Month 18 – January 2014

First off, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year!!! I hope all of your dreams and wishes for 2014 come true. And if your plans for 2014 include working at or applying for a job at Hajoca, then you’re certainly in the right place!

I left off last month saying that I was preparing for the 2014 forecast meeting, so let’s begin there. Our annual forecast meeting for the Northeast region was on 1/7 and 1/8 at the Villanova Conference Center. Unfortunately, we had some brutal winter weather and some key people could not make it due to flight cancellations. Two of those who were unable to make it were Keith Colburn (owner) and Rick Fantham (president). Nevertheless, we had the strong leadership of Rick Klau (chairman), Jock Castoldi (division manager), and Paul Weinstein (region manager) to lead our forecast sessions.

We had several support staff from our corporate office in Ardmore present to the entire group of managers about new developments in the company. This included new upcoming products from our private label and new software packages and upgrades coming from the IT department. During our individual branch meeting, we received many words of praise and encouragement from the senior leadership. Our profit center (Weinstein Supply – Philadelphia) had an outstanding year; the financial statements proved that we were at the top of our region and one of the best in the entire company.

We also had a couple of new employees start in Philly. We had George start as a new inside salesman, and Grant started as a new management trainee here as well. I’ve been helping them with some of their training and have taken up a mentoring role. It’s nice to be able to help with a new employee’s development, and I have also learned about my own leadership skills in the process. I expect to be working closely with these guys in the future.

Finally, I had my annual performance review on 1/29. I received high ratings and positive remarks from my mentors (profit center manager and assistant managers) and from Paul (my region manager). Paul noted that I had greatly improved since my previous review, so I was very proud of my progress but also grateful and humbled to hear such words. My spirits are high and my motivation is strong going into February!