Employee Spotlight: Helen Strecker

In April, 2005, Helen took a leap of faith and applied for the receptionist's job at Chicago Communications. During the interview, she said, "It was interesting explaining why my last 'paid position' had been in 1972." That's what happens when you are a stay at home mom for 33 years.

Helen’s first job after graduating from secretarial college in New Jersey was with a major retail company.  She was a secretary (yes, that's what they were called then) to a vice president; and she did it all.  Correspondence, advertising, budgets, scheduling and yes, even his personal shopping.  When she got married, her husband's job took them out of their hometown and across the country to Illinois.  Then, along came three boys, a house and a station wagon - suburbia at its best.  And once again, she was doing it all - school committees, charity organizations, Scouts, sports and car-pooling.  They went through a station wagon and two mini-vans during that time.  When asked, "What do you do?" her polite answer was usually "how much time do you have?"  She was fortunate, she was able to stay at home to raise her children, run her home and contribute to her community.  In 2000, Helen became a widow, the "children" were grown men and there was no need for her to be at home anymore.  In 2004, she got married again, and decided to see what was out there. 

Always busy at his work station, Dan Wolski has fixed radios, accessories, televisions, and security equipment for Chicago Communications since 1994.

Originally from the Chicago land area, Dan grew up interested in electronics and their functions after a friend introduced him to radios. He ultimately decided to make it his career. He attended a technical school in Indiana, in the vicinity of Valparaiso College.

Dan’s career in radios began in a small CB store his friend owned, located in Kankakee, IL. There, he would repair all sorts of radios, ranging from small hand held two way radios to entire radio systems installed in vehicles. He decided to then move back up to the Chicago area, where he landed a position within ChiComm.

     Lester started at ChiComm in October of 1983, and upon his retirement next week he'll have put in just over 29 years here. He has primarily been a mobile installer for ChiComm but he’s done a little bit of everything throughout his years here (base installs, microphone repairs, squad builds, responding to service calls). At the time he started the cellular business was booming in full swing so he jumped right in to learning how to install mobile cellular units in cars. Besides the skills he learned from some electronic courses he learned everything he knows on the job.   His job description includes: installing a wide range of equipment in vehicles and repairing equipment when necessary, whether in the shop or on location at a customer site. A majority of the jobs he's worked on have been for government agencies, including dozens and dozens of squad cars and undercover vehicles. He has been working on vehicle solutions for as many years as he can remember.      

 As veteran's day approaches we'd like to take the time to pause and thank our Veterans! Let's salute and honor those for being American soldiers, Marines, and sailors, and Coast Guard members, and National Guard members — all those who have served and currently still serve our country—for we deeply appreciate the sacrifices they have made in serving to keep our freedom intact.

Employee Appreciation:A Little Extra Goes A Long Way

     Every person wants to feel part of something – a family, a group of friends, a team, or if an employee, the company they work for.  As an owner of a company, the challenge is, and always has been, how to make employees feel part of a team.  Many of the articles written on the subject say it’s the “little things”.  And you know what?  It is.

Employee Spotlight: Joe Sopron

Every office has at least one. They're a source of guidance—a relief to your frustration. Surely there's been more than one occasion you've been in dire need of this person. I'm of course referring to the IT person. At Chicago Comm that "guy" is Joe. Whether its building a computer from scratch, loading it with the necessary programs or recovering those lost files from a 'crash', Joe is the one we rely on. For all of us not quite so inclined to all the rapid changes in software or "how to fix that thing", Joe is our means of support. "When someone has a problem or can't do something, I help them figure it out." Sounds so simple, right? It surely seems to be for him. Regardless if it's yelling at the computer or the endless headaches we would get from trying to figure it out ourselves, we are thankful for the rescue. So it's fitting that when I asked Joe what he likes most about his job, he replied, "I get to do a lot of different things, but the biggest thing is I like helping people, both in my personal life and in my career."

ChiComm Employee Spotlight: Mary Smerz

     If our company was a family (which some already like to think of it as) then Mary would be the Mother of the office. When people need something they come to Mary for help and it's been that way for the majority of her 34 years with Chicago Communications. When she started at the Schiller park shop she was only hired to come in and help for a couple hours a day. But as time went on, Mary's role began to grow and she got involved in more parts of the business.

Our Customer Service Expert

Linda has worked at ChiComm for over 25 years. Dave O'Brien hired her in 1986 when Jerry Bear owned the company. She started as a member of the reception and customer service personnel in the Elk Grove shop but as time passed she took on many other responsibilities and roles within the company including collections, billing & payroll in addition to many other miscellaneous tasks that a customer service position can bring. She wore multiple hats as one might say. She's stayed at Chicago Communications because of the flexibility she's given to do her job and the long lasting friendships she's made over the years with co-workers.