Congratulations to Operations Supervisor John McMaster, who was voted by Paulding Putnam’s employees as the 2022 Quarter 2 Rockstar Employee! This new internal quarterly recognition program allows employees to nominate and vote on deserving co-workers who they feel have gone above and beyond or deserve recognition.
In his new and expanded supervisory role, John assists with scheduling and supervising the department while also working as a lineman and crew leader.
John was hired by Paulding Putnam on Dec. 22, 1997 and started on the tree crew dragging brush. He learned to trim trees and moved to an apprentice lineman a few years later.
What does the Rockstar Award mean to you?
"Receiving the award is honestly humbling. On 1 hand, it is a huge compliment, but on the other hand, I look around and see others who do more and make it look easy. This makes it hard to see. But I do very much appreciate it."
What projects have you been working on? What’s had the most impact?
"For the last quarter, we have been working on new services, service upgrades, and the miscellaneous work that comes in. It has been a new experience seeing the planning and line side of the jobs."
Why do you enjoy working at Paulding Putnam?
"My favorite part of the job is doing line work, seeing the guys learn, and looking at the trade craft they show in the work. After all our recent retirements, we have a relatively young group, which involves learning to take on challenges and working through them safely.
I enjoy the comradery, variety of work, and satisfaction of knowing we are providing a good service to members."
His co-workers who nominated him said:
John has had to learn new roles while keeping up with his regular duties. He had done an outstanding job balancing the new responsibilities.
First off, he is always willing to help when needed and if I ever need advice or a question answered, he is the guy. He never puts you down, no matter the question. Second, I know that he has been in a tough spot since we have hired a new operations manager with helping out operations and dealing with a lot more stress then ever before. He has stepped in and really done an amazing job. Being able to still go out and work as a lineman and on top of that tell all the other guys what to do and keep everything organized is awesome. Keep up the great work, John. It's greatly appreciated!
