DISTek’s employees aren’t just all work and no play. We frequently do a variety of different activities after hours. Let me tell you how I got into some of the after hours activities almost instantly after I started working at DISTek, including how I implemented Board Game Night, as well as my thoughts on the LAN Party, which was my first interaction with the DISTek Activities’ Group.
On a gorgeous evening, after work, employees gathered in the back lot of the DISTek Cedar Falls office, while Jeff donned his apron and manned the grill. Employees were treated to brats, burgers, sides, and beverages, while at the same time getting the chance to bolster camaraderie with their fellow DISTekians.
The Present – Part 1
The 2000s were a tumultuous decade, bookended on the front end by the dotcom bubble bursting, Enron collapsing with Arthur Anderson, and the September 11th attacks, and on the backend with the financial crisis and the great recession. In the world of technology, we saw the quick spread of broadband internet and the broad adoption first of cell phones and PDAs before the two merged by the end of the decade into the smartphone. The internet seemed to get its legs in this decade with the advent of such tools as Google Maps, Wikipedia, YouTube, and social media.
When DISTek began its 25th year in business back in March, we knew we wanted to celebrate this rather significant milestone, maybe have a party, take in a ball game, go out to dinner, or have a family picnic. 25 years ago, any of these ideas would have been possible with not much more effort than calling the wife, locking up the office, and heading uptown. Ah, the simpler times of yesteryear!
Last Friday, June 23rd, DISTek participated in Take Your Dog To Work Day. This annual event was created by Pet Sitters International in 1999 as a way to celebrate what great companions dogs are, as well as to promote and bring awareness to adoptions. The event encourages employers to experience the joys of pets in the workplace for one Friday each summer to support their local pet communities. Here at DISTek, we were lucky enough to have several furry friends show up with their owners for a day at the office.
In the early 1990s, the world was in a state of change. Germany was reunified in 1990, the dissolution of the Soviet Union happened in 1991, Yugoslavia was breaking apart in 1992, while here in the USA another presidential election cycle was brewing. It was into this world that DISTek was born on April 1, 1992. Company founder, Matt Dickinson, brought his experience in electronics for the agricultural, aerospace, and factory automation industries and setup DISTek as a contract provider of embedded electronics engineering services for off-highway equipment.
Early last year, I wrote in this space about my new title – “employee owner,” after DISTek founder Matt Dickinson decided to share a part of his company with his employees by forming an ESOP – an Employee Stock Ownership Plan.
I noted back then that my immediate responsibilities wouldn’t change, and from the standpoint of my day-to-day tasks, they really haven’t.
The DISTek elves were once again busy this holiday season. As in years past, we were fortunate enough to be able to adopt two area families again this year to help provide them with holiday necessities and wish list items to make their Christmas one to remember.
This past Friday, we took a little time out from our work day to have a little fun and celebrate Halloween! In keeping with tradition, we all gathered in the training room at noon for the annual parade of costumes. Check out the photos below to see who showed up at the Cedar Falls DISTek Office!
There is a long standing tradition of giving back at DISTek, not only during the holiday season, but throughout the year. And even though DISTek has been conducting a weekly Casual for a Cause event for many years, where employees can dress casually on Friday’s with just a small contribution to a chosen cause, this year we made a small improvement that has had a big impact. Our employee-owners can recommend a particular cause and, if chosen, that cause receives the donations for the entire month. Not only does this provide a larger monetary donation to the worthy cause, but creates broader exposure for the cause as we internally promote it for the entire month. As an added bonus, this year we were able to secure some matching funds from the DISTek budget, further increasing the monetary donation each month and expanding on one of our core values – community.
Hello,
My name is Paul Thomas. I am currently an Embedded Software Engineer working on-site at a customer location in Dubuque, Iowa. I was born and raised in Gladstone, Michigan (way up north), and went to college at Michigan Technological University (even farther north).
In Cameron Herald’s book Double Double, he writes about how important a shared vision is to top performing business organizations. At DISTek, we just went through the vision setting process. We leaned out into the future to paint a picture of what DISTek will look, feel, and perform like three years into the future. The resulting vision highlights what DISTek’s employees, culture, customers, expertise, offices, and growth will look like on December 31st 2018.
