During FSI’s 29 year history, we’ve had the pleasure of having a few employees finish up their careers here and fully retire. Our latest such employee was FSI’s own Linda Williamson who managed to put up with us for 20 years. That’s right, FSI has been around for 29 years, and Linda has been here for 2/3 of that time. I suppose that must mean that she had a little something to do with our continued growth and success over the years.
Okay, it’s probably more than a little. Linda has been a key piece in many ways. She has been a sales representative and brought on and/or managed many of FSI’s largest accounts. She has also managed the sales team, the customer service department, EDI, as well as, oversee special projects like the implementation of our warehouse management system (WMS) and our labor management system. She has touched just about every aspect of our business in some way.
Thankfully, Linda gave us plenty of time to prepare for her upcoming retirement, which allowed us to soak in as much of that 20 years experience with us as we could during that countdown. Most of any transitioning that took place was more than training and hand-off, it was dual involvement for a long time with both her and whoever was taking over various aspects of her roles.
As her time was winding down, we’ve had a good time showing her our appreciation for her time here. One of our traditions for our retirees is to get them a customized sports jersey for the team they support with their name on it and the number of years they’ve been with us. At our Christmas party, we recognized Linda with a Georgia Tech jersey that said Williamson and had the number 20 on it.
Later, the management team and some of her closest co-workers got to take her out to lunch at the restaurant of her choosing. Then on her last day, we had a catered drop-in lunch where she had a few special guests help her celebrate this special occasion.
Linda will certainly be missed. We’ve enjoyed her 20 years here, and we appreciate all that she has done to contribute to our success. We hope she enjoys her well deserved break from the working world as she enters this new phase of life. Here’s a few other memories of Linda through the years here at FSI.
