email : Webview : PDX People Weekly Update: April 12, 2021

Save the Date: Customer Service Awards and Guest Speaker Barbara Yamamoto

Join us on Tuesday, April 27 at noon for the PDX People Quarterly Awards to recognize outstanding customer service champions. The awards are held virtually so add it to your Outlook calendar now or bookmark this link to watch the live event.

Guest speaker Barbara Yamamoto will provide timely insight on customer service during major construction. Barbara led an award-winning culture change project around guest experience at Los Angeles International Airport, which resulted in increased satisfaction and improved worldwide rankings. She also spearheaded a wide-ranging change management program for employees focusing on communication, process improvement, training and development, and enhanced customer service.

Mark your calendars and be part of the celebration! Every nominee receives special appreciation for their efforts and the PDX People working committee will select 10 employees – one from each of our airport industries – to win the exceptional honor of a PDX customer service award.

Missed the last virtual awards ceremony? View the event recording or read about past winners on the PDX employee website.

Take Note: Teresa Marshall Communicates with Empathy, Respect

Even the most prepared traveler can have an absent-minded moment that leads to a travel crisis. What happens next – and who helps them next – is what makes the difference between a "worst day ever" story and a "best customer service ever" letter.

That's just what happened to Christine, who wrote a thankful note for TSA agent Teresa Marshall:

"I just wanted to send a note to express my gratitude to an exceptional TSA staff member.

Last Thursday, I was taking my first airline trip since the pandemic started. With all the stress and craziness, I accidentally left my wallet on the table at home. When we arrived at PDX, I realized my wallet was not in my purse...it was instant panic. Thankfully, TSA staff at PDX were very helpful and TSA employee Teresa Marshall was an angel.

Teresa was professional, calm and kind as she led me through all the steps that allowed me to get through security and get on my flight. She was very thorough when doing her job, but most importantly, she treated me with respect and expressed empathy, even though I just made her job more difficult."

Families of Frontline Workers Eligible for PDX Red Lot Vaccine Appointments

Great news for frontline workers! The special website for dedicated appointments at the PDX Red Lot drive-thru clinic now has slots added for the weekend of April 16-19. Even better, families of frontline workers are eligible to register using the same site. Per the Oregon Health Authority, this means “age eligible family members in the same household.”

IMPORTANT: You must schedule an appointment and arrive at your designated time to get vaccinated. Advance registration is required – do not show up at the clinic without an appointment.

As a reminder, we expect to have 1,000 dedicated appointments per day of clinic operations and appointments will be added on a weekly basis as vaccine allocations are determined. Be sure to register early: On Thursday, April 15 at 6 a.m., appointment remaining unfilled for Friday and Saturday will be released, and on Friday, April 16 at 6 a.m., appointments for Sunday and Monday will be released.

For security reasons, the appointment registration link will expire periodically. The updated link will be shared in this newsletter as it becomes available – please encourage your PDX co-workers to sign up now.

If you don’t have internet access or your primary language isn’t English, you can call OHSU 833-OHSU-CCC (833-647-8222) to schedule an appointment. Be sure to tell the OHSU operator that you’re affiliated with the Port of Portland, even if you're not a Port employee but you work in a Port facility such as PDX.

Finally, we recommend that you bring your employee badge or another form of employment verification, as you may be asked to show it when you arrive at the clinic.

Schedule Your Vaccine Appointment

The highlighted area shows where work will take place as we expand the main terminal

New Main Terminal Construction Impacts

As construction gets underway in the former Clocktower Plaza area, you can expect to hear loud noises and experience vibration from time to time, especially in the ticket lobby and around the TSA checkpoints.

We know this can be challenging to work around, and the safety of employees and passengers is our priority. To make sure noise is within acceptable levels – think no louder than a diesel truck – our safety specialists will be monitoring this work. Barriers are in place to help reduce volume and any high-noise activities will be performed during off-hours.

We’re also working on a way to make earplugs available for your comfort and to help keep passengers comfortable. In the interim, please talk with your manager if you have noise concerns.

What's New with PDX Next: New Paths to TSA and Badging

We expect the full closure of Clocktower Plaza will take place tonight (Monday, April 12). As soon as that happens, you’ll see the old paths between the ticket lobby and security lanes close and new paths open just a few feet away – these passages are marked in blue above.

Also changing is your usual route to the badging office: You'll now use the stairs or elevator on the north side by the D/E TSA checkpoint to access this office.

PDX in Pictures

By now, you’ve surely seen the new airport designs. In the architects’ renderings, the most striking feature is undeniably the lattice wooden ceiling. While the design itself is stunning, the way it’s being built is its own kind of love letter to the Pacific Northwest.

The story of the roof begins in local forests, where we’re taking care to sustainably source the timber, in honor of the stewards of the land and our region’s crafty heritage. Next, construction pros with Hoffman Skanska build the structure itself in pieces – assembling 20 massive, 390-foot-long “roof modules” (top two pictures) in the laydown yard near Portland Airport Fire and Rescue. The bottom image shows you a rendering of the roof on the new main terminal.

Once they’re complete, getting these building blocks to PDX won’t be an easy task. Each module will be painstakingly transported across the airfield on self-propelled mobile transporters, just as we moved the Concourse Connector. Then, they’ll be hoisted up and slid into place, almost like they’re massive cassette tapes. It’ll take the better part of a year to complete phase two.

All in all, this will be the biggest PDX puzzle yet – building the new roof over the busy airport. Check out this helpful animation, which visualizes a few of the most challenging steps from installing the massive Y-shaped columns to assembling the wooden roof piece by piece.

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