommend
      CEO Approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Good 401k match, health insurance and profitsharing.

      Cons

      Ground operations is very overlooked in the company. All the pressure on metrics but none of the 'culture' that is seen at HQ and in the call-centers. Benefits are nice but waking up at 2am and having tons of mandatory over-time does not make for a good work life balance no matter the benefits of the company.

      1

      Thank you for sharing your experience and your feedback. Working the Ramp is certainly hard work, and it’s not for everyone! We are so fortunate to have such a longstanding unique Culture, and we all must work hard to protect it. Ultimately, it’s up to every Employee to promote and preserve our Culture across positions, workgroups, and titles. Thank you for the hard work you put in—it does not go unnoticed, and we couldn’t do it without you!

      1. 5.0
        Mar 7, 2022
        Customer Service Agent
        Current Employee, more than 3 years
        Denver, CO
        Recommend
        CEO Approval
        Business Outlook

        Pros

        Amazing culture Supportive Leadership team

        Cons

        Challenging durng irregular operations Unexpected overtime and hard to establish a work life balance

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        1. 3.0
          Dec 28, 2022
          Customer Support and Service Representative
          Former Employee, less than 1 year
          San Antonio, TX
          Recommend
          CEO Approval
          Business Outlook

          Pros

          Flight Benefits Insurance Work From Home

          Cons

          Shift Hours Outdated Systems Mandatory Overtime Training Locked into a minimum year with CS&S before transfer No Work Life Balance

          1
          1. 2.0
            Aug 10, 2014
            Operations Agent
            Current Employee, more than 3 years
            Recommend
            CEO Approval
            Business Outlook

            Pros

            Can trade hours/shifts as much as you want; flexibility to travel for free if there are any open seats; can relocate to other departments or stations

            Cons

            Leadership is terrible...improperly trained or off the street (supervisors); corporate leadership is cheap trying not to give raises & short staffing the company in many departments & stations. Employees are overworked especially if they have junior seniority. Work/life balance is terrible...you literally don't have a life because you are always working. Scheduled hours don't mean anything because right when you think you're about to leave & go home...you have been 'mandoed' to work more hours or a whole shift which puts you into a double now...spending anywhere from 17-21 hours at work without leaving. Oh yeah....and you think you have two days off....NOPE! You always get mandoed to work on your first day off so now you only get one day off a week. And if you refuse the mando...the company wants to terminate you so that they can most likely in the future replace you with cheaper labor.

            3
            1. 5.0
              May 2, 2021
              Instructional Designer
              Current Employee
              Dallas, TX
              Recommend
              CEO Approval
              Business Outlook

              Pros

              Team and culture Support and work/life balance Benefits

              Cons

              Low pay Very hard to ever get management level

              1. 2.0
                Jul 16, 2023
                Customer Support and Services
                Current Employee
                Recommend
                CEO Approval
                Business Outlook

                Pros

                Medical Flight benefits Flight benefits

                Cons

                No work life balance they always speak about us as family but soon as a problem rises you are treated trash

                1
                1. 5.0
                  Apr 5, 2023
                  Sr. National Account Manager
                  Current Employee
                  Dallas, TX
                  Recommend
                  CEO Approval
                  Business Outlook

                  Pros

                  Southwest is a great company to work for and has a fantastic brand. The people are fantastic and love the mission and values behind the company.

                  Cons

                  Work life balance and competing priorities

                  1. 3.0
                    Jul 13, 2013
                    Internal Auditor II
                    Current Employee, more than 5 years
                    Dallas, TX
                    Recommend
                    CEO Approval
                    Business Outlook

                    Pros

                    Very flexible and and offers a great work/life balance program Very rich in company culture and family feel Employees are some of the greatest people you will ever meet Great benefits* low insurance costs

                    Cons

                    Salaries aren't as competitive due to flight benefits Flight benefits aren't worth lower compensation because they are standby and flight loads are always full. Very hard to progress into roles that are management and above Working on diversity issues but there are not many minorities in Management. Does not support affinity groups to retain or recruit diverse talent Politics seems to play too much of a role in career progression Too much emphasis on culture 75% unionized

                    1
                    1. 4.0
                      Apr 20, 2023
                      Flight Attendant
                      Current Employee, less than 1 year
                      Orlando, FL
                      Recommend
                      CEO Approval
                      Business Outlook

                      Pros

                      401K Amazing passengers. They are so understanding for the most part during operational issues. Commenting Policy is wonderful. Truly does care about you making it to work on time. Coworkers are wonderful to work with and truly do care about each other for be most part. There are some bad apples out there but that is most jobs. BEST schedule ever. So flexible and does create a true work life balance

                      Cons

                      Lack of communication between Inflight and company. Current managers don’t always necessarily communicate when it’s needed.

                      1. 5.0
                        Apr 15, 2022
                        Customer Service Representative
                        Former Employee, more than 5 years
                        Recommend
                        CEO Approval
                        Business Outlook

                        Pros

                        Excellent comapny with union to support employees Great flying benefits for family and friends of employees

                        Cons

                        Often caused burnouts with long hours and poor work life balance

                        3
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                      Underwriter

                      Had an interview today and at the end recruiter asked if I was interviewing with another company I was honest and said yes I currently have an offer already with another company. Should I have said that? Worried it may hurt my chances with the interview process going forward.

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                      Co-founder

                      Many people are getting ghosted during the interview process these days so I started https://ghosts.fyi to track companies that regularly ghost. Let me know if you could see this being helpful during your job search!

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