I'll even start this out with a complaint. It's pointless but it's my complaint.
First off let me say welcome to all the AT mechanics.
Second I have a big issue with all AT people getting old employee numbers. You should get new issued numbers just like all current, new employees and former employees did. The way I see it is SWA is for some reason trying to hide all the AT employees. Our employee numbers are like our S.S number and I feel mean a great deal to us, at least to me it does. I and other mechanics feel that our employee numbers now mean nothing! We are now just a number.
I couldnt agree with you more, but in GK infinite wisdom and lack of human nature knowledge he found if more fun to try to fool the masses.. totally neglecting to understand for most of us that the employee number meant something. For a guy who can only think in numbers like GK, this is a major screw up!!
The double edged insult is that he gave away sacred numbers like the 3 digit(under 1000) numbers that would indicate that employee was almost an original employee... what a slap in the face to all... now bare with me,,, As for F/As I think there are less than 20 that have such a low number but an astounding 10 were given to the AT F/As... wow,, now if I were an AT employee and got one of those numbers I would be scared or embarassed... let me explain... I just flew with a # 900 employee number,, everyone who saw that number asked about the old days, shook her hand, kudos etc,,, pilots, ops, csa, mechanics,,... almost like a local rock star.,.. Now how does an AT 35 year old FA explain that she started when she was -5 years old... these girls are marked,,, I would be afraid that I was on the to be fired list,, or scared for the years of explaining and being tagged,,,This is not fair to the SWA employee or the AT employee but the company is FOOLING us because we are all stupid!!!
This is one of many of GK major slip ups and can and will never be understood by anyone other than corporate..there are more than 30(guesstimate) AT girls with employee numbers under 4,000... they will have long carreers and lots of uncomfortable moments explaining,,not their fault,,(its GK's) its unfair to them as much or more than it is to the original people who have such numbers... just another GK Major OVERSIGHT