Team Member Spotlight

Team Member Spotlight Matt Hayes

Matt Hayes has worked for big companies where employees are assigned numbers. But Watco is different. A trainmaster with Watco’s Kaw River Railroad (KAW), Hayes appreciates the humanity the company shows its employees.

“Here, you have a name,” he said.

Hayes first discovered the Watco difference during an interview with then-KAW General Manager Mark McClellan. Hayes was applying for a conductor position. If he got the job, it would be his first railroad gig. Driving into the busy Mill Street railyard in Kansas City, Kansas, he was immediately intimidated.

“It was overwhelming seeing all the switches and all the tracks and big, heavy railcars. I worked as a baggage handler in the airline industry, where you see planes all day long, but it was nothing like this,” he said.

Then there was the interview, it was long and the two talked about the job, themselves, their families, and how McClellan got his start in the rail industry.

“He was an open book,” Hayes said. “I knew then I was applying for the right job.”

Hayes will celebrate eight years with Watco this January. Today, he is married and the father of two daughters. And while the benefits have become more important, they aren’t what keeps Hayes coming to work each day. His team members are.

“When you work 40, 50, sometimes 60 hours a week, your team members become your work family. Those relationships make me come back,” he said.

And, like family, his team members have supported him through good times and bad.

“When tragedy hits, you see the company step up in a big way,” Hayes said. After Hayes’ second daughter was born, the baby spent 10 days in the neonatal intensive care unit.

“My manager, Justin Ray (now general manager), came to the hospital to see if my wife and I needed anything. He handed me a gift card to a local restaurant from my team members, so we didn’t have to worry about cooking,” Hayes said.

After landing the job as a conductor, Hayes moved up to engineer, and then senior engineer. Feeling stuck in his career, he transferred to an office job on Watco’s supply chain side. There, he managed rail and truck logistics. Unfortunately, COVID-19 hit and to cut costs, many companies took on the burden of managing their own rail logistics. This left Matt looking for another postion. Two opportunites presented themselves, working on Watco customer accounts at the Overland Park, Kansas, office or going back to a position that had opened up on the KAW railroad.

“I took about a week after interviewing to really weigh out all my options, and it was my wife that was fully supportive in me going back and taking the trainmaster job,” said Hayes. He added jokingly that he thought after six months of him working from home, she needed him out of the house.

“Everyone I worked with on the Supply Chain side were awesome! Whether it was my direct co-workers, IT, Accounting, Sales, didn’t matter - everyone was nice, professional, and eager to answer any questions you had. Coming back to the KAW as a trainmaster just felt like the right choice for my career path.”

Hayes said he’s had chances to take jobs with Class I railroads, but he’s stayed at Watco.

“There aren’t a lot of companies out there where you can go from running a locomotive to hopping in an office,” Hayes said. “The growth opportunities in this company are unbelievable.”