Employee of the Quarter - Brian Schlitz

Grounds Supervisor Mike O’Neal, along with Billy Specht and Jimmy Buff et, presented Brian Schlitz with the Employee of the Quarter award. We all want to congratulate Brian Schlitz, our Employee of the Quarter. Brian joined our CSA team in January. He previously worked as a carpenter, framing houses until his previous boss retired. Brian has been a Floridian since 1999, but is originally from Long Island, New York. TGO has always struggled with the conditions of our community trash, debris and recycling collection area in the maintenance yard. We’ve also struggled to get our owners to properly recycle. As the volume of trash and recycling increases during our busy season, the complaints into the CSA offi ce and board members also continue. We tried using volunteers and this helped to improve our recycling eff orts, but use of volunteers is hard to sustain year-round. This January, CSA added a new position, “Collections Attendant,” to see if dedicating a staff member to this area would improve conditions. Billy had doubts about this new eff ort being eff ective, he was concerned that nobody would apply, and if they did, he felt it would be diffi cult to fi nd someone who cared enough to do a good job. Fortunately, Brian applied and was hired to join our team, and was stationed in the area fi ve days a week and asked to keep it clean and organized. Within days Brian managed to change the conditions of the area from a disorganized dump to a pleasant location for owners to recycle and throw away their trash. He kept the area swept, blown out, and organized. Most importantly, Brian became a friendly face, always smiling, always welcoming and quick to assist. He greets owners and regularly assists anyone who needs help or has a question. Over the years, Billy and the CSA Board Members have handled many complaints about this area, but they never expected to handle compliments about trash and recycling. Brian has brought forward many compliments, and he is most-deserving of this special recognition by the CSA, the Board of Directors and his peers. He has proven that one person can make a big diff erence in our community. Brian says this is the best job he’s ever had, he says that the people here are really nice and he enjoys getting feedback on his work. From all of us... Thanks Brian for making TGO a better place!