Southwest Airlines Wanted To Expand—But The Airport Director ‘Worked From Home’ By Ignoring Calls. Now She’s Fired.

An airport director turned ‘work from home’ into a no show job. They’ve been fired, and an investigation finds that they even failed to return phone calls when Southwest Airlines was looking to add service the airport.

The 2023 investigation found that former Madison, Wisconsin airport director turned “work from home” into “not working at all.” And coming out of Covid, with travel recovering, this was costly.


Credit: Madison, Wisconsin Airport

Reportedly, the director was generally unreachable. Getting any response from her routinely took weeks. Staff described an environment that featured “lack of communication, time management, vision, and organization,” while all projects met resistance when they met anything at all. The director defends work from home suggesting the role was predominantly one involving documents from pending legislation to industry news (presumably her defense is she was busy doom scrolling blogs).

Colleagues were especially incensed that while the airport director never came into the airport, she banned those under her from telework even though county policies allowed it (‘when productivity wasn’t compromised’). She’s accused of protecting employees with a personal relationship from discipline, and concocting job descriptions to steer selection to a crony, and the investigation found misrepresentations from her about the hiring process.

One employee, whose wife was a friend of Jones, allegedly called airport passengers racial slurs, showed a dirty hypodermic needle to a passenger and falsely accused coworkers of stealing his wallet, according to documents. Another employee — whom investigators said was a friend of Jones, often giving the airport director quail eggs, coffee and preserves — threatened to bring a gun to work but was not disciplined.

Her inaccessibility allegedly cost the airport potential service from Southwest Airlines.

  • When a major airline calls a regional airport, you answer even though most of the time they’re just box-checking.
  • The major determinant of air service is going to be commercial potential of a route
  • Subsidies can make a difference
  • But you want a reputation for being easy to work with, to make the care about service potential, and to articulate any incentives that are available.

I love this,

Jones told the State Journal she had no recollection of not responding to the airline.

I suspect that if Southwest were genuinely interested in serving the airport, they would have pursued follow-ups aggressively. At the time this would have occurred, though, the airline was expanding aggressively into new markets so perhaps there is some chance that this is true. More recently they’ve indicated unwillingness to open new stations as they pull back from growth.

The airport’s director was set to retire in April, and a nationwide search for a new airport director is underway. So she wasn’t permitted to keep her $228,000 salary through the end of her anticipated tenure.

(HT: Enilria)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Yeah so this is why high-end professional service industries such as biglaw are so prestigious, lucrative, and respected in high society.

    In big law as an associate, or frankly even as a partner, you respond. Immediately. All the time. The matter might require research and thinking but at the very least you say you’re on it.

    Profiles of successful big law partners routinely say they are never not at work. I read a profile of a guy who seemed to be a massive a-hole, but the article said he has been interrupted at Sunday dinner every night for the past 30 years by a client call. The guy ordinarily worked 6:30 am to 10 pm seven days a week.

    That’s what we all need to strive for if we want to be members of a high-end respectable productive society. Not responding to work calls and emails, such as this airport director, is the epitome of low class.

  2. Here is the section from ABA Journal.

    Hard work is one of the secrets to his own success, he said in a New York magazine cover story in 2001, after moving to Cadwalader. It’s not uncommon, he said, for him to work from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, and there hasn’t been a Sunday dinner in 30 years when he didn’t have to take an important phone call.

    Now compare and contrast that with the airport director.

  3. @Dick

    For once, I appreciate your perspective here; though, I’m not sure that ‘work-life balance’ is one everyone should strive for. Many of those ‘big law’ types do burn out, or literally ‘die at their desk’ from heart-attack. Others do prioritize clients over all else, which is admirable, for the clients, but for those attorneys’ families and friends, it’s often a form of abandonment. It’s all about priorities.

    I’d imagine an airport director is a complicated, potentially high-stress role, if done well, that absolutely should be in-person.

    That said, there are many ‘jobs’ that do not require in-person work, and that can be done, and done well, from anywhere, using existing technology. Sure, some abuse that privilege, ‘no-show’ is not acceptable and should be shunned.

  4. A paywall didn’t allow the link to the original article to go through but searching other sources indicated that Kim Jones is retiring instead of being fired. There was no indication about the retiring being voluntary or involuntary.

  5. I’m thinking , Thief by Conversion charges would be appropriate and seizure of property acquired from the funds. At least make her lawyer up….

  6. @bill ganas

    I admire your ‘passion’ but that is a novel application of that law—I’m not a lawyer in Wisconsin, but this seems like an employment dispute, a civil matter, if anything—besides any claims that Southwest or airport customers may have against her personally is too attenuated. Like, good luck finding a prosecutor who is going to waste limited resources on a case like this. Then again, the way our country is going, if they can make her or anyone into a ‘culture war’ issue, then perhaps there could be a ‘witch hunt’—call the kangaroo court to order!

    @Dick

    I thought of something else for you—since you’re all uppity on ‘hard work’ and the so-called ‘meritocracy’—have you thought about our US Congress persons, who earn $174,000/year, have excellent healthcare and other benefits, and get access to insider information and regularly trade on it, earning large fortunes (both sides, sadly, and you probably hold an irrational animus towards Speaker Pelosi, who is one of the most notorious, so there’s some ‘red meat’ for you—for the rest, think of Senators Perdue, Loeffler). Would you say those folks (many of whom are lawyers) work ‘harder’ than say a so-called ‘low class’ (your words) bus driver or waiter earning minimum wage and maybe tips? Then again, it seems the Emperor doesn’t really need a State Duma, does he, so maybe they’ll disband Congress soon enough. Think critically here with me if you will.

  7. How the hell can you be an airport director/manager and work from home? The entire purpose of being a “site manager” is managing the site, which you can’t do from your bedroom dressed in your jammies.

  8. I’ll bet one could find thousands of stories like this in government at all levels. We’re so used to mediocrity, ignorance, overspending and disinterest that nobody much cares any more. With the dew regime in DC, perhaps things might improve.

  9. @jns55

    You think this *new regime is going to fix corruption and ‘waste’? I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

    Listen, I wish they would—both sides—but what’s really happening is that we, the people, in the US at least, just handed over all power to the tech-bro oligarchs. These guys only care about themselves—and we are not in ‘the club.’ This usually doesn’t go well for most of us. Hope I am wrong.

  10. The legal field is a horrible example of a balanced, reasonable work ethic. They’re the biggest pricks on earth because they have no productive outlets for stress. You’re not that important.

    Responding to an email within an hour or two is well within reason unless you work for 911.

  11. It’s really hard to put 2023 and 2025 together and “she worked from home” and “didn’t return phone calls.”

    Let’s boil it down.

    TWO YEAR AGO she DIDN’T RETURN PHONE CALLS.

    Done.
    Has nothing to do with RTO or today. Two years ago she failed to do her job.
    Please stop whining. Many other people have pointed it out but Gary I’m calling you out.
    Stop your whining. If you have nothing to say, say nothing. If you want to rehash an old story don’t.

    Sure this is your website. And we don’t have to read it ever again. Try me.

  12. @jesda gulati — I get what you meant, though…ugh, you’re gonna make me defend lawyers now…you have to know that there are some decent folks (and some awful ones) in every field. Some attorneys do strike that delicate balance of serving their clients and the public, both honorably and diligently, while maintaining reasonable hours, a healthy lifestyle, being there for family, and are passionate about their hobbies and communities. Agreed on your ’emergency responders’ comment.

    We probably should have known better than to take @Dick too seriously, based on his prior comments at VFTW, and because his source was the American Bar Association’s Journal… from nearly 25 years ago! However, I do sincerely admire the efforts of that firm, Cadwalader, and others, who helped families and victims after the attacks that year (2001). Still, for many, that significant tragedy was a reminder that ‘work’ is not everything–sometimes you do need to actually be ‘present’ for life events and for family–it goes by quickly.

  13. @Ehud Gavron — I respect your passion. I also sometimes enjoy Gary’s reposting, however silly and pointless it may be. Get it… ‘point’-less… like credit cards.. miles.. points.. anyone?

  14. SWA hasnt made MKE a priority airport, so I doubt Madision who have been a serious expansion play. Madison has demand at peak school times and Osh Kosh Air Show, but don’t see it filling a Max8 regularly.

  15. @Brian W — That’s an interesting observation.

    I haven’t lived in the area (just many visits), but I’m surprised by the extremely short flights between MSN, MKE and ORD, at least with United and American, when driving is literally 1-2 hours tops between all of them (and there are commuter rail options). Like, if you’re seeking a long-haul flight, you’re likely going through ORD as it is.

    For comparison, there aren’t flights between PBI and MIA in South Florida (1+ hour drive), or TPA-MCO in Central Florida (2 hour drive), or PHL-EWR in the mid-Atlantic (1.5 hour drive).

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