Always Lending a Hand

Tess Poon truly enjoys coming to work each morning as Office Manager at IIA Lab Services. Tess loves to get an early start, and even though she is primarily responsible for accounts receivables and payroll, Tess is a team player and always jumps in when she notices one of her colleagues needs a hand.

"If I see a department needs help, I'll just jump in," she tells us. Over the years, Tess has learned more than how to run this office. She has been trained to help the lab techs in various ways. Helping to get parts ready for x-ray, then packaging parts and sending them back to the customer after the project is completed, not only gives Tess the opportunity to take a little break from paperwork, but gives her the chance to help her colleagues as well. One added benefit of helping the techs is "seeing the progress and completion on behalf of customers, so I can let them know how their project is coming along."

Interacting with customers is another aspect of the job that Tess really enjoys. Having been a Real Estate Agent for many years, Tess knows the value of connecting with customers and making sure they feel valued. She likes that a part of her job means doing the same things each day or week (accounts receivable and payroll) and that the other part of her job is varied.

Tess explains, "Our lab conducts x-rays for everything from tires to toaster ovens to blankets, microchips and aerospace parts." Lab services is such an interesting and diverse industry and all sorts of projects come through the door. She says, "One really neat item we had come through for scanning was a cell phone satellite part that looks like a rocket ship." It makes you realize how many parts and products (even food!) need to be looked at through an x-ray to make sure it's safe and compliant.

Tess loves the people and says her colleagues are her favorite part of the job, saying, "It’s like a family here at IIA. We all work really well together and help each other when we need it."

One of her proudest moments at IIA is when her managers saw potential in her and gave her more and more responsibilities. She believes her experience in real estate, and the stress of facilitating mortgages, communicating and negotiating with buyers and sellers, definitely prepared her for what she is doing today and helps her easily pivot from task to task with little to no stress.

Tess’s advice is to stay healthy and stress free by not taking work issues home with you. "It’s best to deal with any problems at that moment, so you can go home feeling good, and you can relax and get ready for the next day."