Facilities Management's 30-Year Club Recognizes Longtime Employees

Facilities Management's 30-Year Club Recognizes Longtime Employees

By Amy WilliamsUniversity Relations – Communications
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These 11 employees have been with Facilities Management for more than three decades. (Photo courtesy of Chris Kopach)
These 11 employees have been with Facilities Management for more than three decades. (Photo courtesy of Chris Kopach)

Steve Mikitish goes into work every day with enthusiasm and excitement. He's spent the past 36 years loving his job, not only working for the UA the entire time but working in the same department – Facilities Management.

Mikitish, metal technologies shop supervisor, is one of 11 members of Facilities Management's 30 Year Club, a group of employees that have worked in the department for 30 years or more.

The club started when Chris Kopach, assistant vice president for facilities management, recognized that two employees who had interacted with each other over email and phone for more than 20 years had never actually met in person. He then started bringing all Facilities Management employees together routinely to get to know each other and to recognize the contributions of the employees who have worked with Facilities Management for 30 years or more.

"I've been here 20 years and I took over the whole department about six years ago," Kopach said. "And what we wanted to do was have some more recognition of our employees and really look at and change the culture of Facilities (Management)."

Kopach said he follows two concepts in his management of the department: "one team" and "family business."

"Whether you've been here for one year or you've been here for 30-plus, it's all facilities – taking care of the campus for the faculty, staff and students," Kopach said.

Facilities Management is known among its employees for its family environment and supportive leadership.

This holds true for Mikitish, who does metal work ranging from specialty welding to certifying chemical fume hoods to designing and manufacturing metal structures on campus.

"The University has been great to me," Mikitish said. "They've raised my family. I've had a lot of opportunities here and the work is not monotonous, the same thing day after day. That makes it really easy for me to be passionate. I like what I do. I really enjoy working in the metal trades and there's not better place to do it than here."

Facilities Management touches almost everything on campus, Kopach said, from the custodial work to grounds to maintenance to fire systems to nearly six miles of underground utility tunnels. Facilities Management works on it all.

This is why Kopach stresses to his nearly 560 employees that no matter what they're doing, they're all on one team.

That spirit of teamwork is one of the reasons Julie Farrington, accountant with Facilities Management, has been in the department for 35 years.

"It's a great department," Farrington said. "We do a lot of work on campus and it's nice to see how it affects people, even the people who are coming in like students and parents. I guess it's a pride thing. We just do great work."

Working in the same department for a long period of time with the same people allows these employees to maintain close relationships with their co-workers.

Mikitish said that because he's worked in the same shop for almost 40 years, he's been able to form bonds with those that he's worked with and has kept in touch with some who have since left the UA.

"They're just great people that I work with – a lot of them have been in my shop over 20 years right now and I've watched their families grow up and it's just pretty tight in our shop," Mikitish said.

Kopach regularly meets with his employees in both one-on-one and group settings to ensure that they are enjoying their jobs, are succeeding and feel welcome, which he believes is one of the reasons Facilities Management is able to keep its employees for such a long time.

"Facilities really does provide a family atmosphere," Mikitish said. "People look out for each other. You have your own specific teams but you also watch out for the other shops. You watch out for the other teams. I would say it's kind of like an extended family."

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