The team at ADE pride themselves on their customer service, regularly going above and beyond to meet clients’ needs.
Balancing work and pleasure can be tough, particularly during the festive season but ADE’s Sales Manager Eric Tomicek came up with the perfect solution – turn your work event into a family holiday!
Here’s his story...
With 2016 almost at a close I was looking forward to spending a few weeks away from the office with my family. However fully aware that the mining industry never sleeps I expected some discreet working from home would probably be necessary.
In the run up to Christmas ADE delivered a number of water truck spray systems that would be installed over the holiday break ready for work in early 2017. So it came as no surprise when a valued customer asked me to come to their worksite to perform the final checks before the water trucks wheeled into action. The location was Blackwater in Central Queensland and I was needed on site right in the middle of the ADE Christmas shutdown period, when the kids expected dad to be home.
Balancing work and life is a conundrum for many Sales Managers but our desire at ADE to provide great customer service at all times meant I needed a solution.
With a bit of careful planning and smooth talking suddenly our family holiday was transferred to Blackwater – an exciting road trip in the family wagon.
We set off on New Years Day; myself, my wife and three kids, on the 800kms journey from our home in Brisbane. To break up the drive and make it family friendly I scheduled some stops along the way; a night in Hervey Bay, Gladstone and a visit to Seventeen Seventy and Lake Awoonga. Despite the wind and rain we also made the obligatory ice-cream stops – a big hit with everyone.
After a few days on the road we arrived in Blackwater. I immediately headed off to work to configure and test the ADE Spray system on the truck before it was put in use.
The family meanwhile had to fend for themselves but kept themselves very busy and entertained checking out the local sights, swimming at the local pool but the main highlight quickly became watching the long coal trains pass by on the journey to Gladstone.
With my work complete, a happy client and the trucks all ready to roll, we headed home this time with a stop at Hervey Bay and the Sunshine Coast.
After 1,900kms and 22 hours of driving we arrived home. I was very thankful that I had had the opportunity to share a bit of my work life with my family, showing them some mining trucks, experiencing a mining town and giving them a small insight into the journey of coal.