When Michelle Luna agreed to do a favor for a colleague, she didn’t realize she was making a career move she would never regret.
“One day, my friend Mark, who I worked with in the past, called and asked me if I could work part-time for Servicon overseeing a client’s site in Georgia,” she recalls. “I was working for another company, but I said I’d be happy to help him out.”
Helping out was one thing. When it became apparent that the part-time position would require a greater commitment, she decided to investigate further.
“I researched Servicon and saw it would be a good fit for me,” she says. “There would be a chance to grow. It was very family-oriented, and I liked how they treated their people. To me, these things are very important. I wanted to work for a company that understood there is life outside of work, where you are not just a number.”
Four years later, when a full-time position with the company opened up, she applied. Today, nearly 12 years later, she is a Servicon lead, overseeing three client sites in the Southeast.
A Matter of Pride
Despite her open and friendly personality, Michelle is shy about discussing her achievements. “I don’t like to toot my own horn,” she admits. “My team does the work. I lead them, but they make me look good.” However, she is not shy about her team’s accomplishments. “In my almost 12 years here, we have had zero safety incidents,” she says. “No accidents or lost time due to a worker’s injury. It’s important to me that my people stay safe. I am also proud of how cohesive my team is, how we communicate and work together, and how long we’ve kept our contracts.”
Healthy Matters
Ensuring her team’s safety took on new meaning during the pandemic. “During COVID, I did a lot of the cleaning myself because I didn’t want to expose my folks to it,” she says.
Keeping people healthy is what she likes most about her job:
“When people ask me what I do, sometimes it’s like they say, ‘Oh, you’re just cleaners.’ They think we just mop the floor and dump the trash. But we are custodial technicians. Many people don’t know how to mix chemicals or what dwell time is. What we do is science. We keep people healthy.”
A Culture of Caring
Servicon has hired three of Michelle’s referrals, and she is always ready to encourage others to join the team. “I let people know it is a family-owned and family-oriented business and that they look out for us,” she says. “Servicon offers insurance, a 401k plan, paid vacation, sick days, and holidays. I tell people we are lucky to work at Servicon because of the culture.”
According to Michelle, this culture extends beyond the organization. “The company has made a definite impact in the community, especially in California,” she says. “They help the homeless and provide masks and hand sanitizer to those in need. It’s very evident that they care a lot about the community around them, not just their workers.”
As much as she admires Servicon for its values, Michelle still wasn’t prepared for the greeting she received on her first visit to the company’s corporate headquarters. “I never felt so welcome before. They greeted me with open arms and were so nice, so friendly. I’d emailed and talked on the phone with many of them, but nothing compared to meeting everyone in person. I’ve worked the past 37 years—since I was 15 years old—and never had that feeling with any other company. I love my job; I love the people I work for and those who work with me.”
