They’re in It for the Long Haul

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Bill Baldwin is no chintzy boss. In these days of cutbacks and microraises, the owner of Claremont architectural firm HartmanBaldwin Design Build recently gave an employee a $32,000 truck for his 20-year anniversary.

Baldwin handed project manager Reg Abersek the keys to a bright red Toyota Tacoma crew cab pickup truck last month at a special companywide ceremony. He has done it before: Five years ago, another employee reached the 20-year milestone. Allen Suckley got a $28,000 super-cab Ford pickup.

Baldwin said he came up with the idea of rewarding longtime employees with trucks after Suckley had indicated in a suggestion box submission that it would be nice if the company made vehicles available for travel to and from job sites.

“I was looking for a way to reward employee loyalty,” Baldwin said. “If these employees give this company such a large chunk of their life, the least I could do is give them something in return.”

Baldwin said Suckley was stunned when he received his pickup five years ago. Abersek, who joined the company in 1991 shortly after immigrating to the L.A. area from Canada, knew what was coming. He was ecstatic.

“I love what I do, the people I work with and I guess that’s why time has flown by,” he said in a brief speech upon receiving the truck keys.

Abersek was traveling in Greece last week on what Baldwin termed a “well-earned vacation.”

Three more employees at the 35-person firm are set to hit their 20-year marks in the next few years.

“I’m going to try to keep the next trucks in the same price range,” Baldwin said. “But I don’t mind. All too often, it’s the boss who tells his workers that they are lucky to have a job at all. For me, it’s the opposite: I just feel lucky to have the kind of talent I have working for me.”

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Howard Fine
Howard Fine is a 23-year veteran of the Los Angeles Business Journal. He covers stories pertaining to healthcare, biomedicine, energy, engineering, construction, and infrastructure. He has won several awards, including Best Body of Work for a single reporter from the Alliance of Area Business Publishers and Distinguished Journalist of the Year from the Society of Professional Journalists.

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