T-Mobile is one of the strongest companies in the world, and we get our strength from the thousands of different individuals bringing all that makes them unique into the T-Mobile team — none more so than the men and women of America's armed forces that have chosen to make their careers with us.
Last year T-Mobile committed to hiring 5,000 veterans and military spouses, and we've never been shy about expressing what a positive impact our military employees have on the running of the business. And those employees haven't failed to notice our strong sentiments on the subject, either.
That's how T-Mobile Sr. Engineering Manager Ron Bryant recently won a Patriotic Employer award from the Secretary of Defense's Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve office. This honor is employee-nominated, so you know it comes from someone who knows what they're talking about — in this case, Darius Armour, Switch Technician and Air National Guard member.
"Being former military myself, I know deployments and time away from family can be stressful enough without having to be worried about things at work," Ron says. "I try my best to work directly with service members to make sure their time away from work does not add any additional stress. It might mean flexible scheduling, coverage for on-call duties, assignment realignment or structuring training to ensure service commitments don't interfere with career development; or just being willing to listen to the individual's challenges or concerns.
"The Guard and reserves play a vital role in allowing us to enjoy the day-to-day freedoms we often take for granted. So as an American, I not only feel an obligation to support those who defend the freedoms we enjoy, I also feel like it's a privilege to be able to!"
And Ron isn't the only one who's recently been recognized from the ESGR. Our Albuquerque call centers also won a Pro Patria award for their support of Guard and Reserve employees.
It's not just Jefferson that takes a great deal of pride in their military team members, either. The local retail team and both Albuquerque call centers, Jefferson and Menaul, take pride in their military employees. You can tell by the two dozen or so individual and company awards they’ve received from ESGR over the past several years.
Way to be, Albuquerque. You're making us even stronger, every day.