6570, But who's counting?

Yesterday morning some of my team stopped by to congratulate me on my work anniversary. 18 years - 6,570 days - ago I began my journey at the Colorado Compensation Insurance Authority. CCIA is what Pinnacol was called back then and I still have a gym bag with the now faded red and white CCIA logo. I didn't start in human resources; instead I came in as a supervisor in the customer service team. Several months later the company went through a reorganization, my supervisor job was eliminated, and I had a chance to join the human resources team.

I can still remember my interview. Quite candidly I knew not much more about CCIA than today's candidates know about Pinnacol Assurance. I had gone to the library to look up the company's annual report to learn more (libraries back then - pre-internet/pre-Google - stocked the annual reports of many companies) but hadn't found one for CCIA. I knew it had something to do with insurance (auto? unemployment? business?) but if you had asked me what workers' compensation was I'd have been as clueless as most of the candidates I meet with today. Still, Marcia and Bill took a chance and hired me and here I am 6,571 days later looking back and writing this.

Pinnacol's sign goes up at the Galleria Towers

In those days we were still in the Galleria Towers at 1st and Exposition (near Cherry Creek). Our computer system when I started was called MAGIC, which it wasn't, and was destined to soon be replaced by WCIS (workers' compensation information system) which we are still using today, although it's been updated several times through the years. WCIS too will likely go the way of MAGIC in the next several years as the world we live and work in continues to change. Computers back then still ran on DOS (if you don't know what that is you are lucky), were run off mainframes, and I clearly remember logging on to the world wide web for the first time at work by typing in not a web address you would recognize today but a numerical address that opened up something that wouldn't even be considered a web page. WordPerfect and Lotus123 were state of the art back then and e-mail was not yet the taskmaster it has become.

Today Pinnacol continues to change, currently going through another transformation as we tweak our organization in anticipation of tomorrow's challenges. As it was 18 years ago  it is today - change never comes easily or pain free. Change by its nature creates uncertainty and there is some of that going on now. One thing that hasn't changed in all those 6,571 days are the people I have been privileged to work with. Through the years many individuals have come and gone but the essence of our company remains the people who work here. When candidates ask me what I enjoy most about Pinnacol I always say its the people I work with. Though many of the people I meet with today regarding opportunities with our company were in diapers when I first started, I remain as excited as ever about their potential. Many companies have great employees but I can honestly say that it has been an honor to work with everyone who has worn the I.D. badge of our organization. This truly has been, and remains, a very special place in which to work.

This morning I'll be helping our newest employee complete her first day paperwork as she begins her journey with Pinnacol. I can only wish that her journey over the next 6,570 days is as fulfilling as mine has been.