At Brunner's Lawn and Services, the team was able to hire a part time receptionist to help field calls during the busy hours. And, it came just in time.
Hardy has been experiencing post traumatic stress from his time in the military, and will need to briefly step away.
“She’s made it to where I’ve been able to take time off to try to get my head straight without there actually being any real gap in the business,” Hardy says. “The business has actually been running with me working about 20 hours a week over the last month.”
Hardy will be spending a week at Save A Warrior, a program that specializes in connecting active duty military, returning veterans, and first responders experiencing psychological trauma.
“She’s going to work full time to make sure that the office is running and I don’t miss phone calls. And if an important call comes in, she can direct it and let them know that I will be calling them back as soon as I get back because our clients are pretty much going to think I’m on vacation,” he says.
Brunner doesn’t see his role changing much while Hardy is gone.
“I think we’ve got stuff set in place to where it’s just kind of turnkey right now,” he says. “It’s a lot of the things right now are just automatic. The only thing my fear is that, you know, I have a couple guys not show up next week.”
The PTSD combined with the hectic nature of the season has essentially forced Gary to delegate and trust his staff – and he’s found out it’s working.
“I’ve pretty much stopped micromanaging Josh, and Josh is able to just run with stuff and get stuff done. I’ve stopped dealing with the day-to-day employee stuff and that’s something that the Harvesters have worked with me on – just letting them sink or swim,” Hardy says. “My leaders right now, they’re swimming pretty well. They’re doing a pretty good job.”
Stay tuned for more on Brunner's Lawn and Servies in our June issue.
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