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Wendy Seckel and son, Christopher.

From office to field

It’s the middle of winter, mid-week and you’ve been dealing with customer complaints the last several weeks, as roads have been intermittently closed due to severe winter weather. You field yet another comment from a local business regarding potholes. You take the complaint and let the maintenance foreman in that area know about it, so they can schedule repairs.

This happens often to anyone who answers the phones in the front offices, and in particular to Wendy Seckel of District 5.

During this past winter, Wendy was answering phones when one day she got a call from the Flying J in McCammon on US-30. The manager told her that there were a few deep potholes right in front of the gas station entrance. Taking down the message and passing it along to the local foreman, Wendy soon moved on and forgot about it.

Months later, Wendy needed to complete one of her performance plan goals -- to go out into the field once per year to get hands-on experience. Seckel scheduled Wednesday, June 3 to go out with the McCammon crew. Little did she know that the work they were about to do was a repair she had informed them of previously.

June 3 came around and Seckel went out and met the McCammon crew at the shed that morning. Ready to go in her PPE, she set off to work for the day with the crew. They all went over the safety plan, along with the work plan for the day. Wendy was excited to find out they would be repairing potholes, as that was something she had never done nor been around.

Wendy and the crew rolled out to the jobsite, and to her surprise, they were going to be fixing the potholes in front of the Flying J on US-30. A while back, she remembered she was the one who passed along the message from the Flying J about the potholes. And now she got to be right there to fix them!

“I remember taking the call from the Flying J regarding the potholes and passing that along to the foreman,” Seckel stated. “It was neat to see the process of receiving the complaint and following that through to the end.”

Watching the crews work so hard, Wendy couldn’t stand there…she had to do something. She grabbed a broom and jumped right in to help keep the area swept up for the crews. Very appreciative of the help, the crews thanked her for pitching in.

“It was fantastic to spend the day with the crews and get a feel for what they do day to day,” she said. “It was a lot of fun to be able to work right beside them; we just don’t get the opportunity to do that every day!”

She was amazed at the natural skills and talents the crew members have. Wendy was impressed watching the crews, seeing their talents shine, and experiencing how smoothly they work together, “There is so much skill and talent in our crews. it’s just amazing to watch them work so efficiently.”

“A big thank you to Joe McGuire, Gil Wright, Tori Mortenson, Mark Porter and the rest of our amazing crews for their hard work and dedication," she summarized. "I appreciate everything you all do!”

Wendy’s plan is to go out in the field at least once per year to see and experience what our maintenance crews do from day to day. “I really enjoy being in the field. With a better understanding of what happens, I can provide better customer service. It’s exciting to see all that our crews do!”