0:05

This is on the Job, a podcast

0:08

about finding your life's work. On

0:10

the job, is brought to you by Express Employment

0:12

Professionals. This season, we're

0:14

bringing you stories of folks following their passion

0:17

to carve their own career path. A

0:19

year into COVID, the US has witnessed

0:21

the highest unemployment rate since the Great

0:23

Depression, and now as

0:26

society begins to return to a new normal,

0:28

there are people whose occupation it is to help

0:31

Americans get back on the job. Today

0:34

we talked to one of Express Employments professionals,

0:36

very own about his work, how we got

0:38

there, in the innovative ways he's giving

0:41

back to his community. People

0:44

are coming in here looking for

0:46

work. UM. A lot of people take working

0:49

for granted. It's not guaranteed, especially

0:51

in these times. It's not guaranteed. In

0:54

early April, I

0:56

had the pleasure of talking with John John

0:59

Calbaries. I'm a staff consultant

1:01

with Express Employment in Utica, New

1:03

York and UM twenty seven years

1:05

old. Full disclosure. He works with his

1:07

dad, John Calgary Sr. So

1:10

this is John Calaries Jr. Yeah, I'm junior

1:12

to which sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't.

1:14

But don't tell him that for

1:17

those unfamiliar. Express Employment Professionals

1:20

is a franchise. The staffing company,

1:22

the branch that John works at in Utica is

1:25

a family business. John works directly

1:27

with companies recruiting and finding

1:29

good employees. On the flip side, I'm also

1:31

helping people find work. So

1:34

it's kind of like a two sided coin. So

1:36

one side is helping our

1:38

client businesses fill their openings,

1:41

and then the other side is helping people

1:43

find work. So

1:45

like, your job is essentially giving people

1:47

a lifeline, and a

1:49

lot of people need it, and a lot of people are

1:51

looking for a chance to prove themselves

1:54

and we're willing

1:56

to give people that chance, and we do every single

1:58

day. John

2:02

has a very personal stake in his work, not

2:05

just because it's a family business, but because

2:07

this is where he grew up, right here in Utica,

2:09

in a suburb called New Hartford, great

2:11

community. I had an awesome neighborhood.

2:14

In my wedding, I had twelve guys. Out

2:16

of the twelve, eight of them all lived

2:18

in our same neighborhood. He was

2:21

really into sports growing up, really into science

2:23

and biology, so eventually he went off

2:25

to college to be a dentist. I really liked

2:27

the opportunity. It was

2:29

just something that I always liked, but

2:32

not necessarily passionate about. Part

2:35

Way through college, his interest in dentistry

2:37

and school itself was dwindling, and

2:39

at the same time, his parents back home.

2:41

We're making a pretty big move. My parents

2:43

took the leap of faith. They both left

2:46

their stable, normal jobs

2:49

and wanted to be their own

2:51

bosses and open up their

2:53

own business. So in two

2:55

thousand thirteen, John Sr. And his

2:57

wife Laurie opened up their branch of Expressing

3:00

Ployment Professionals, and I was pretty

3:02

inspired by what they were doing, like the entrepreneurial

3:04

spirit of it um. I also didn't

3:06

want to be in school for twelve more

3:08

years. I

3:10

had an opportunity to work with my parents every day,

3:13

So I rerouted my whole

3:15

life and I said, I'm gonna work with you guys.

3:17

Now, I

3:21

feel like family run businesses are

3:23

harder to come by in than

3:25

they were even twenty years ago. Maybe because

3:28

there's a lot more gig work out there or

3:30

computer jobs, or maybe

3:32

people feel like I do and think they'd

3:34

go insane working with their family.

3:37

That is definitely not the case for John. For

3:39

me, it was the opportunity to like deal with

3:41

my dad every day, which hasn't

3:45

happened before this. When

3:47

he was growing up, John's dad had a

3:49

job where he was traveling all the time

3:51

and he was away from home, which is part

3:53

of the reason he and his wife started this business.

3:55

So now you've spent more time with your dad

3:57

than ever. Yeah, so in

4:00

the last seven years, I've been

4:02

with him every single day and my mom every

4:04

day. That never happened before. As

4:07

starting a small business goes, there were

4:09

just a ton of jobs that always needed to be

4:12

done, and I was very easy

4:14

to find because I was living at the house with them. So

4:17

basically, if someone didn't show up to work,

4:19

they would call me and I would go. He

4:22

kind of gained his parents trust doing all these

4:24

odd jobs they had for him. Then it became

4:26

more steady as he started working in

4:29

the office. I did a lot of filing

4:31

back then. I did a lot of data

4:33

entry on the computers, learning

4:35

the software. Then he got put

4:37

on the task of streamlining their payroll system,

4:40

which he did it's the same one that they used

4:42

today, and then went into staff

4:44

consulting basically full time.

4:47

So you basically just had learned

4:49

to do everything because you

4:51

had to Yeah, so that's part of the family business.

4:54

There's not a job description. You

4:57

learn as you go, which is awesome because

4:59

I'm const we doing new things and i have

5:02

a lot of opportunity, which is amazing. But that's

5:04

part of why I love it. We'll get

5:06

back to our story in a second. First, a

5:08

word from Express Employment Professionals. A

5:12

strong work ethic, takes

5:14

pride in a job well done, sweats

5:18

over the details. This

5:20

is you. But to get an honest

5:22

day's work. Do you need a response,

5:25

you need a call back, You need

5:27

a job. Express Employment

5:30

Professionals can help because we understand

5:33

what it takes to get a job. It takes

5:35

more than just online searches to land

5:37

a job. It takes someone who will identify

5:40

your talents, a person invested

5:42

in your success. At Express,

5:44

we can even complete your application with

5:46

you over the phone, will prepare you

5:48

for interviews, and will connect you to the right

5:51

company. Plus, we'll never charge

5:53

your fee to find you a job. At Express,

5:55

we can put you to work with companies of all

5:57

sizes and industries, from the product

6:00

and floor to the front office. Express

6:02

Nose Jobs, get to No Express.

6:05

Find your location at Express pros

6:07

dot com. Or on the Express jobs

6:09

app now

6:13

back to on the job. When

6:17

John's dad established this branch of Express,

6:20

one of his core goals was to give back to the community.

6:22

So besides donating a lot to charity with the

6:24

business, John got to see the community up

6:27

close in the office every day. Some

6:29

of the people that were coming into our office veterans

6:32

in particular. They were coming in

6:34

in in pretty rough shape. Utica

6:37

has a pretty high veteran population and

6:39

a lot of them have unstable housing and food

6:42

and income, and to me, seeing

6:44

that was pretty shocking. Both

6:47

my grandparents served in the military and

6:51

they were able to leverage

6:53

that into great careers. And

6:55

seeing someone who's basically homeless

6:58

coming into my office acting me for a job

7:00

and also letting me know that they had a military background

7:03

was it was tracking to me.

7:06

It's like a punch in the gut because

7:09

you're wondering, how did this person get into the situation

7:12

after everything that they've done for our

7:14

country, how do they end

7:17

up here? And what can we

7:19

do about that beyond employment

7:22

and helping them get work. This

7:27

was the question that was rattling around in John's brain

7:29

for a while, and one day he and

7:31

his dad were browsing through used cars on

7:33

the internet. They liked flipping cars, and

7:35

they came across this enormous military

7:38

truck, pretty low price with no

7:41

special requirements for driving. It basically

7:43

like a truck you would see

7:45

in the movies. And it's

7:48

like, well, that's pretty cool. The kid and

7:50

me is like, that's a big truck. That's

7:53

interesting. What can we

7:55

do with that? What if we

7:57

put Express all over it and

7:59

we could food drives. I

8:03

nominated John Jr. Because

8:06

for such a young man to come

8:09

up with such an impactful idea, I

8:11

thought it needed to be recognized. The voice

8:13

you're hearing is Beverly Napped, the Express Employment

8:16

Professionals, corporate developer for

8:18

the Calabrisas region. This is a video

8:20

made about John when he was recognized

8:22

at the company's annual conference after

8:24

he and his dad made this military food

8:27

drive truck a reality. And you just did

8:29

it because why not. It's

8:31

a crazy idea at the time, but it

8:33

was less than a year later we had the truck and

8:36

it was very real. In the past year,

8:38

we've donated roughly seventeen

8:40

tons of food and that goes to

8:43

local food pantries and they distributed

8:45

directly to the veterans. In the video,

8:47

John is driving this massive army truck

8:49

through the streets of Utica. They've driven

8:51

it in parades, They've partnered with local sports

8:54

teams to do drives during games, and

8:56

of course partnered with organizations that

8:58

directly helped that. John's

9:01

contribution and dedication to feed

9:03

our bests is really open the eyes of the community

9:05

and let them know what we really do here, who we're

9:08

helping. And it's just and

9:10

you're up to twenty tons of food. Now that's

9:13

insane, it's unbelievable. It's

9:16

it just shows how tighten

9:18

it our community is

9:21

and how giving our community is. This

9:24

program has brought a whole new awareness

9:26

and I really feel good about when we go to

9:28

the schools, the young people getting infound

9:30

they come out with cases of not just bigs.

9:33

The truck is a symbol. When

9:36

this video was made, John was honored

9:38

with the Champions of Hope Award, something

9:40

that Express gives out every year. The truck

9:42

has been running for five years now. I

9:44

believe that the truck is a symbol of hope for

9:46

veterans, so they know that

9:49

someone's looking out for them. And

9:51

after they looked out for us. Despite

10:02

getting recognized in this video with

10:04

the truck, John is really behind the scenes.

10:07

He delivers food to these organizations.

10:09

He's the middleman. Like, you know, the people

10:11

you're doing it for might not even know who

10:14

you are. How do you feel about that? I

10:16

think I would rather be like that. I'd rather

10:19

be like the the batman that

10:21

comes in and helps out and no

10:23

one really knows who he is, drives

10:25

around the spit truck. Who's this guy? I'd

10:28

rather be like that, honestly.

10:30

Yeah, I just want to help. I don't

10:33

want to be in the spotlight because of this. I'm

10:35

not doing it really for me. M

10:38

hmm. I mean it's pretty crazy

10:40

what you do every day. I mean, whether

10:42

you're out batmanning and your

10:44

truck and helping people get on their feet

10:47

so they're healthy enough to find work,

10:50

or actually in the office directly finding

10:52

someone employment. Your job

10:54

is to provide a livelihood.

10:57

Yeah, I mean, that's the reason why I do it.

11:00

That's the reason why I come in here every day. When

11:03

you help someone find a job, it's

11:05

probably one of the most rewarding

11:08

things that you can do. You're

11:10

basically changing someone's life through

11:13

employment. It's

11:19

probably true that the memories you have at

11:21

the end of your life the really good ones.

11:24

For most people, they're not memories

11:26

from on the job. They're probably moments

11:28

with family or friends are traveling.

11:31

But in order to really enjoy those

11:33

moments, or to be content, or

11:35

to even make those moments possible,

11:38

you need the security of work. Having

11:41

a job gives you that security.

11:43

We can give you shelter, food, warmth,

11:46

comfort, the freedom to do the

11:48

things that you want to do. A job

11:50

can give you purpose and hope. That

11:54

is the service that John provides. He

11:56

knows that, and he's got a folder in his

11:58

desk drawer just in case he ever forgets. I

12:02

call it the Good Folder, different

12:05

letters and cards people have written

12:07

me, and going through it and looking back, you

12:11

forget sometimes. But we've really

12:14

helped through express so many

12:16

people in our community. It's amazing. I

12:20

asked John about one of his favorite stories from

12:22

the Good Folder. He told me that one time he

12:24

helped a couple find work when the odds

12:26

were very stacked against them.

12:29

Husband and wife, refugee couple. Their

12:32

names are Son and Fienne,

12:35

both hearing and paired. He

12:37

said, on paper, these things made it pretty

12:39

difficult but he did find them both

12:41

jobs and they

12:43

sent me a card which I

12:45

found and I have here I

12:48

can read if you want. It's kind of like he

12:50

holds up a green card with neat handwriting

12:52

all over it. Okay, dear

12:55

John, thank you kindly

12:58

for helping us find a job. We've

13:00

worked there for a whole year. It

13:02

was an enjoyable experience and

13:05

gave us the work experience

13:07

that we needed to move forward in our careers,

13:10

and we wanted to say thank you so

13:12

much for your time and your great service.

13:16

Sorry, we can't stay. We're unfortunately

13:18

moving to another state for a new adventure

13:20

with family. However, once again,

13:23

thank you so much for everything. Sincerely,

13:26

some in Fien. I

13:31

haven't looked at that since then, and this

13:33

was in it's

13:36

emotional looking at it. I

13:39

don't know. At

13:43

the time, you're in the middle of doing your job. I

13:45

have to find these people for these jobs. You're

13:48

not thinking of that, and then you read

13:50

something like this and you really understand

13:53

how you're impacting someone's life. It's

13:55

something that happens here all the time.

13:58

It's so rewarding, and that makes everything

14:01

else just pay comparison. It's when

14:03

things like that happen. It

14:06

makes everything so worth it. For

14:20

On the Job, I'm Otis Gray.

14:36

Thanks for listening to On the Job, brought

14:38

to you by Express Employment Professionals. This

14:42

season of On the Job is produced by Audiation.

14:44

The episodes were written and produced by me Otis

14:47

Gray. Our executive producer is Sandy

14:49

Smallens. The show was mixed by Matt

14:51

Noble for Audiation Studios at the Loft

14:54

in Bronxville, New York. Music by

14:56

Blue Dot Sessions. Find

14:58

us on I Heart Radio and Apple Pie podcast.

15:01

If you liked what you heard, please consider rating

15:03

and reviewing the show on Apple Podcasts

15:05

or rever you listen, We'll

15:08

see you next time. For more inspiring stories

15:10

about discovering your life's work, Audiation