Check out your Company Bowl for anonymous work chats.
At Block by Block, we pride ourselves on investing in and cultivating great talent. We strive to promote internally every chance we get because with nearly 3,000 employees nationwide, chances are that our next great manager is already here. In fact, many of our leaders began at Block by Block as frontline Ambassadors — including this month’s Culture Club highlights, Paulita Elliott and David Aguilar. Both Paulita and David are approaching work anniversaries — 20 years and 15 years, respectively. In honor of these impressive milestones, we asked them to share a bit about their experience and advice they have for employees aiming to build lifelong careers with Block by Block. Paulita began as a Safety Ambassador in 2005 with our program in Downtown Long Beach, Calif. Over the years, she was promoted to Team Leader, Operations Manager, Director of Operations, Regional Director of Operations and General Manager. As General Manager, she oversees three prominent Ambassador Programs in San Francisco. In 2010, David, like Paulita, started at Block by Block as a Safety Ambassador in Downtown Long Beach. He is currently a Regional Vice President but was previously a Regional Director of Operations, an Operations Manager and an Operations Supervisor.
Block by Block Ambassador Programs are all about finding innovative, community-first solutions to challenges in public spaces. A great example of this ingenuity can be seen in the creative solution Dylan Watson, Operations Manager in Corpus Christi, found to solve water restrictions during the region’s Stage 3 Drought. With water use restricted, questions arose about how routine tasks like pressure washing sidewalks and watering planters could be accomplished. But Dylan had an idea. As a one-time aquarium owner, he knew that when water is purified – like for use in aquariums – an output of unpurified water typically goes down the drain. He realized that the car wash next door to his Operations Center likely used a similar purification system, and he was right. While this output water, called “grey water,” can’t be used for human consumption, there is no problem using it for cleaning. So, Dylan worked with the car wash owner to collect it for cleaning projects in the district. But he didn’t stop there. Downtown Corpus Christi has over 100 planters with flowers on every block. Under the drought restrictions, watering them with fresh water was prohibited and they were at risk of withering away. Determined to preserve the planters, Dylan had the “grey water” tested to see if it was harmful to plants. It wasn’t. “We’ve found a way to keep our plants alive through the summer, through the drought,” Dylan said.
