WHY I LOVE MY JOB

Loving your job makes work a lot more fun.

I have been at HFW Industries, Inc. for a year, and that has caused me to reflect on where both I and the business are at.

I am fortunate because I love what I do, and that has been consistent in my time with HFW.

While some things are of course more fun than others, I look forward to going to work each morning. This is a privilege, and it is something that makes me work hard to ensure that everyone at HFW has that same feeling.

Life is too short to spend most of your day doing something you do not like.

In reflecting on what I love most about my job, three things came to mind:

1)     The challenge. HFW is in a very technical and challenging industry. Being a make-to-order manufacturer producing highly complex engineered equipment, I sometimes think how easy it must be to be a high-production, low complexity operation. (Of course, I am sure they have their own set of issues).

However, while the challenge can sometimes be frustrating, it is also invigorating. Every day is like solving a puzzle. You will not find a harder environment to effectively implement production planning, and yet, we somehow figure out a way to (mostly) get it done. It is a credit to the American ingenuity that is still alive and well at HFW.

2)     The variety. Being a small business, everyone chips in where needed. Every day is different. Some days I am recruiting. Other days I am helping our estimating team put quotes together. The next day I might be helping with our new ERP implementation. And while my role in particular lends itself to a varied workload, I have heard from several people throughout HFW that it is the variety that keeps the work stimulating. Amidst a world where I think there can be a lot of monotony at work, every day bringing something new is something I greatly enjoy about HFW.

3)     The PEOPLE. This is the thing I love most about HFW, and it is not even that close. Is this a very cliché thing to say? Yes. But it’s the truth!

The amazing people we have at HFW are the best thing about the job. My most rewarding days have been seeing our team win. Having worked intimately on our recruiting efforts, seeing new men and women join the team and thrive (and, for the most part, they have indeed thrived) has been such a cool feeling.

And I can’t forget our existing team, all of whom are always looking for ways to solve a problem and improve our operations (and typically also have a witty comment that makes me laugh).

We have a tremendous culture, and it makes me work harder every day to build the best employer we can at HFW. We truly want to help our men and women become the best versions of themselves, and I think we have continued to make strong progress on this in the last year.

We have something great going at HFW. Already being one year in, I am just as committed and excited to our future as ever before, and I look forward to what the next year will bring!