Tony E.
“Even nearly 35 years into my career, I can’t quite explain why I wanted to be an electrician. I just remember going to work with my dad in a factory in Sparta in 1986, shortly after I finished high school. I was working as a maintenance guy, but when the electricians would come in and do their work, I just thought it looked like fun. My dad recognized my interest and let me work side by side with the electrical team, just to observe and learn. That learning experience set me on the path that, four years later, led me to an apprentice job at Windemuller.
In 2020, I will celebrate my 30-year anniversary with Windemuller. On the list of longest-serving employees at the company, I believe I am at number 12. I earned my journeyman’s card in 1994 and got promoted to a foreman position. I led small jobs and worked my way up to larger projects, which I love. Just like I thought being an electrician looked fun in the early days, I’ve always been drawn to the challenge of those big, sprawling jobs. That passion followed me through my foreman years, to my promotion to project manager in 2013, and through all the years since. It makes me feel proud to have that huge responsibility on my shoulders, and to do myself and my company proud with the final result.
There are a lot of reasons that I’ve felt at home at Windemuller for three decades. One is that they’ve supported me. They recognized my drive to learn and grow, and trusted me with those big responsibilities earlier in my career than another company might have done. Perhaps more than anything else, though, I am constantly amazed at the family-first atmosphere at this company. People here look after one another. I recently had several family members pass away. They were living in Florida when they passed, which meant I had to travel down south several times in a matter of a few months. In these situations where I essentially needed to drop everything, nobody raised an eyebrow or shook their head at me. Instead, they understood why I needed to be there for my family and stepped up to the plate to shoulder my workload until I got back.
I have immense gratitude for the grace I’ve been shown in these difficult times of my life, and will look for my opportunity to pay it forward to someone else in the future. Knowing I’m in a place where people care about me and where I care about the folks I work with makes every day feel as fun and fulfilling as I thought electrical work looked on that first day in 1986. It makes me grateful, for the millionth time, to my dad, for setting me on the path that led me here.”