You ever spend time with other employees talking about the office, work, the employees that are a part of the backbone of how things get done? The people that when something needs to be done, someone needs to give it some TLC (tender loving care) to get it back on track, and they always come up?
We have a few, but today, I want to talk about Carolyn Hardiman. When you think of our values, and you start placing people names in those buckets, Carolyn always falls into the One Team bucket. She is willing to do anything to help, and she owns those things she takes on. It’s not something she sort of does to make the claim. She. Does. It.
Carolyn was born and raised right here in the Natural State in Magnolia. Her parents were also from Magnolia. Her dad was a minister and construction worker, and her mom had the hard job - a stay at home mom and wife. It’s not hard to understand where Carolyn learned the value of hard work, honesty, and family. She loved hanging out with her friends, volunteering with after school programs (you see a theme here?), competing with friends for the highest grades, and playing basketball.
Carolyn joined Lone Star Communications as the AP (Accounts Payable) and immediately set herself up as a go to person. “What else can I do; I can do more.” It just so happened, we needed someone to help Jennifer reconcile the credit cards, and chase down the bad guys for receipts. Listen, you don’t want an email from Carolyn telling you, you have a receipt missing. That starts down a road you don’t want to be on. It’s a known fact in the office, you don’t want to make The List.
She helped bring accountability to the credit card process. Even I don’t want to make The List. Carolyn also helps with expense reports in LSAR, and I absolutely count on her to let me know if something seems off. She cares about the company, the processes, the accountability – for the Team. Things were going so well with our per diem program here in LSAR, we thought, let’s just have her do the per diem program for ALL branches of LSC. All of that was going so well, I asked Jennifer if Carolyn would be willing to take more control of the LSAR fleet program. Of course, as the consummate team player, she said yes.
Carolyn how did you end up in accounting? “In 2008, I started college majoring in Accounting/Business Management. I was working at Tennessee Pride. The plant manager and assistant plant manager heard I was in college and offered me a position as shipping accounting clerk/warehouse purchaser. I was in the position for less than 3 months and got offered another position from the Controller as an accounting production analyst/payable.”
How did you end up at Lone Star Communications? “I was working at North Metro Medical Center as an account payable specialist and got an email from Indeed about the position and applied for it. I was always communicating with Melinda and Melissa about payments, so I emailed them and let them know I applied. They both wished me good luck.” Obviously, that worked out for all of us, and we are so thankful to have Carolyn a part of the Family.
Carolyn has two daughter and one son. Her daughter Erica (28), that works at Children’s Hospital. Erica is working on her RN license, loves reading and spending time with family. Mark (25) works at Amazon while working on his computer science degree. He loves to spend time with family, and music. Cha’Miaya (20) works at Daycare Children Network while she works on her degree in early childhood education. Cha’Miaya loves to read, spend time with family and shopping.
In Carolyn’s free time, she loves to spend time with her family, shopping, and singing gospel music. If you spend time with Carolyn, there is no doubt how much she loves her family. I asked Carolyn what she likes about working at Lone Star; “Lone Star cares about their employees, friendly environment, tuition reimbursement, career development courses to help you grow within your position or the company, and 401(k).” She didn’t say it, but I know somewhere in that list was me.
Thank you, Carolyn, for everything you do for LSAR, and for me.
-By Kevin Henderson, Chief Operating Officer, Arkansas