Once a WestJetter, Always a WestJetter

It’s amazing how 6367 days can go by in the blink of an eye, especially when you’re having fun. As I neared my WestJet retirement date last week, I’ve been reflecting on my time as a WestJetter and, among the flood of memories, emotions and moments that marked my time here, a few themes kept coming back to me.

I started my WestJet career as a Customer Service Agent (CSA) at Victoria airport primarily because I wanted cheap flights across Canada so I could go see my girlfriend in Montreal. When it accepted the job, I had no idea it would lead me on a fantastic 17+ year journey that took me across the country, and around the world, while giving me the chance to build an entire social media team and strategy from scratch.

My YYJ airport family still holds a special place in my heart. I still consider that particular group of humans to be the most amazing team I’ve ever had the privilege to be a part of. 2004 was very much the wild west of the Canadian aviation days with airlines going bankrupt all the time. Anyone remember Jetsgo, Harmony and Canjet? The original WestJet 737-200s were very noisy, but those WestJet jean shirt uniforms! *chef’s kiss*?

In addition to looking for cheap flights and/or a job that was closer to Montreal, I was also interested in leadership and advancing my career at WestJet. Thankfully I had some very supportive leaders, who helped me learn and grow, and I eventually spent a year in Hamilton, before finally landing a job in Montreal, where I spent 3 years leading the WestJet team at YUL airport.?

Those were some incredibly challenging, but fun times, and it’s also where I met Richard Bartrem, the VP responsible for launching social media at WestJet.?Richard and Robert Palmer (a.k.a. RP), WestJet's PR manager, chose me to be the first WestJetter dedicated to social media at the airline, and in 2009 I joined WestJet's Communications team at head office in Calgary. Over the next 12 years I had the opportunity to earn what I consider to be an on-the-job PhD in social media, marketing, communications, and technology, while building WestJet’s social media to become “best in the world”.?

I had already experienced 3 distinct, but similar versions of the WestJet corporate culture, and the next few years at the WestJet campus only solidified in my mind why it is such a special place to work, and why, even if I’m now retired, I’ll always be a WestJetter for life. I had the chance to learn from some of the best leaders I've ever met, forged relationships I will value for the rest of my life, and also got to work on the same team as my sister (I may or may not have been the one to update her desktop background to David Hasselhoff when she left her computer unlocked, but nobody knows for sure).?

Here are some of the key experiences & lessons learned:

1. Winning with teammates is better than winning alone

In the spring of 2010, the WestJet Street Hockey league kicked off its inaugural season and I was invited to join the 5th Floor Filth. Playing street hockey at lunchtime once per week, gave me the chance to forge relationships and create friendships with people all over the business while competing for the coveted "Beddoe Bowl". We had a good squad, and though our team’s name and jersey colour changed, our core group of players stuck together for 10 seasons, winning 8 championships.

2. Airplanes are awesome, and so are people

When airplanes are at the core of your business, you tend to spend a lot of time with them. Standing on the ground next to a 737 can make you feel pretty small, but it's tiny compared to a 787 Dreamliner. It's hard to think that machines of that size can actually get off the ground and fly to the other side of the world.

No matter how complex and amazing aircraft are, they're just dead weight without the people to operate them. There are so many people needed to make an operation like WestJet's run smoothly and each of them is as important as the next. Over the past 17 years I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with hundreds (thousands, maybe?!) of amazing, dedicated people who keep the airline running smoothly, safely and on time.?Though I can't name you all individually here, I'm forever grateful for the time we spent together.

3. Never underestimate the power of a strong brand in the right hands

Immersing myself in the business, the operation and the people of WestJet allowed me to have a unique view into the various storylines that weave us all together. The employees are no doubt the strongest part of WestJet's brand, and once a guest flies with us and experiences the unique WestJet hospitality from our airport CSAs and inflight crews, they will almost always come back (we'll save IROPs for another day). However, the frontline people of WestJet are just one piece of a complex puzzle. They are supported by a whole host of other people working behind the scenes long before a guest shows up at the airport with their overstuffed bag and too many carry ons.

WestJet has some of the greatest marketers, PR professionals and communicators in the business. I can't even begin to count the number of unique, creative campaigns I've been involved in over the years, and behind each of those campaigns was a dedicated WestJetter (or ten!) who put in long hours to bring it to life.

As often as people looked to me for my social media expertise, I've looked to my teammates and been in awe of their work and the results they produced. RP, Brie, Lauren, Morgan, Madi & Denise are masters of media relations and PR, and can handle anything thrown their way. Our Corporate and Leadership Events team (Meagann, Lauren & Chris) is pretty much the best in the business - and I can attest to the consistency of how they deliver exceptional virtual and in-person events. The evolution of our internal communications under Jackie, Robin, Renée, Katherine and April's leadership has been amazing, and while there have been many different team members who've supported our internal comms over the years, I'm as positive about the current group (Shauna, Christine, Josh & Emma) as I've ever been.

Of course, I'm partial to my own team, and I really can't say enough good things about Kaelan, Ru, Kayley and Darren, who put so much passion and effort into bringing the WestJet story to life on our social channels every day, week after week for the last decade. You challenged me to be a better teammate and leader, and even if I didn't live up to your expectations all the time, I learned from my mistakes, and remember the things I did right. I will forever be in your debt and look forward to watching your careers in the future.

4. If you see a bunch of WestJetters in blue Santa hats, stick around

December 2013 will always be a month I will never forget. We started the month by launching the Magic Plane, our first ever Disney-themed livery, which also happens to be the first ever Disney livery designed by an airline employee, and in my humble opinion, the best Disney livery ever.

Then, on December 7th, I uploaded a 5 minute 26 second-long video to YouTube. The title was WestJet Christmas Miracle: real-time giving, and the first time I watched it, it made me cry. We launched the following morning, and a the response was instant and powerful. A couple days later it had over 15 million views, and we were receiving media requests from all over the world. I replied to YouTube private messages from the biggest TV stations in Japan and Poland ("of course you can play our video on the news tonight"), and did my best to keep up with the avalanche of comments and messages being sent to us on social media. By the end of the month, the video had over 35 million views and had solidified itself as one of the greatest viral brand videos of all time.

It was all very exciting, but my favourite part is still that our analytics for the video showed a handful of views inside the Vatican. So yeah, the Pope watched our miracle, I guess. ??

I took part in 10 Christmas campaigns, and each one was a monumental project from start to finish. If I had to choose a single highlight from my entire 17 years at WestJet, I would have to call it a tie between the Snowflake Soiree in Fort McMurray in 2016 and our mini miracles command centre for our Christmas campaign in 2015. I just love seeing how WestJetters can come together to make a positive impact on other people's lives.

Speaking of which...

5. Community is everything

I guess I shouldn't be surprised by all the great things I've seen WestJet employees do. After all, WestJetters caring for their community and caring for each other is basically a part of daily life. As a member of the WestJet family, I came to truly appreciate the value of donating your time and energy to a charitable cause, a community event or to support the wellbeing of your coworkers. I've had the chance to walk in the Stampede Parade (waving to my kids in the front row!), as well as the Pride Parades in Calgary and Vancouver. I've been invited to speak at conferences to share our WestJet social media story, and have been able to connect with leaders of businesses of all sizes, and talk at length about social media strategy, technology or the latest content trends. And I've certainly bought my fair share of cupcakes, brownies, or cookies to support someone's fund raising efforts.

6. Travel is a gift and you become richer every time you experience it

I've had many chances to travel while working for an airline for 17+ years. Whether I was taking the kids on vacation, travelling with my father and sister to a funeral on the other side of the world, doing a content capture trip for our new 787 Dreamliner, joining the inaugural flight to Paris, or producing a video in London with my favourite sportscaster, I will always cherish my travel experiences. My flight privileges have taken me to 5 different continents for business or personal trips and this has given me a much greater appreciation for the life I have here in Canada.

7. Choose kindness

Until we launched our Social Care team in 2016, one of my many responsibilities was to respond to guests on our social media channels. I've had hundreds of thousands of conversations with WestJet guests via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn (and even YouTube!) and have gained an incredible appreciation for human diversity. Though we tend to stereotype, no two people are the same, even if they have a similar profile photo and appear to come from a similar background. Each of these people has their own unique story.

"Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.?Be kind.?Always." -Robin Williams. ?

There is one specific social media conversation I will always remember because it carried such an important, yet simple lesson. It happened somewhere around 2012 or 2013, when Pinterest and Instagram were brand new, Blackberries were still cool and Facebook users were still primarily scrolling their chronologically-ordered home feed on their laptops.

My first thought when I came across this particular tweet was, "oh great, here's another guest that's gonna be lambasted by the community for their ridiculous complaint."

The individual was very upset about a recent travel experience and was voicing their frustration to us on Twitter. It was a typical "worst experience of my life... never flying with you again" sort of tweet, and on the surface, it seemed to be based on something relatively insignificant.

Since it was a public tweet, a few others chimed in and told the person to calm down; that it wasn't the end of the world; that it was a "first world problem", etc. I asked the individual to DM their flight info and any other relevant details to see if we could help.

After a few DMs back and forth, I learned that a close relative had just passed away and that their child had recently been diagnosed with a serious health issue. I realized that was messaging someone who was under extreme stress, had barely slept in days, and was generally feeling like crap. Throw a bad flight experience on top of it and you have all the ingredients for a social media outburst that is not so much based on the actual experience, but the cumulation of circumstances at that particular moment in the person's life.

I was able to help find a solution and ease their concerns, but more importantly, I was able to listen and let the person know that I understood their situation. I received a heartfelt apology for the outburst, "I'm sorry, it's not your fault and I'm not usually like this", and I replied that it was appreciated, but completely unnecessary. Sure, this final experience was the trigger, but there's a whole lot going on in the background that nobody else could see.

Over the years, our WestJet social media family continued to grow, and we added more people to my own team as well as creating 25+ new jobs for our Social Care team (h/t to Susie, Mandy, Maria, Dal and Crystal). But I always kept this experience in the back of my mind. If someone made a mistake, I approached it with kindness. If I witnessed an outburst online or in real life, it was likely exacerbated by something unseen. Social media can be a challenging place in 2022, and people are all human, living their own individual lives, so remember: choose kindness, always.

After more than 17 years, there are, quite simply, too many people to thank. Whether our paths crossed a handful of times, or if we worked together on a regular basis, thank you to all the WestJetters, Swoopsters and external partners for accepting me for who I am, for your collaboration, and for your commitment to building this great company over the past 26 years.

I can’t end this without a word from Preeti, our favourite bot-like human, who has posted on every single one of our posts for as long as I can remember:? Looking dashing. Love new look.

Keep it real, friends. And thanks for all the cupcakes.?