Taking a Break with the #BluCrew – Ep. 2: Oscar and Stalin

During the pandemic, we got a little closer to our Blu Crew and decided we wanted to give them a platform to speak on their experiences and time with us. “Taking a Break with the #BluCrew” will be coming to you bi-weekly! This week’s episode features Oscar and Stalin, two of our Splash Techs.

[Oscar] Well, I’m Oscar.

[Stalin] I’m Stalin Carmona.

[Oscar] I’ve been working here for a little over four years going to five years.

[Stalin] This is my first week, I started last Friday.

[Oscar] and my title here is the team lead for specialty services. I, therefore, take care of all the projects out in the field, make sure they’re getting taken care of right, make sure everything’s being done properly, make sure that the team is on note with what’s going on, on the same page with everybody, everybody’s getting along. And then sometimes I’ll reach out to the clients make sure they’re happy with her work, make sure they get all the after and before pictures, and make sure the project is ready to go nice and sealed up and then send it to management so I can go ahead and bill it out. 

[Stalin] I used to work for the airport, doing catering, and before that, I used to do cleaning, aircraft. I did cleaning like 4 years ago.

[Oscar] So I was originally a chief. I was working in different restaurants going back and forth trying to find a stable job and then I actually my sister-in-law was the one that somehow knew Saul. She told me about it I gave him a call, he was nice enough to give me an interview. He seen that there’s potential in me, he gave me a chance out in the field, I showed him that I was not going to fail, and ever since then, I made it to where I’m at now.

[Stalin] I used to work in a like really big company with more than 400 people working there. And working at a big company, you used to see people walking by and I’m like “who is this guy?”. You don’t even have time to know people, like get close to people. I don’t even know the supervisor sometimes and I was looking for something different. When the company is growing you know you can be part of the growing you can grow with the company so I see it as potential, potential to grow in this company.

[Oscar] But I started off cleaning at one of the locations we have called Bridgeport, and I was only working about 3 days a week so I wasn’t really getting the hours I needed, so I kept bugging Saul, “hey I need hours, I need hours”, he finally gave me a chance to come out on the field and actually do carpet cleanings with them and join the specialty side. And I gave it my all, I showed them that I was you know ready to go and ever since then he never moved me from here, he’s always had me out on the field, he loved the way I work, he basically gave me the chance and I took it and I actually took over it and I took care of it, I had everything done right, how I was supposed to be. Had some managers before that trained me up that were actually certified in the carpet field and all that so it was great training great you know like pretty good what’s it called attitude that they had they know how to talk to me they trained me well so ever since then I feel like I appreciate Saul for that chance of coming out on the field and like taking on one of the harder jobs that we had at the moment and I pretty much just took it over and made it mine. It helped me out a lot more with being more confident talking to people, so ever since I got promoted and I have to talk to clients I’d be more on the shy end and now it’s more like I’m just out there like I’m confident with the way I talk and confident you know with talking to different people. You know this guy might look like he’s mean but at the end of the day he might be the funniest guy you ever met and so now it’s just a lot more confident a lot more energized out in the field you know able to talk to everybody, I’m able to still get my job done and have fun with the team not just be that grumpy manager or supervisor on the field try to have some fun with everybody, crack some jokes, play some music but at the same time still focus on our job. So it helps me out with multitasking and talking to clients and pretty much anybody. So being almost 5 years working here I’ve seen them start from the littlest machines to now having the best machines. So I seen trust me, I’ve seen the difference, we went from having not too good of a looking office to now having two offices and a lot newer trucks and a lot better machines so we definitely grew a lot in these four to five years.

[Stalin] I’m learning new stuff like those machines I never use ‘cause when we used to clean up planes we don’t use the machines, they are too big to fit in the plane, so I think its fun. 

[Oscar] Before I trained this guy here we had another guy named Teklabron he was a foreign exchange person so it was a little difficult with him because his English wasn’t as good but it’s great how you’re able to see how he communicates and how I try to use my way of communicating and how we try to meet in the middle so it’s pretty cool how you’re able to get along with everybody. Everybody tries to work together and it’s just pretty great showing them all the stuff I learn, teaching it on to them little tricks that you learned out in the field. Like you know if you have a hard stain, here use some CLR if that doesn’t work try some degreaser you know just a lot of tricks you start learning out in the field that you start teaching other people and it feels great because then they can go home and use it on their own house and make sure they get all their own personal stuff cleaned up.

[Stalin] Yeah, I mean I know I always going to have somebody watching me cuz I’m the new guy. Even when I think even when you know how to do this stuff it’s always good when you got someone watching you because we are not perfect we humans and I think its nice process first I learn how to do the stuff and then they’re going to take me out to the field and do it. I think cleaning is all about the time you gotta know how to manage your time because if you waste your time doing something and focus just on that part maybe you lose most of the time like we used to have like 40 minutes to clean a plane and move to the next one we’d do about 12 planes a day. And you learn how to manage your time, work fast but be focused on the details too.

[Oscar] I feel like some people get their own pressure just because they walk in the house and it looks dirty so you know you look at it and go “oh man it’s going to take a while”. But once you start cleaning and once you start seeing “okay this is not by myself I got a team member with me” you know there is two of us out in the field he’s cleaning the bathroom and I’m cleaning these windows in these rooms and stuff and little by little only an hour pass by and next thing you know you got half the house done. You know now you’re dealing with just half the house and the next you know another hour passed by. “Oh man, all we got is sweeping and mopping left. We’re almost out of here”. So like it’s not really much pressure it’s just more of you know time management you got to know how to work it out how to like you know like you got to come up with a game plan on going to take care of this project how you’re going to take care of this house, bar, or whatever it is you’re cleaning. You know talk to your partner about it your team member “hey you know this is what I had in mind. I’ll take care of this you take care of that. Oh hey I know you’re a lot better in the bathrooms than I am so can you do the bathroom and I’ll do the kitchen.” You know stuff like that helps each other out you know you got to know who you’re working with try to work each other out. And then after you’re done we like to do final walk-through so if I do the bathroom and someone doing the kitchen I’ll go check the kitchen and he’ll come to check the bathroom make sure we don’t miss nothing make sure everything gets done correctly make sure you’re not pressuring yourself make sure the other person isn’t pressuring you, try to work together go ahead and put a little bit of music on you know to get your jams going and get your little dance moves in there and get the house cleaned up and good to go pretty much not really much of pressure is more of… I like to see it as fun. I like to have fun at work.

[Stalin] I wish we have a good time, get along with the rest of the people, and that’s it. 

All of us at Blu, hope you enjoyed reading about Oscar and Stalin