By Jules Pequignot
It was 2004 and I’d been at my job at a Fort Wayne manufacturer for a decade—growing from machine operator to quality technician to research and development technician.
That’s when the news came. The founder of the company was retiring and selling the business.
We were nervous as could be. When a company is sold, you never know what the new owner is going to do. Would they cut back? Would we all have jobs? It was nerve-racking for everyone.
When we heard our boss was selling to Massachusetts-based Web Industries, which was 100% employee-owned, we went from scared to confused.
None of us had ever heard of an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, a qualified retirement plan that provides tax incentives to companies who share ownership with workers.
We had no clue it was about to change our lives.
The first positive sign was the mass layoffs never came. Web came in and explained who they were, what the ESOP was and how we’d all be a part of it if we decided to stay. Almost everyone stuck around, and we slowly started learning about what it means to be employee owners. We got disabused of the notion that we’d have to make HR or corporate strategy decisions, but were taught that everything we do affects the company’s bottom line, and our own wallets.
Next came that first ESOP statement. “Oh, this is kind of cool,” we all thought as we saw the modest balances. But if I’m being honest, it took a lot of us a lot of years to realize what the ESOP really meant and how it could impact us. The moment for me came one day when I was looking at my 401(k) statement and realized it wasn’t growing very fast. I was losing as much as I was putting in there. But with the ESOP, I wasn’t putting in anything except my hard work and it kept climbing. All of a sudden, I realized it had surpassed what I had in my 401(k). That got my mind changing on what it means to be an owner.
Alongside my ballooning retirement account, it also just felt different to work at an employee-owned company. I always had a good attitude at work, but when I realized everything I do can impact the share value for better or worse, I took it to heart—things as little as showing up each day with a positive attitude or proactively making a small suggestion to cut down on waste. Being an owner becomes part of your culture. If someone needs a hand, you help them out, you work together.
When we had a single owner, there was a lot of competition, but in our ownership culture it’s, “how can we all do that together?” If one shift is getting four sets on a machine and the other shift’s getting two in the same amount of time, we work together to get everyone to four sets.
When I see a machine running slow, I joke around with the operator: “man you’re taking money out of my wallet, too.” They laugh and then speed the machine up. We’re all working towards a common goal. We’re working for ourselves even though we’re working for a company. We’re working to build our future wealth.
As time went on, and I understood the value of the ESOP, I joined the company’s ESOP Committee, which helps to build our ownership culture, particularly among new hires. Sometimes it’s tough to get young people excited about retirement--they want the cash now to buy wheels for their truck--but I explain to them that they’re building wealth and that resonates.
The ESOP is really a powerful tool, but I’ve come to realize there are too few of them. There are only 194 ESOP companies in Indiana, but a new national campaign, Expanding ESOPs, is working to change that, and bring ownership to every worker in the country. I’m proud to lend my voice to achieving that goal.
As I creep closer to retirement, I realize I’m one of the lucky ones. Most Americans have little saved for retirement. And as prices go up and up, you need to save more and more. That sale we were all so worried about ended up being our savior. I feel secure thinking about my future, thanks to the ESOP. I hope for the day when all Americans can feel that way.
Jules Pequignot is a senior process technician at Web Industries, an employee-owned manufacturer in Fort Wayne.
