Bizarre behavior in a busy airport

Even though I live in the Dallas area, I haven't flown on Southwest Airlines (SWA) in over 20 years.  However, I've read many articles, heard the stories, seen the funny flight attendant videos, and listened to many speakers on the dedicated and fun/great culture at this company over the years.   From all that information, I generally believed it was true, but I figured all that "fun" was just a notch above compared to your typical corporate job where fun was a rarity, such as for the 15 minute departmental birthday party each month.

I flew on Southwest last week and here is what I really found...

It was 2 days after Christmas day and 6AM on a cold day at Love Field.  It was packed, people everywhere.  Long lines everywhere.   Clearly, we weren't the only 1st timers as there was a lot of confused people navigating the labyrinth of boarding passes, tags, and security, and the multiple lines for each.

We arrived at the airport in plenty of time, so we weren't stressed, but I could see stress on a lot of other's people faces.   Anytime I saw a person that didn't know what to do, there seemed to be a worker right there stepping up to provide an answer.  And then I saw something bizarre.  I kept seeing these random people smiling and even laughing.  Who were these people having fun and laughing at a busy airport at 6am?!?!?!?

I would watch these people carefully, and even step closer to ensure I was seeing it accurately.  In every case, it was a SWA employee!   They were smiling when talking to each other and smiling when talking to passengers.   And this smiling and laughing wasn't limited to the gate agents.   I also saw folks who work in the background in the terminal (don't know function/title) doing the same.  I guarantee you there weren't many passengers smiling at this time a day.   

In the end, our flight boarded on time (and quickly), departed on time and had no other issues...which made me smile when I landed.   But that smile was a little bigger than usual due to what I had witnessed that morning!

SWA, I am a true believer now!   And I will definitely make an effort to fly SWA 1st in the future.