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Memories....
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From Left to Right: Tory, Annalisa, Jim, Theresa, Nelson, Dave, Russ, Matt & Antonette Not Pictured: Frank AKA Grinch
To all, our sincere wish that your Holidays are safe and filled with simple joys, and that you are wise enough to appreciate them. And so with the Christmas Celebrations just around the corner, I too reflected on this year's joyous accomplishments, and would like to share my appreciation and the humor of how special the people I work with are. Thanks to our clients, we were challenged and very busy striving to meet deadlines, while still maintaining our sanity and quality.
Russ Davis has an incredible work ethic. His normal day is from 6am to 6pm but when needed he is the first to take it to the next level to meet the client deliverables. For better than a month Russ stayed well after 8 pm, with no one asking, he just does what is needed when it is needed. A poignant evening was when during the crush week before a deadline and now midnight was becoming standard, his wife and children brought him Dinner. I walked by to see his prints stacked on his desk, and his family eating Stewart's hot dogs and fries with him. Isn't there a TV commercial that ends with the value of something that is priceless?
No slouch on the work ethic either, Jim Capato continued to sleuth HVAC & control issues attending startup and troubleshooting systems early and late to help the contractors and our clients. A special thank you for all his humor as he teases us. No matter what, Jim has to give us a hard time before he rescues us with his ever present " What did you think I would let you down?" Theresa, Annalisa and I now have his number, totally rely on him and thank him.
Annalisa & David who handled the qualification efforts continued to track down missing documents, design criteria, uncovered installation errors, resolved and clarified information with client vendors, performed loop checks with Frank Camp, labeled and summarized the results, tracked down signatories, attended FAT's, organized the vendor testing and coordinated the calibration while keeping our clients informed of the progress. They kept the quality high and the attention to detail never faltered. In other words, I could simply answer questions when required, knowing the clients were in good hands. That is also priceless.
As the scope and complexity of one of our projects increased and the timeline remained the same, the stress picked up and it became a logistical nightmare to reach the completion date with so many interdependent relationships. But reach it we did thanks in part to great alliances such as Paul Beck who performed the structural requirements in the nick of time relieving us of the any extra stress from our already gruelish pace. Joe Sgro drafted into the wee hours allowing us to continue to produce during the day and have our product to work off of for the following morning. Sleep deprivation has no meaning to Joe!
Nelson responded to a deadline crush by arriving one Monday morning with Edgardo from Puerto Rico and Gabriella who gave up her vacation to pitch in with drafting. He entered the office with his compatriots, declaring he was bearing gifts and Christmas tidings early to help meet the deadline. He arranged the flight and assistance without my knowledge, knowing our ultimate goal was our client satisfaction. That's trust and knowing the company motto "Make a difference" is real.
But the following are really special. A few days before the final weekend to meet a client deliverable, around 8 pm Nelson indicates he has to leave early with Edgardo and Gabriella because he is having car trouble and his mechanic is going to stay to work on it that evening. Everyone from family, friends and vendors were supporting our effort. So the next morning at 10 am with no signs of Nelson we were commenting but not concerned since after two weeks of this pace he was starting later but working later. Gabriella who returned to her job was the vigilant in getting the men to work early. So without her everyone was so busy we just kept pressing on thinking he will arrive eventually (sleeping late the lucky devil). I'm finally sitting at my desk placing the lunch order when Edgardo who towers at 6'-6" and is therefore noticeable trails behind Nelson limping. Nelson is lugging his portable computer, book satchel and is very red and sweating. He looks bitterly cold and as though he has been exerting himself physically. Quite the picture, which makes me smile because this is going to be a really good story and I'm relieved to see them. He tells me the mechanic could not fix the problem late last evening and at midnight gave them his car as a loner. WOW. However, the loner car blows its engine on Rt. 78, and as luck would have it, it's on a bitter cold day. They manage to coast off our exit to about midway, where they then pushed the car luckily down hill for about ½ mile. After securing permission to leave it in an establishment's parking lot until the tow truck could retrieve it, they walked the remaining ¾ of a mile with all their stuff into the office. He was phoning but no one picked up. I'm feeling a bit embarrassed but he didn't leave a message so I couldn't send the Cavalry. I take their lunch order and off to work they go. Can you see how special these people are and how inadequate a thank you is. Edgardo and Nelson stayed until Late Saturday, before Nelson dropped our welcomed, but overworked guest, to the airport early Sunday to return home.
During the final weekend before D-Day, Theresa, Jimmy, Annalisa, Russ, Haila, Christine and I worked Friday and Saturday until midnight and thru the night Sunday to meet the Monday morning deadline. Luckily I had my construction bag of old clothing with toothbrush and deodorant or it could have been nasty. But a conversation with Milestone Engineering will forever make me smile.
Picture the troops working the weekend from early morning 7am until midnight to cap it off with a Sunday straight through to late afternoon Monday. Exhausted. One of two things is happening; each one of us is having a melt down and/or gone completely slap happy finding everything hilarious. It is two am Monday morning, Haila and Christine of Milestone Engineering who are doing the Electrical portion are trying to resolve a plotting issue resulting from Auto Cad with Annalisa. Annalisa is wiped out, but persevering and honestly Jimmy, Theresa and I were working on the format of the specs with "Word", which I can only say "Gates should be tortured". I call Haila on the status and she answers "Haila, Milestone Engineering, how can I help you?" I'm laughing hysterically, almost crying and she is saying "what, what?" I mean who do you think is calling at 2 am Monday morning, it is just too funny. I mean are there really prospective clients calling at this hour. The more I think of it the harder it is to control myself. So a special thank you for that memory which still makes me smile and for the commitment and perseverance.
So to those who took it on, were there to make a difference to my sanity and come through behind the scenes for our clients, Thank you & Merry Christmas. To all, I hope you appreciate the depth of commitment and talent you choose to surround yourself with, as we look forward to serving you in 2006. |
