After 35 years, agent decided it was time to fly
When Shari Rood turned in her application last June as an internal candidate for Southwest Airlines’ next flight attendant class, the woman processing the paperwork called to see whether there was a mistake.
There didn’t seem to be enough digits in Rood’s employee number.
Rood laughed and assured her that, yes, she was employee No. 5956 — compared with today’s new hires, who number in the 138000s.
“She said, ‘Really?’ “Rood says. “And I said, ‘Yeah. You’re wondering if I’m crazy, right?’ ”
You see, Rood was 20 when she joined Southwest Airlines, working the ticket counter, departure gates and helping skycaps at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in 1983.
She hoped to be a flight attendant one day, but four daughters put her inflight dreams in a 35-year holding pattern.
Now that each of her millennials has graduated from Southern Methodist University, the 56-yearold’s career has finally taken flight.
On Feb. 1, she earned her flight attendant wings at Southwest’s training and operational support campus at Dallas Love Field — along with 45 much younger flight attendant graduates.
“This is so amazing,” she says, hugging Southwest flight attendant Linda Clark, her friend since high school who flew in from Phoenix to present her wings.
Three of her daughters were on hand to celebrate their mom’s glory, each wearing a sparkly red headband with hearts bouncing from springs, in keeping with Southwest’s quirky, love-in-the-air theme.
The Southwest way
About a third of Rood’s classmates were existing employees — just not as existing as she is.
Southwest encourages employees to start fresh within the company, and plenty do.
But most people who’ve been around 35 years are thinking about retirement, not launching a new career, says Julie Weber, Southwest’s chief people officer. “It’s just a really fun story that she has chosen to take that journey as a flight attendant and love on our customers even more.
“We’ll take that contribution as long as we can.”
Getting into a Southwest flight attendant class is harder than getting into Harvard University.
Last year, 28,518 people applied for 1,207 Southwest flight attendant positions. That’s a 4 percent acceptance rate. Harvard’s is 5 percent.
Online pay surveys indicate that the “average” Southwest flight attendant makes about $65,000 annually, but individual compensation varies significantly depending on seniority, hours worked, profit-sharing and other factors.
Internal candidates have a leg up regardless of age, Weber says. “They understand how much emphasis we place on incredible hospitality and really taking care of our customers. We call it living the Southwest way, which is having that warrior spirit, that servant heart and that fun-loving attitude.”
Rood’s been living the Southwest way just about as long as the carrier has been flying Phoenix routes.
She went to travel school after one semester in college, then became a corporate travel agent at a large company in Phoenix for two years. She heard about Southwest’s kooky, peoplefirst reputation and thought, “I’m in.”
Grounded for years
So six months after Southwest added Phoenix routes, Rood hopped aboard the customer service department and never left.
She did apply for inflight service in 1985, but she learned that she’d be based in Houston. She had just bought a home, so she gave up the idea.
Then came the girls, now 30, 28, 25 and 23.
Rood turned down promotions because she loved the flexibility of trading hours with co-workers. Until this move, she was her department’s second-most senior employee, so she got her pick of duties and hours. She spent her more recent years in the customer service command center.
But in the back of her mind, she longed to be a flight attendant like so many of her friends.
In June, Rood caught wind that Southwest would be taking internal applications for the next class. After being encouraged by her daughters, she decided to go for it.
“This was a life decision for me, and if I hadn’t had the OK and the support of the girls, I wouldn’t have done it,” she says.
Rood spent the day before graduation in the air.
“It was great. It was long. I left the hotel at 8 a.m. and got back to the hotel at 8:30 at night,” she says. “Three different crews. Three different flights. Spilled nothing,” she says, then adds for emphasis, “nothing. No major emergencies, no irregular operations. I worked with really great people.”
Earlier this month, Rood completed her first on-herown flights operating from her temporary base in Oakland, Calif. Come March, she’ll be based at Love Field. .
Rood marked her first official day by showing she clearly has no intention of acting her age.
The 5-foot-3 powerball climbed into an overhead bin before passengers in Ontario boarded their flight to Oakland, so that a fellow crew member could snap her photograph.
Look out, Southwest passengers, here comes Shari.