Holiday Letter

"Kaye, get back here, we've got a Mindset for you."
- Various

Dear family and friends,

Happy holidays! As the year ends, we just wanted to send a letter telling you all how things have been going in the Choice One household this year. We've certainly been busy, as evidenced by all the the gag gifts we happily shared (pictured above).

One of our newest additions to the family, Nick Selhorst, has almost graduated to a big boy cup. He still tends to spill a lot, though, so we bought him some sippy cups with handles and lids. Our other new addition Megan is still adjusting to our noisy office atmosphere. After some difficulty hearing clients on the phone when the copier is running, Santa bought her some noise-cancelling ear muffs. That way she'll know it's Tony from "Maineville" and not Tony from "Mango."

Jeff Puthoff is really growing up, too. Although he still wears slip-on boots so that no one has to tie his shoelaces for him, he has almost mastered the zipper on his coat. Tony is really getting older, too. Whenever you turn on an LMFAO hip-hop song he toddles around dancing spontaneously. As cute as that is, though, stay out of his way when he throws a tantrum, especially when his coffee machine overflows or a utility truck drives through his soccer field.

Sweet little Mitch is growing up, too. In fact, we caught him repeatedly copying the big kids' use of foul language (specifically "bullsh#t") when he and Matt argue about traffic engineering and the best way to do things.

Dan and Ross, a couple of our field survey guys, are getting so big and strong. They actually pulled a door handle right off one of the pick-up trucks the other day! If only they were strong enough to pull Allen's pocketbook open... we hear he's REALLY been saving his pennies, so far as putting a padlock on his (rather dusty) wallet!

Well, that's all the updates we have for you this year. Hope everyone has had a nice holiday. Here's to an enjoyable 2013!

Yours truly,
Choice One Engineering

P.S. Choice One Engineering will be closed January 1, 2013.

The Mullet of Choice One

“Matt, in the mullet of Choice One, you’re the business in the front and I’m the party in the back.”
Kaye Borchers

…and apparently, the “Mullet of Choice One” is an unnatural shade of coppery polyester.

If you haven’t caught on yet, we like to enjoy ourselves here at Choice One. Indeed, when you’re dealing with “sanitary effluent” all day, it’s hard not to at least accidentally make a few humorous comments now and again.

Of course just like a mullet, there still has to be some business happening in the front to run an engineering company. But that business (and it’s occasional unpopular companions frustration, tedium, and anxiety) is bearable when it’s partnered with good-natured teasing, Friday afternoon pizza, or a synthetic mullet wig.

Jeff Puthoff used to have a real mullet. Perhaps there could be a future Mindset relating to that photo. Surely many of you would like to see that. Any suggestions?

Smart and Skinny

“Write that down, Kaye. Puthoff called me both “skinny” and “smart” in the same week.”
- Wes Goubeaux

 

Geez, the compliments are flying around here.

Since Jeff Puthoff told Wes he was skinny and smart, might as well throw in that he had a lot of hair. In 1994.

Truth be told, it’s nice to hear a compliment from time to time. You know, like “Nice green shirt, Tony.” And, “Thanks, Brian, you have a nice green shirt on, too!” A genuine compliment is a little way to trigger a smile, make ourselves better by being thoughtful, or simply brighten someone’s day. And when you have to deal with 20 nerdy engineers every day, a day-brightener is definitely needed.

In closing, we could offer everyone a few kinds words to make your day a little better, but we figure that by having the photo above to chuckle at, there’s no compliment needed.

Keep You A-- in Line

 

 

Well, we do probably fit the roles of sheep or donkeys more than wise men or angels...

As the the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays approach, the focus often shifts to turkey eating, tree decorating, and cookie eating. (Steve and Brian Barhorst keep the office so cold it's worth putting on some "winter insulation" weight around here. At least that's our excuse...) If Choice One Engineering was making out a Christmas list, it might include "daily lunch buffet," "tunnel from parking lot across the street into building during cold/rainy weather," and, of course, "a nap room."

Despite this brilliant, reasonable list, it's important to remember the true meaning of the holiday season. For this reason we encourage everyone to share and volunteer time, talent, or treasure to make someone else's holiday brighter, whether that be by playing the role of a donkey or by just not being an a--, er... donkey.

Comfort Zone

"Geez, if Ross wants to stop working here, he doesn’t need to eat suicide wings. He could just quit.”
- Brittany Clinehens

Ross, Eric, and Jeff North were out in Indiana surveying for a new project a few weeks back. The crew stopped for dinner at The Grill n’ Grate BBQ in Syracuse, and Ross chose to order the “Suicide Wings”. Evident by his runny nose and teary eyes, the wings were, in fact, very hot. We believe he survived the ordeal (he’s been spotted in the office since), although the teary eyes probably aren’t from the heat, but from pain and suffering instead. Talk about an intensive co-op experience...

Trying dangerous foods isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time, but getting out of our comfort zones isn’t always a bad thing. Trying something new or unknown can help us find different ways of doing things or help us learn something new. If nothing else, in this example, Ross has learned to beware of any food with "suicide" in the title.

Should the survey crew get back to the Syracuse area in the near future, let's hope Ryan Francis goes along. With Ryan's help, Ross will surely find more ways to expand his comfort zone by learning all kinds of new things.

"Here's a Quarter..."

“Tony, you should call Angela and tell her you can finally talk, but only for two minutes because that's all that quarter is going to buy.”
-Brittany Clinehens



If you tried to call Choice One a few Mondays back, you wouldn’t have gotten through. Our phone company, who shall remain nameless (ahem, Time Warner), has had a recurring problem communicating between departments, which apparently leads to our phone being shut off. The trouble has been resolved (Time Warner has apologized profusely), but not before our friend Angela from the Village of Ada tried to call unsuccessfully.

This is not the first time a client has given us a hard time or connected with us about non-work matters:

• To a certain Village Administrator, Kaye is known as “The Survey Princess” (not queen, because queen implies “old,” thank you very much).
• A certain Safety-Service Director couldn’t wait to tell us all about his inability to swim across a boating channel (just to save money) and his subsequent need for rescue.
• A certain municipal staff practices for weeks prior to Choice One’s annual Municipal Cup Cornhole Challenge (mark your calendars for March 27, 2013, everyone!).

Altogether, this relentless harassment and these good-humored friendships make working together more fun. And gives us more Choice Mindsets fodder, too.

There's probably a reference to be made here about a Travis Tritt song concerning a quarter and nobody caring, Angela, but we appreciate your donation. It could get Tony half a soda in the Choice One Canteen, but he might just keep it to memorialize such a “generous” friend.

Making Fun

"You know it's bad when Jeff Kunk is making fun of you."
-  Megan Bornhorst

We're not sure if Megan's proclamation is a compliment to Jeff Kunk or not. Is he too polite to make fun of anyone? Or is he so awkward that anyone he's making fun of must be REALLY awkward? Either way, it's not a good omen for the one being teased. (It may not come as a surprise that Mr. Kunk was comparing Mitch's height to that of a fourth grader. Sorry, Mitch.)

If Megan's statement above is true, then Jeff is in the minority at Choice One. If you haven't caught on yet, we like to pick on each other, to the point of doing so publicly in these Choice Mindsets. What Jeff, Mitch, and the rest of the Choice One crew knows, however, is that our ability to laugh with each other and at ourselves is a big key to making our organization a fun place to work for and (hopefully) enjoyable to work with.

We might even suggest that if there's no razzing going on among us, then something is wrong. Likewise, our beloved clients tend to get the same treatment, as we'll see in some future Choice Mindsets. Not that any of you should be nervous [evil laugh].

"L" is for Loveland

"What doesn't the 'L' stand for? Loser?"
- Wes Goubeaux

Loser, Wes? “L” stands for Loveland! Duh.

Every year on Choice One’s “birthday,” October 24, Brian Barhorst makes little “1” cookies to celebrate. In fact, this upcoming October 24, will be Choice One’s 18th birthday. Bring on the lottery, cigarettes, and finally moving out of our parents’ house!

Now that the Loveland office has been up and running for a year, Brian decided to celebrate its first “birthday” on August 30. Not wanting to make “1” cookies for Loveland, Brian made “L” for Loveland (c’mon, Wes, the only losers around here are the Chicago Cubs).

We want to make a pretty big deal that Loveland Choice One has turned one, especially considering the music academy directly above the office features beginner clarinet lesson each week. They’ve made new friends like the City of Loveland and Clermont County, completed some great projects, and successfully eaten at every restaurant within walking distance of 203 W. Loveland Avenue.

So happy birthday Loveland Choice One. Who doesn’t love celebrating birthdays? Well, probably not Tony or Jeff Puthoff, because they’re old.

Two Heads...



"To heads ARE better than one!"

- Megan Bornhorst



 

It’s really best NOT to ask about the story behind this particular photo, its corresponding glasses, and weird Kaye mask that Brittany has donned. Suffice it to say that there was once a terrible cellphone camera photo taken of Kaye in said glasses that just keeps popping up in various places, including a Choice One bathroom cabinet, a laser tag facility in Indianapolis, and, obviously, on Brittany’s face.

Regardless of the origin of the photo, it's important to note that two Kayes would definitely be better than one for several reasons. First of all, these Choice Mindsets would get really off-the-wall. Second of all, the annual Cornhole Tournament would be more elaborate and our clients would have to throw cornbags in even more ridiculous ways. Finally, having two minds and two different viewpoints to consider and debate an issue typically leads to a more practical, useable idea, solution, project, or plan of attack.

 

Of course, one has to look at the negatives, too. Naturally, Kaye is (or thinks she is) always right, so if she had two heads they would always agree with each other. Which kind of defeats the purpose of putting two minds togethering in the first place...

Frustration

"You know, when Nick started here he was a nice, respectable guy. It only took seven years to corrupt him to be like us."
- Jeff Puthoff

 

We all have our share of bad days full of mishaps. But engineer Nick Sanders has bad days and makes the mistake of sharing his misadventures (and sending photos of himself yelling in the car after a particularly frustrating event, even knowing it may end up in a Choice Mindset).

 

 Let's see... There was his wife's parrot that attacked him, the gas pump line he tripped over (causing a severely sprained elbow, which in turn caused him to miss watching the OSU-Michigan football game), the curtain at the blood drive he fell into and knocked down, the dead bird in his toolbox, the search for his grandfather's severed arm in a cornfield...

 

Despite all of the screaming in the car, in reality, Nick is willing to share his mishaps and commiserate with us about occasional unfortunate luck because dealing with frustration is easier when you can laugh at the situation.  Perhaps a little Choice One sarcasm has rubbed off on him (as Jeff pointed out), but really, Nick's the type of guy that won't let a mistaken drug bust along the highway in Colorado* get him down.

 

*Yes, this really happened. While on vacation with his family, Nick was pulled over and his van, packed to the brim for a road trip, was completely torn apart by the State Police who for some reason thought he was part of a drug cartel. He's a suspicious-looking guy, don't you think?

"It's Not Easy Being Green"

Jeff Puthoff: "Why is only one of your toenails purple?"

Kaye: "It's a shout-out* to Choice One."

Jeff: "You're weird."

This, coming from the guy who wears a Choice One Engineering shirt to Christmas mass...

You'd think we'd get tired of seeing green and purple around here, but obviously we don't. It's kinda been drilled into our brain, like those weirdoes who only wear green shirts because wearing a red shirt might imply that they like Case IH tractors over John Deere tractors (see "guy who wears Choice One shirts to Christmas mass," above). It's actually to the point to where when we see each other outside of work (and therefore not in green), we don't recognize each other.

The purpose of the constant green is twofold. First, it's really handy for when you're trying to find each other in a crowded seminar. Second, wearing the same color makes us recognizable, equal, and unified. And as the old saying goes, "There is no "i" in team, but there is a "u" in skunk.

*This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home... And this little piggy cried "Choice One!" all the way home! Now that's a real shout-out to Choice One on your toes.

Not Average

“Choice One officially got called out on 96.5 Pure Rock radio [a station out of Cincinnati]. They claimed that Americans eat 18 acres of pizza a day. 

I don’t buy it--using simple math.

18 acres of pizza = 112,907,520 square inches of pizza. I think Choice One could easily do 1/80000 of that themselves (five and a half 18” pizzas), which is approximately 1,411 square inches of pizza.

At 12:31pm on October 13^th [2011], the U.S. population is 312,414,653. At 12:31 pm on October 13^th [2011], the Choice One Engineering population is approximately 24. Choice One can eat approximately 59 square inches of pizza per person per day.

For America to eat 18 acres of pizza a day, that requires each person to eat 0.36 square inches of pizza. This means that the average American eats 1/164 the amount of pizza that Choice One People do in one day.

Thus, the 18-acre number is way too low. If they all ate as much as we do, America would eat 2,939 acres of pizza per day.

Just one more stat proving America is going weak. Another way to look at this is that Choice One people are 164 times better than the average American.”

--Matt Hoying

We’re not sure what we can add here that Matt hasn’t already asserted. Leave it to an nerdy engineer to dissect a random comment and analyze it to a fraction equaling 0.0060975609756098.

Maybe the lesson here is “check your facts,” or “don’t assume an average,” especially if you’re dealing with a geeky engineer. For us, the lesson is obviously “find more constructive work for Matt to do.” (Although in reality, Matt will get his constructive work done and still help Michael and Mitch make $15 of pizza money change with two five-dollar bills before they come to blows.)

Timely Teamwork

"Maybe 'spelling' should be one of our Core Values."

- Tony Schroeder

During a recent company meeting, Tony was trying to spell one of our Core Values, timeliness. Instead, he first wrote "timilness," and then, feeling as though it looked wrong, he added another "i" to make it "timiliness."

Michael, on the left, looks sufficiently ashamed. He claims his contacts were bothering him, but we know the truth.

Thankfully, the entire company was in the meeting to "helpfully" point out Tony's mistake (and harass him, of course; please feel free to call or email Tony personally and do the same). Teamwork has many benefits--double-checking, verifying, and reviewing are certainly big ones. Perfection is probably not a realistic expectation for any circumstance, but for our group, teamwork gets us a little closer.

We'll have to work on Tony's spelling. Truthfully, though, we should probably just change that Core Value to something easier to spell, like "on time every time." Although that's a lot of words for Tony to remember..

Flat Tire

"I love it when a plan comes together... It doesn't always, but I love it when it does." - Jeff Puthoff

Sometimes a well-laid plan doesn't work out. Case and point: Tony's flat tire from a recent camping vacation, pictured above. One would imagine having to change that pick-up truck tire put a kink in his vacation travel plans more so than, say, changing a bike tire would.

When a plan does come together, it can be nothing short of remarkable. But as Jeff has pointed out, that ideal moment isn't always meant to be. The key is to learn from the plan that failed and focus on the plan that worked.Like finishing a site plan in record time, making clients slingshot monkeys with their eyes closed, and finally getting rid of Matt Hoying and Brian Schmidt by creating an expansion plan so we could ship them to the Loveland office.

So plan, and love it when the plan comes together, but don't sweat it when things fall apart (and don't be afraid to try again). It could be worse: you could have been in the truck with Tony when that tire blew on a highway in Indiana.

* You might have guessed that Jeff is a big fan of The A-Team. In fact, we have been known to watch old tapes of The A-Team episodes over lunch. If you don't remember, The A-Team was a television show in the 80s that involved a lot of firing guns at the ground (no one ever was hit), a kidnapper-esc black van, and a cigar-chewing character who always used the first half of Jeff's quote above.

Coffee Break!

"Just to let you know, I made The Afternoon Coffee."

- Nick Selhorst

Not too long ago we hired engineer Nick Selhorst (better known around here as "Not Nick Sanders," because, yes, with three Jeffs, three Brians, and two Ryans, we now have two Nicks). Nick, a North Star/Versailles native--which some people like to think aren't the same thing--comes to us from ODOT District 10, in Marietta.

Among other things, Nick has provided us with valuable information on how to move all of his accumulated stuff from five hours away in one day, how to make counting traffic in the rain MOST inconvenient, and, as one might guess, how to correctly arrange orange barrels in really awkward ways.

We kid, of course. Something Nick really HAS taught us is the enjoyment of afternoon coffee. For years we have been making coffee until about 10:00am, but suddenly, after Nick arrived, there was coffee made in the afternoon for a little 3:00pm pick-me-up.

Why we haven't thought of brewing coffee in the afternoon before is a mystery. (Maybe we were less tired before?) Regardless, a fresh perspective and new input can bring about valuable, surprising changes and ideas that can help positively alter or improve efficiency, productivity, and outlooks.

If nothing else, given our propensity to want to take naps around here, it can just provide a nice afternoon caffeine buzz, compliments of ODOT.

Nap Time

"This would be a really great time for the Nap Room."

- Andy Shuman

We here at Choice One have all literally dreamt of having a special room at our office just for napping. We could furnish it with a comfy couch, maybe an easy chair, some fluffy pillows, and a television set to low volume showing the one sport that puts everyone to sleep but Tony: soccer*.

As you can see, we clearly enjoy catching a snooze. In fact, a concerned citizen once called Kaye in for napping in the Choice One car at a local park (she was on her lunch, she swears!). Jeff Puthoff can probably even sleep standing up. Maybe that's what the clunky, heavy boots are for--weight to keep him from falling over when he sleeps upright.

A little rest never hurts. As Brittany said just this morning, sometimes to solve a problem we need to "step back, take a nap, and then get some work done." Stepping away from a problem can often clear our minds and allow us to tackle the challenge again with a fresh perspective, renewed energy, and possibly a little drool on our faces.

*For the record, Tony does not agree with this statement.

"I Was in the Pool!"

“There is rarely an event at Choice One that doesn’t correspond to a event in an episode of Seinfeld."

-  Kaye Borchers

Whether you’ve seen or you like Seinfeld or not, we feel that the premise that “it’s a show about nothing” is not quite accurate. To us here at Choice One, it’s really a show about mundane, everyday life situations (don’t we all know a local version of the Soup Nazi?) spiced up by fairly typical people responding hilariously to mundane, everyday life situations. And while the characters on Seinfeld are perhaps a little over the top, who doesn’t know a few Kramers that turn out to be dear friends? (Indeed, there are many “Kramers” here at Choice One…)

Mundane, everyday life happens, but how we respond to it is what makes it enjoyable, comical, and entertaining. Choice One folks work at surveying and engineering, sure, but we also work at having a good time with fellow employees and clients. We’re pretty sure this shows up in our work relationships, these Choice Mindsets, and ridiculous events such as Nick eating a Snickers with a knife and fork. “I’m eating my dessert. How do you eat it? With your hands?”

Choice One may not be an apartment in New York City, but trust us, “it wasn’t a pick; it was a scratch!”

[Don’t remember the Snicker’s episode or aren’t familiar with the show? See the highlights here.]

Delegation

TONY: “Nick, do you remember what I talked about last time?”

NICK: “I think you talked about what a genius you are.”

- Tony Schroeder and Nick Sanders

Tony’s real genius? Delegation.

This poster has (literally) been hanging around Choice One for 15 years. (Check out Jeff Puthoff’s glasses.) And it’s just as true now as it was 15 years ago.

Sometimes it is hard to delegate. As human beings, we often adopt the attitude that we can do something better ourselves or that someone else won’t do it the “right” way.

At Choice One we try to avoid this mentality. Kaye is not good with math. Tony is not good with grammar (or unclogging toilets, according to the poster above). Jeff Puthoff is not good on computers. Put those three people together, though, and one might find (in addition to a rather goofy-limbed, awkward, bike-riding farmer) a solid mix of math skills from Tony, grammar and computer skills from Kaye, and… toilet-fixing skills from Jeff.

Andrew Carnegie once said “A genius is a person who surrounds himself with people smarter than himself.”  By delegating tasks and using teamwork to accomplish goals, the product will be better and “right” because the most appropriate people have contributed their best talents.

Therefore, at Choice One Engineering, rest assured that, if nothing else, we can delegate to calculate the extent of our toilet’s damage with a well-worded document.

Doing the Dirty Work

"Not above scrubbing the toilets"
-Choice One Engineering interview evaluation sheet

We don't mind doing dirty work here (considering Matt's expression, some of us maybe even enjoy it). In fact, based on the line above from one of our interview sheets, it's a requirement to work here.

The list of least-loved tasks here at Choice One is long and adverse (depending on which whiner you talk to here, of course). Perhaps the best example is the move 13 years ago from the Ohio Building to our current Sidney location on Hoewisher Road. That event was so dreaded that two employees made up "excuses" to get out of it-Brian Barhorst and his wife Chris had a baby, and Jeff Kunk got married (seriously, what kind of excuses are those?!).

But just because we don't always like the dirty work (like Matt obviously does above) doesn't mean we aren't remarkably willing to roll up our sleeves and jump in to help each other out when the time comes. Indeed, some of our most memorable moments come from the laughter of shared, unpleasant experiences.

Just ask Kaye, when her head was smashed against a wall while trying to lift a heavy box with Brittany, whose "fingers were going weak" from laughter.

Why Me?

"The real question is, 'sometimes $#!% happens, but why does it always happen to Ryan Francis?'"
-Tony Schroeder

For some reason, Field Surveyor Ryan Francis seems to regularly be the victim of bad luck, accidents, and embarrassment here at Choice One. For instance, he has:

• Backed a survey truck into a power pole. In the middle of a 50-acre field.
• Routinely gotten the survey truck stuck on job sites.
• Broken the back door window out of a truck when he "opened the back door and did not see another guy standing there holding a sledge hammer over his shoulder."
• Dropped his cell phone in a manhole.
• Had a survey instrument and tripod blow over in heavy wind.

You get the point.

Luckily, he has broad shoulders (both literally and figuratively), so he generally takes all the ribbing he gets in stride. Unless he's hungry. Then, by all means, stay out of his way.

When something bad happens, it's easy to ask "Why me?" and feel gloom and doom about whatever predicament is at hand. But there's another option: to look at each bit of adversity as an opportunity to learn, improve, and/or try again.

Granted, when unfortunate stuff happens to Ryan, there may not always be an obvious lesson for Ryan to learn, like "measure twice, cut once," or "wait 30 minutes after eating to swim." But it does give him the opportunity to learn to laugh at himself (which he always does), no matter how unlucky he is. And it gives the rest of us here (and now you, as well) the opportunity to laugh at him...er, laugh with him... too.

We just hope his abundance of misfortunes come to an end. For his sake AND ours.

"Be Prepared"

"What happened to the Canteen?! It's like a grocery store before a blizzard."

- Greg Albers

You know how it is: the weatherperson reports that a "blizzard" (read: two to four inches of snow) is coming, and everyone rushes out for groceries in a panic in case they can't get out of the driveway for three days. The last to the store might find that all the staples--bread, milk... beer--are gone, and that poor sap is left to choose between a questionable jar of pickled eggs and a dusty case of Milwaukee's Best Light (unsurprisingly, one of Tony's favorite beers, not because of taste, but because of frugality).

Brian Barhorst operates the Canteen here at Choice One, an honor system "vending machine" that gets a little barren occasionally. Since we all know that Brian hikes Canteen pricing up for profits to fund personal trips to tropical places, we know he's not unprepared (for fear that he might lose a sale to the gas station down the road). He just hasn't been to Sam's Club in a while.

Being prepared for every outcome is impossible (and exhausting), so at Choice One we try to act as a Boy Scout would, and pack our pocket knife and matches: responsiveness, a sensible, realistic outlook, and lessons from past experiences.

Now, if only that Canteen was stocked with some of that dusty Milwaukee's Best Light today so that Tony wouldn't have to drive down to the local carryout.

The Easy Connection

“It’s the easy connection that’s leaking!”

- Tony Schroeder

The new coffeemaker at Choice One has been a bit of a…challenge, we’ll say, to install. Our resident plumber, Tony, isn’t the most experienced, but who knew hooking up a coffeemaker would entail so many trips to the hardware store? (If you’ve tried to plumb something yourself before, you may agree with Tony’s further statement: “No matter how many parts you buy beforehand, you NEVER have the right one.”)

Often, tasks that are supposed to be “easy” are the most challenging: think of the top competitor losing to the supposed-to-be-terrible, 12^th-seeded NCAA basketball team (there’s a little free advice for your bracket next week, my friends). Sometimes the easy connection leaks because making that connection is taken for granted.

For instance, Choice One has designed hundreds of projects, but each one needs specific details and attention, even the “easy” ones. We can’t design cookie-cutter projects for the sake of time or laziness, because that’s when the “easy” details are missed. We circumvent this phenomenon by having plans reviewed by engineers not involved in the day-to-day design to look for obvious “leaks.”

Thankfully for Tony’s sanity (and ego), the coffeemaker is now up and running. (As you can imagine, every affected employee gave Tony a hard time about his ineptitude at plumbing. And the lack of coffee.) And thankfully for those of us who sit near said coffeemaker, it’s up and running without any faulty water valves thrown in frustration.

Conquering Fears

“Guess I’ll have to get over my fear of heights.”
-Mary Borchers

It may sound like an oxymoron, but our 5’-11” administrative assistant Mary is afraid of heights. And not just the looking-over-the-edge-of-the-Empire-State-Building kind of heights. She’s even nervous when climbing a stepstool to hang some signage at the office.

When facing our fears at Choice One, we certainly go at it head first (I mean, that stepstool Mary is on is a good two and a half feet off the ground). But in all seriousness, even if we each face our personal fears in baby steps, we collectively commit to helping each other when things get tough. When an individual makes a mistake, we all take responsibility for the failure. There is no “I” in the Choice One Team. Well, except for the “i” after the “o” in “Choice,” but you get the idea.

Taking baby steps is easier when you have friends to catch you if you fall. Mary may never overcome her fear of heights (apparently spiders freak her out too), but at least she knows that if she stumbles, all of us at Choice One will be here to catch her. Or at least point and laugh before helping her up. 

Fun Outside the Box

“What did we do for entertainment before we hired Brittany?”
- Holly Fannon

Yep, if Brittany dares Kaye, those long, goofy legs WILL fit in a cardboard computer box.

 Having fun at work is important to the people at Choice One. We regularly do ridiculous things to make each other laugh, and as Holly has pointed out above, Brittany is no exception. Having fun and enjoying our jobs develops lasting relationships, breaks tension in challenging situations, and helps what could be mundane workdays pass a little more pleasantly. We like to think that the fun we create at the Choice One offices spills over into our relationships with those outside of our organization that we come into contact with.  And hopefully this makes Choice One a more enjoyable company to work with.

Choice One will be without Brittany for the next few months, as she and her husband Mark welcomed their son, Hudson, into their family on February 6. If that means that someone else will have to dare Kaye to fit into a cardboard box, rest assured there will be no lack of available instigators at Choice One.

Inevitable Change

"Diaper Genies and wipe warmers...it's a whole new world!

- Nick Sanders

Choice One Engineering recently held its first ever baby shower for Administrative Assistant Brittany Clinehens. Believe it or not, in our 17-year history we’ve never had a pregnant employee. As you might guess, Nick was commenting on a few “luxury items” that obviously weren’t available to him when his children were young.

We’ve probably all heard our elders “reminisce” about walking to school in six-feet of snow, uphill both ways. But the truth of the matter is that each generation feels, perhaps due to new technology or apathy, the subsequent generation has it easier. Whether or not this proclamation is true, there is one constant for each generation, new and old: change.

 

Change is always inevitable, often overwhelming, and sometimes downright scary. But at Choice One we take the challenge of change and create opportunities to learn, push ourselves to adapt, and make every effort to be flexible.

 

Of course, we also try to remember that overwhelming, scary changes can lead to luxuries like Diaper Genies and wipe warmers. And who doesn’t want a clean, tidy nursery and a toasty rear end?

At Your Service

"That's what Tony can do when he retires: put on a funny hat and chauffer all of us around."

- Jeff Puthoff

For those of us at Choice One who spend a lot of time driving to construction sites and client meetings, we often fantasize about the luxury of having an assistant who drives us around so that we can do work in the car. "Windshield Time" feels unproductive.

While on the road, obviously, multitasking is dangerous. Off the road, however, multitasking can be dangerous, too. In our experience, multitasking pitfalls can include missing something, rushing, or not being available when needed. To counter that at Choice One, we work together to multitask. Each project has one or more team members who "chauffeurs" to keep the Project Manager's juggling balls in the air: reviews, deadlines, client questions, etc. We like to think it keeps us responsive, timely, and dependable. And hey, if it gets Tony in a funny hat as well, why not?