Last Thursday, May 14, I had the opportunity to attend the Employment Awards Fundraising Banquet at Employment Options in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The event honors the companies that employ Options’ members, the staff at Options, and most importantly, Options’ members. When I heard about the event from my co-workers, I said I’d like to go.

In just a minute, I’ll tell you about my experience at the banquet. Later, you’ll read about a conversation I had with an Options member and an LCI employee, Mark. First, let me quote the Employment Options mission statement:

Through inspiration, support and encouragement, Employment Options creates a home-away-from-home, where people can overcome barriers to employment and discover personal growth, self-sufficiency and hope.

Back to the banquet… At my table was Linda, our Office Manager, Iem and Mark (both LCI employees and Options members) and Joe Valarioti and his wife. Joe is a Marlborough business owner and is active in local government.

At LCI Paper, I’m fortunate to work with a lot of good people that have been willing to be patient and show me the ropes. After working in the music business for the first part of my career, transitioning to LCI Paper was a steep learning curve. Mark–I mentioned he was at our table–is one of the people that is always available to answer my questions. Whenever I’m helping out in the warehouse, I can always go to him with a question about finding an item, putting together a kit for a sample order, or anything else that I might need.

Dave MacNeill, a radio personality from local classical music station WRCB FM, was the guest speaker. He talked about different people who had inspired and influenced him over the years. He also recognized his daughter, Emily Greenwood, who received Options’ “Voice of Hope Award” that night.

At the end of the night, when Executive Director Toni Wolf extended an invitation to those who’d like to speak, I took the opportunity to recognize LCI’s employees, Iem, Mark, and Scott, all of who are also Options members. I relayed a conversation I’d had with LCI’s President, Larry Chase, who told me that LCI’s error rate is “ridiculously low.” I relayed that working in the warehouse at LCI takes a special kind of person with amazing attention to detail.

Earlier today, I sat down with Mark who told me about his experience at LCI and being a member of Employment Options.

“I started in August of ’07. Before that, I worked at Verizon through Options for three years, in the kitchen. I didn’t know too much about LCI before I started. It’s Options’ best job. It’s cleaner work. It’s better work.”

Mark was recognized for his great work at Verizon and that’s how he was fitted for his current job at LCI.

I asked Mark about some of the key people at Options.

“All the staff are great. There’s Keith. He’s definitely a stand up guy. He’s the Employment Coordinator. He goes out and gets new jobs and places people in the jobs and tries to match people to each job. The drivers… You always get a chance to talk about whatever is on your mind, just informally, when you’re driving to work. Dave, Fran, Beth… I really can’t say enough about the staff over there. They are really good, like Shannon, the Director, is always really encouraging. Toni Wolf, she’s the Executive Director. There’s Maria… When I first got there, when I was having problems, she got me work in the kitchen. I worked there for about three months before I went to Verizon. And that was a really difficult time and it was really nice to have a place to go. She helped me out, training me in the kitchen, and then I was able to do the kitchen work at Verizon after that. Any one of the staff I could probably say something nice about.”

I asked Mark if he remembered what I said in my little impromptu speech about the attention to detail that people need when working at LCI.

“Yeah, I like that. That was the perfect comment and that’s what I like most about the job is just working for exact standards or precise standards. I like the freedom too. It’s not like someone is breathing down your neck. That just makes you want to work all the harder because people aren’t ordering you around.”

Mark said he appreciates the thorough training he received when he started at LCI.

“Will [LCI's Warehouse Manager] is a great boss. It just makes you work all the harder when people give you room to work and they expect you to work at an exact standard and it just makes you want to be that much more precise. The job really does help me out a lot. I love running around the warehouse and working hard, being around professional people, getting good experience. It’s nice working around a nice, clean working environment with an aesthetically pleasing product. I like working with the product. It’s perfectly clean and the paper is spotless.”

I asked Mark who he thinks is responsible for the organization in the warehouse. “Is it Will? Is it a group effort?”

“I try to keep the stock in order, labeled right. Everybody does. Will does most of the organizing. Little things are important like labeling, making sure the samples don’t get confused with the regular packs, if you have an open pack of samples. Making sure everything’s labeled. Everything has its spot.”

Regarding his LCI training, Mark credits Will, Naomi, Keith from Options, and former employee Lisa (now in another job through Options).

“I started on the samples which is good because that’s the quickest way to learn where everything is. Because you’re dealing with so many different items repetitively that you learn where each thing is.”

I learned my way in the warehouse by starting on samples too, and as I mentioned earlier, Mark was always there to help me. I asked Mark, “How long did it take you to get acclimated, to really feel confident about what you were doing and to feel like other people had confidence in you.”

“About six months. There are a lot of little details like everything from weighing individual cards to get an exact count, how to get the shrink wrap just right on each machine, assembling the kits, how to keep everything organized, knowing exactly which box to use for each order and how to pack the boxes. There’s a lot of details.”

Mark closed by listing the aspects of his job that are most important to him.

“Being productive, being around professional people, making good money.”

I thank Mark for his time and for his willingness to share some of his experiences.

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Employment Options

Joshua Birch