Mandel Foster has been with The Wilburn Company for over 20 years.
It’s an impressive service record, even if, he acknowledges with a wry chuckle, it points to the fact that he’s not as young as he used to be.
“When I was younger,” Mandel says, “I used to be able to handle anything. I could just grit my teeth and push through it.” He laughs. “Your body slows down a little when you get older, but I still do okay.” As a young man, Foster pushed through a lot of things, often to impressive results.
A Background in Hard Work and High Stakes
Before starting with Wilburn in the 1990s, Mandel went through the State Police Academy, worked in a variety of government roles, and also worked as an emergency first responder. The breadth of high-stakes jobs he held taught him to be dependable under pressure and familiarized him with the importance of hard work.
So perhaps it wasn’t surprising that, when a friend mentioned to him that he could supplement his income as a part-time cleaner, he jumped at the chance and began working at The Wilburn Company, which he quickly discovered to be a good fit for his approach to work.
The rest is history.
Stories from Supervising
Today, Mandel is one of The Wilburn Company’s building supervisors, responsible for overseeing the work of a team of environmental hygienists in the commercial and government spaces that the company serves. He still works for a government organization during the day, giving him availability for his part-time role at night. And, going into a third decade in the industry, he still enjoys getting to facilitate good work while meeting good people.
“You always come across different people, so you’ve got to understand how people are,” he says. “I get along with pretty much everyone, which helps.” But while Mandel gets along with just about everyone, there are a few people and stories he remembers specifically when he thinks about his time at the company.
“I remember a long time ago, in the 90s, I was on a shift with a woman who was on her first weekend on the job,” Mandel recalls. “We were stripping the floors, and she had a bucket of solution she was using with a mop in it.”
“And I was close to the bucket,” he continues, “Too close. Because she went to pull the mop, and the whole bucket dumped right on me. All of the stripping solution went all over me.”
“We had to work hard to get it all cleaned up. But the best thing is that she’s still at the company,” he laughs. “I won’t tell you her name, though.”
The Power of Good People
Even more than the stories, though, what sticks with Mandel most from his time at The Wilburn Company is an approach to work that he’s seen succeed time and time again: “At the end, it’s all about doing your job well. If you do your job, things will run smoothly,” he says.
“The Wilburn Company does a good job of communicating what you need to do, but it’s up to you to get the job done.”
At The Wilburn Company, we’re honored to know Mandel Foster, and proud to have him as a representative of our team. It’s people like him that help us to deliver industry-leading cleaning services that keep buildings and their occupants safe.
Thanks, Mandel, for over two decades of high-quality work.