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A Passion for Work
FORM, March 1996
BY KATHERINE L. HOUSE
When Lisa Lindsay took her first vacation from Professional Business Systems Inc., she couldn't stand being away from the office. She had scheduled a week off, but after a day at home, she called in and asked 'Who's doing my job? You still need me, right?'" recalls Jim Gilbert, operations manager. After two days off, she was back at work. For Lindsay, who is developmentally challenged, her job meant more than collecting a paycheck. Says Gilbert, "Lisa found such self-worth working here."
Lindsay was a different person, though, when she began working at Professional in 1988, according to Gilbert, who hired her. She cried every day because she was so frightened of her new surroundings. When she got angry, she often cursed, even threatening to kill other employees. In fact, when 35-year-old Lindsay joined Professional, she had the social skills of a 13-year-old.
Today she has the social skills of others her age. She jokes around with Gilbert, giggling like a schoolgirl, then gets serious as she succinctly describes the work she does. Lindsay says she prefers it to working at a local shelter for disabled people because the shelter paid by piecework, not hourly. She also favors her work as an order picker over laboring for free for her mother and stepfather, who operate a home-based office machine repair business. "This is the best job I've ever had," says Lindsay. "If I ever lost it, I'd be really, really upset because I really like it."
Lindsay is not alone in finding happiness and success at the Roselle, Ill., distributorship. She is one of five developmentally challenged employees at Professional Business Systems.
The Hiring Process
Professional's route to hiring non-traditional employees began in 1988. Existing employees were packaging labels in the evenings at home, which became a time-consuming burden as demand grew. Company officials needed an economical way to handle packaging and other tasks. After several phone calls, Gilbert learned of the shelter, The Clearbrook Center, which supplies "job coaches" to interested employers and pays payroll taxes for a certain period of time. The tax break was not a major consideration for Professional. "My real motivation was that I needed employees and people who wanted to come to work every day," explains Gilbert.Gilbert visited the center, then interviewed Lindsay. He also gave her a job skills test at the distributorship. He hired her and did much of her training. Through the years, he returned to the center, watching potential employees perform jobs there. In some cases, Gilbert has hired employees from the center on a trial basis, who were not offered permanent positions. All of Professional's developmentally challenged employees have high school diplomas.
Training extends beyond providing a job description and personnel manual as you might with other employees, explains Gilbert, who has befriended the developmentally challenged employees he has hired. Sometimes that means giving them rides to and from the train station or taking them to company gatherings. (Some of Professional's developmentally challenged employees are not eligible to get driver's licenses.) It also means working closely with employees at The Clearbrook Center and the employees' families to better understand their needs. In the beginning, it meant giving them breaks to call family or friends for reassurance. Gilbert estimates an employer must be prepared to provide 25 percent to 40 percent more attention to developmentally challenged workers than they do to other employees.
The Clearbrook Center was so impressed with Professional's dedication to the developmentally challenged that it nominated the firm for a state-wide award. In 1990, the distributorship was named the Illinois Association of Rehabilitation Facilities Inc. Employer of the Year, beating out several larger companies.
Special Challenges
When fellow business owners or friends find out that Professional Business Systems employs developmentally challenged individuals, the typical response is "'That's nice,'" says President and CEO Don Fouts, a member of DMIA's Board of Directors, who is also president of Positive Marketing Associates Inc., a manufacturer in Roselle. "But that's the wrong response. If people have jobs [these individuals] can do, more people should consider it."Fouts is quick to point out, however, that he does not run a social service agency. If all his employees were not profitable, he would have no reason to keep them on. He and Gilbert also realize that it takes a lot of effort and patience to employ those with special needs. "There's been a commitment from Don and myself to treat them like everyone else," says Gilbert. "I'll hire anyone who has a passion to work, and the developmentally challenged have a passion to work. They are all looking for self-worth."
Part of that effort means helping other employees, especially new employees, get beyond negative perceptions that society has of those who look or act differently than everyone else. For example, Mike Ostrowski, an order picker/packaging clerk, is an autistic savant, reminiscent of Dustin Hoffman's character in the film "Rain Man." Ostrowski sometimes unconsciously grabs one arm with his opposite hand as he talks. He often looks at the ceiling instead of at the person talking to him. He takes longer than most people to respond to simple sentences, including salutations such as "Good morning Michael." He even forgets to take a shower some mornings, which can be annoying to fellow employees. Another developmentally challenged worker, Pam Sholty, also has a physical disability; she is hunched over from cerebral palsy. Helen Haworth's speech is difficult to understand because of a hearing problem.
Gilbert sees beyond these differences better than anyone. "We all have handicaps," he says, acknowledging that the term is not politically correct. "It's just that you can't see mine or yours." He readily admits, however, that others aren't so understanding. Fellow employees sometimes have problems relating to the developmentally challenged. For example, some people are uncomfortable giving assignments to their developmentally challenged peers. Others refuse to help Ostrowski when he needs it. Some employees have even confronted Gilbert, complaining that the developmentally challenged employees do not pull their weight. Gilbert patiently compares the job description of the complainant with the job description of the employee in question. At the same time, the developmentally challenged employees are free to complain if others do not seem to be working as they should, explains Gilbert. As Gilbert has gained more responsibility within the company, he has tried hard to coach others in supervising the developmentally challenged.
Gilbert also has worked to match job descriptions with the skills of all his employees. For example, Ostrowski is a math whiz who can tell friends the day of their birthday 10 years from now without a calculator or calendar. Ostrowski, who started at Professional in 1989, counts the firm's boxes and polybags and writes a monthly memo to the purchasing department about their inventory status. He says he has a lot of responsibility at Professional, and "If I'm gone one day, they miss me." Like Lindsay, Ostrowski has gained something from his job that everyone strives for: financial security. Last year, he and his brother purchased the house they grew up in from their parents, who moved from the Chicago area. Ostrowski has one wish now at work: He wants to drive the forklift, something he can't do because he is not eligible to get a driver's license.
The developmentally challenged employees have integrated themselves so well into the company that sometimes Fouts and Gilbert forget about their special needs. At one point, when everyone learned of Michael's proclivity for numbers, they were amazed. Consequently, for a brief time it became a game to ask Ostrowski difficult questions and watch as he solved them-always correctly. Ultimately, Fouts learned that Ostrowski's feelings were hurt because he perceived everyone was making fun of him. The questions stopped immediately.
Another time, Fouts chatted with John Moravec, the developmentally challenged janitor, about the high number of litter bugs in the company's office park. Fouts made an offhand remark about wanting to beat up people who did stupid things like litter. He immediately realized he said the wrong thing when Moravec acknowledged that he would comply with Fouts' wishes.
Professional's developmentally challenged employees say Fouts and Gilbert and other employees have changed their lives. But Fouts, who beams like a proud new father when talking about Pam, Helen, Lisa, Michael and John, wants to make sure everyone understands how instrumental they are to his successful operation. "They give us 100 percent of every minute of every day," says Fouts. "Think about what a different place this world would be if everyone did that."
Katherine L. House is managing editor of FORM magazine.