WestJet Airlines
WestJet Airlines Employee Reviews
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Great Culture
Baggage Service Agent (Current Employee) – Mississauga, ON – 10 October 2018
Variety of work in Domestic or International Baggage Arrivals area, Transborder customs processing area, and airside agent work. Process delayed and damaged bags claims as well as lost and found items. General guest service duties.
was good at one point
Baggage Services Agent (Current Employee) – Winnipeg, MB – 12 October 2018
local YWG management not good, I enjoyed the work pace and tasks, but management and nepotism here is quite ridiculous and advancement depends on your ability to brown nose
Pros
cheap flights and vacation packages
Cons
micromanagement
Great perks great employees
Super Sales Agent (Current Employee) – Calgary, AB – 27 September 2018
Great company and great employees. I learned how to be a great team player and how to be very organized and be very good at time management.
Challenging part of my job is the guest that were upset when there was a distrubtion to thier filght however WestJet taught us how to be professional and most helpful.
Challenging part of my job is the guest that were upset when there was a distrubtion to thier filght however WestJet taught us how to be professional and most helpful.
Fun, fast paced working environment
Inflight Operations Coordinator (Current Employee) – Calgary, AB – 18 September 2018
Always welcoming and enjoyable. Easy going work environment with amazing co workers. Although the culture has changed throughout the years, I still find WestJet to put people first. We have a can do attitude. Hardest part of my job is sitting for long periods of time and not having a sit stand desk as part of my work station.
Most enjoyable part of my job, is the people I see everyday!
Most enjoyable part of my job, is the people I see everyday!
Pros
great people
Cons
lack of career advancement
Productive and a fun place to work for.
Customer Service Agent (Current Employee) – Vancouver, BC – 18 September 2018
This company has more to offer and really challenge my skills when it comes to customer service, time management, multitasking, communicating and overall performance.
Downhill
Rather not say (Current Employee) – Calgary, AB – 13 September 2018
Unfortunately this company has gone from fun, friendly, and caring about the people to a cutthroat, only caring about the bottom-line/stockholder company.
This company used to have a motto; Take care of the employees and the employees will take care of the guests which in return will take care of the company. Sadly this is no more. The company has fallen far from where their beliefs stood and have in return stopped caring about their employees. (Shutting out all open conversation and shutting their doors)
If the new CEO can figure out a way to show their employees he cares and is willing to do what is necessary to help this would be extremely beneficial to the entire company as well as stockholders.
This company used to have a motto; Take care of the employees and the employees will take care of the guests which in return will take care of the company. Sadly this is no more. The company has fallen far from where their beliefs stood and have in return stopped caring about their employees. (Shutting out all open conversation and shutting their doors)
If the new CEO can figure out a way to show their employees he cares and is willing to do what is necessary to help this would be extremely beneficial to the entire company as well as stockholders.
Pros
Good flight travel benefits
Cons
Management doesn't care about you, Internal PACT does not help their employees in any way other than to take notes, Sadly a union would be the best thing for this company.
Tough times but still good people
Manager - WestJet Airlines (Former Employee) – Calgary, AB – 7 September 2018
Always enjoyed working here, some tough times currently as they sort out their transition as a international airline. Lots of good, enthusiastic, people, Some entitlement issues among front line staff. No Canadian executives may be straining the old culture.
Pros
Travel perks
Cons
Hard work, complex rules and regulations
productive and fun workplace
Crew Chief (Former Employee) – Calgary, AB – 5 September 2018
This is a great company is to work for. They are very flexible with scheduling as well as accommodating when personal situations arise. Management was awesome and very helpful. The only change I would make is pay increases.
Pros
Shares are available
Cons
Wages could be higher
Best Employers in Canada - NO MORE...
Bilingual Service and Sales Agent - Home Based (Former Employee) – Vancouver, BC – 28 August 2018
So it appears that Westjet once upon a time won the awards from Waterstone Human Capital for Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Culture and from Aon Hewitt for Best Employers in Canada. That was in 2015.
Since then the culture has changed to a more corporate culture hence awards like Corporate responsibility, Trusted airline, Best Airline, Traveler's choice, Low cost airline... etc...
It's pretty evident the focus has changed now... Even their slogan, "Owners care" makes one wonder, what is it that they now care about? Probably not about their employees anymore as the focus has shifted.
The position I worked for was a Service and Sales Agent - Home Based. Applicants - beware. There is a reason why they are still hiring. Yes, the travel benefits are great but the position has some gray areas that are quite questionable.
Home based - your responsibility to ensure your home has all the necessary "overhead" items. Furniture and internet service will not be compensated. What is normally deemed an overhead item for a company now comes out of your pocket. Also, if you have network issues (which happens often on their server) it's your responsibility to fix. If you take too long, they will assume you took the day off.
Micromanagement - Due to the nature of home based, it's understandable why they have use this technique but they monitor you to the second. You get 15 minute breaks or 30 minute lunches but not a second more otherwise you will get a warning from the monitoring station. Also, don't think you can catch up on the corporate emails when you are more... on "standby" as they expect you read emails and fix/hook up computer issues when you are not on call. Essentially, expect to work 10 hours but get paid for 8.
Travel Benefits - Great!! But good luck on scheduling them. Corporate does not let you have time off easily as everything needs to booked at least a month ahead of time and there are blackout periods on what dates you can choose. If you have an emergency that also needs to be booked ahead of time... otherwise they'll just say you've been slacking off.
Overall - it's amazing that Corporate doesn't recognize that as Service and Sales Agent we are the first line to the public. Any calls we deal with are typically an issue as the "guest" would not be calling if there wasn't a problem to begin with, needless to say, they are not the most pleasant of calls of times. The stress from external factors are quite significant as it's difficult to maintain a pleasant professional attitude when someone is screaming at you on the other line. So that being said, it would be nice if corporate recognize the limitations they have imposed on this role (i.e. strict breaks, low pay, frequent server problems, little to no support, being on the phone non-stop with only a few seconds between calls, scheduling un-flexibility)
Personally, this role would be more ideal as a part-time role or basically address the limitations better. I've heard many good things about the culture at Westjet in the past and unfortunately my experience wasn't a positive one. The training was great but the reality needs to have bit more work. less
Since then the culture has changed to a more corporate culture hence awards like Corporate responsibility, Trusted airline, Best Airline, Traveler's choice, Low cost airline... etc...
It's pretty evident the focus has changed now... Even their slogan, "Owners care" makes one wonder, what is it that they now care about? Probably not about their employees anymore as the focus has shifted.
The position I worked for was a Service and Sales Agent - Home Based. Applicants - beware. There is a reason why they are still hiring. Yes, the travel benefits are great but the position has some gray areas that are quite questionable.
Home based - your responsibility to ensure your home has all the necessary "overhead" items. Furniture and internet service will not be compensated. What is normally deemed an overhead item for a company now comes out of your pocket. Also, if you have network issues (which happens often on their server) it's your responsibility to fix. If you take too long, they will assume you took the day off.
Micromanagement - Due to the nature of home based, it's understandable why they have use this technique but they monitor you to the second. You get 15 minute breaks or 30 minute lunches but not a second more otherwise you will get a warning from the monitoring station. Also, don't think you can catch up on the corporate emails when you are more... on "standby" as they expect you read emails and fix/hook up computer issues when you are not on call. Essentially, expect to work 10 hours but get paid for 8.
Travel Benefits - Great!! But good luck on scheduling them. Corporate does not let you have time off easily as everything needs to booked at least a month ahead of time and there are blackout periods on what dates you can choose. If you have an emergency that also needs to be booked ahead of time... otherwise they'll just say you've been slacking off.
Overall - it's amazing that Corporate doesn't recognize that as Service and Sales Agent we are the first line to the public. Any calls we deal with are typically an issue as the "guest" would not be calling if there wasn't a problem to begin with, needless to say, they are not the most pleasant of calls of times. The stress from external factors are quite significant as it's difficult to maintain a pleasant professional attitude when someone is screaming at you on the other line. So that being said, it would be nice if corporate recognize the limitations they have imposed on this role (i.e. strict breaks, low pay, frequent server problems, little to no support, being on the phone non-stop with only a few seconds between calls, scheduling un-flexibility)
Personally, this role would be more ideal as a part-time role or basically address the limitations better. I've heard many good things about the culture at Westjet in the past and unfortunately my experience wasn't a positive one. The training was great but the reality needs to have bit more work. less
Pros
Flights?
Cons
Erratic schedule, Micromanagement, Stressful environments internally as well externally
Improvement needed - Call Center Only
Team Leader (Former Employee) – Moncton, NB – 23 August 2018
The culture is great, the time given to teach and encourage agents is acceptable from a Team Leader perspective. Pay was very good. Communication from Executive management and front-line managers very vague, very sketchy. Alot of upper management has zero experience from other Call Centers so isn't very good at running things efficiently. There seems to be too many people trying to run the show, and not enough people putting plans for the future into place.
If you have previous Team Leader experience, you can do well as long as you are able to work without any direct and effective supervision and communication, emphasis on communication. Alot of policy especially attendance is not clearly defined and alot of guessing takes place. If you want feedback, you have to beg for it. Also when you get it, seems to be alot of emphasis on things that aren't important. Too much concern with regards to how the center is perceived by up management, and not enough concern with the things that really matter. Much of the skill needed to be effective as a TL has to come with you, or it's a guessing game. Their policy/process is very, very different from other Call Centers.
Customer Service is priority one as is following rules and protecting guest privacy. Constant change that plagues the Airline industry definitely trickles down to the call center. Union activity as of late has made for some difficult calls for the agents. As have flight path changes. Westjet is trying to be efficient and is making great strides to get there, and doing well at it. But many guests are not happy with the more... changes.
Absolutely zero training with regards to call quality. Seems Quality is an after thought. It's a struggle to coach when the agents don't understand it.
Westjet needs to hire Executive Managers with extensive experience from other Call Centers - and then they will see huge success and improvement in morale and efficiency. There are managers in place right now that have no people skills and are just not approachable. Many mistakes with hiring have been made. Also some favoritism is definitely happening and that is hard on the morale.
The CEO at Westjet is new, and his vision is remarkable. He will be key to the longterm success of the call center and Company as a whole. Westjet needs to actively recruit experience executives with extensive experience in Contact Centers to lead the center, and get them on the right path. Until such time, the Contact Center is going to continue to suffer with unclear policy and lack of communication, not to mention poor management.
Also there are some major technical and IT challenges that plague the systems currently and make it tough on the agents due to alot of latency with their programs.
All frontline agents work from home.
The training department/program for front line agents needs fresh new Contact Center experienced management and a complete overhaul. This is a huge frustration when agents are done training, and actively taking calls. There are many skills that are not addressed or taught with regards to effective call handling and call quality. less
If you have previous Team Leader experience, you can do well as long as you are able to work without any direct and effective supervision and communication, emphasis on communication. Alot of policy especially attendance is not clearly defined and alot of guessing takes place. If you want feedback, you have to beg for it. Also when you get it, seems to be alot of emphasis on things that aren't important. Too much concern with regards to how the center is perceived by up management, and not enough concern with the things that really matter. Much of the skill needed to be effective as a TL has to come with you, or it's a guessing game. Their policy/process is very, very different from other Call Centers.
Customer Service is priority one as is following rules and protecting guest privacy. Constant change that plagues the Airline industry definitely trickles down to the call center. Union activity as of late has made for some difficult calls for the agents. As have flight path changes. Westjet is trying to be efficient and is making great strides to get there, and doing well at it. But many guests are not happy with the more... changes.
Absolutely zero training with regards to call quality. Seems Quality is an after thought. It's a struggle to coach when the agents don't understand it.
Westjet needs to hire Executive Managers with extensive experience from other Call Centers - and then they will see huge success and improvement in morale and efficiency. There are managers in place right now that have no people skills and are just not approachable. Many mistakes with hiring have been made. Also some favoritism is definitely happening and that is hard on the morale.
The CEO at Westjet is new, and his vision is remarkable. He will be key to the longterm success of the call center and Company as a whole. Westjet needs to actively recruit experience executives with extensive experience in Contact Centers to lead the center, and get them on the right path. Until such time, the Contact Center is going to continue to suffer with unclear policy and lack of communication, not to mention poor management.
Also there are some major technical and IT challenges that plague the systems currently and make it tough on the agents due to alot of latency with their programs.
All frontline agents work from home.
The training department/program for front line agents needs fresh new Contact Center experienced management and a complete overhaul. This is a huge frustration when agents are done training, and actively taking calls. There are many skills that are not addressed or taught with regards to effective call handling and call quality. less
Pros
CEO vision, culture, moral, people
Cons
ELT lacks call center experience, poor communication, system issues, latency
Work hard for less
Crew Planner (Current Employee) – Calgary, AB – 19 August 2018
your time at WestJet will be the most fun you'll have at work but your salary will be less then the same job at another company and unless you have highly specialized skills in aviation, career progression is very difficult.
Live the culture
Business Advisor (Former Employee) – Calgary, AB – 17 August 2018
Westjet is having growing pains right now but do not give up on it, the airline that was started so bravely in 1996 still exists in the staff the airplanes and the office halls.
Pros
You KNOW you are contributing to the greater good
Cons
There are some pockets of inside politics that take place sadly.
Very good work place
Senior Quality Assurance Analyst/QA Lead (Current Employee) – Calgary, AB – 17 August 2018
Good place to work. Please here at westjet are very friendly inclyding leads , managers and busimess.There is no micro managing here and good place for to work to balance your work and life.
Pros
No micro managing
Cons
No extra hours and no WFH
Good company in a time of transition
SALES SUPER AGENT--Part-Time, Home Rez (Current Employee) – Calgary, AB – 2 August 2018
Great place to work if you like to travel, great fares if you don't mind flying on a standby basis. Perfect for those who love customer service in this constantly evolving industry.
Great Culture
Business Intelligence and Analytics Manager (Current Employee) – Calgary, AB – 29 July 2018
Great social aspect to the work environment. Definitely a people company. Company is heading in the right direction and given time, all the new initiatives will allow the company to continue growing in the future.
Home based sounds good.
Customer Service (Former Employee) – Calgary, AB – 19 July 2018
I took this job opportunity because I worked $55K job with stress. So I wanted to go small wage and less stress.
But I was wrong,restriction is not clear until you get sign and started this job. It must be 4 walls and completely isolated from family and pets. (Of course during work). Problem was we are not allowed to open the window even hot summer time to avoid outside of noise,plus management will suggest you to buy a fan.
$15~$16 minimum wage and internet,phone, insurance are not covered by company. so, you will be making less than $2000 a month . Flights benefit are great but lower seniority can't get a vacation when you would like to take. Some of managements were wonderful, but some of them were terrible. You don't get support, but they will say that you are wrong.
However, your time and this job's restrictions are not $15~$16
Don't recommend at all.
But I was wrong,restriction is not clear until you get sign and started this job. It must be 4 walls and completely isolated from family and pets. (Of course during work). Problem was we are not allowed to open the window even hot summer time to avoid outside of noise,plus management will suggest you to buy a fan.
$15~$16 minimum wage and internet,phone, insurance are not covered by company. so, you will be making less than $2000 a month . Flights benefit are great but lower seniority can't get a vacation when you would like to take. Some of managements were wonderful, but some of them were terrible. You don't get support, but they will say that you are wrong.
However, your time and this job's restrictions are not $15~$16
Don't recommend at all.
Pros
Poor management.
This is an environment that allows you to take your job seriously but not yourself
CUSTOMER SERVICE AGENT (Current Employee) – Hamilton, ON – 8 July 2018
I enjoy working at WestJet because we are given freedom to be interactive, and fun with those that travel with us. We are able to show care and compassion to those that are traveling for unfortunate reasons, or when they just need a little extra assistance.
Pros
I truly enjoy the enivironment and the people I work with
Cons
At my location we have to work split shifts
I miss Westjet
Super Sales Agent (SSA) (Former Employee) – Calgary, AB – 4 July 2018
This is the type of company that you will regret leaving in your lifetime. The Management needed a little empathy when it comes to sicknesses, but the overall culture of this place was amazing.
Pros
Flights!
good workplace
Full-time cabin crew member for WestJet (Current Employee) – Toronto Pearson International Airport, ON – 30 June 2018
not a great work/life balance
work place moral is low
company currently going through a lot of transitions
Not great compensation considering amount of work
work place moral is low
company currently going through a lot of transitions
Not great compensation considering amount of work