Honoring Our Ten-Year-Plus Employees
You may recall about one year ago when I blogged about a celebration that we, at Martha Stewart Living, threw for our ten-year-plus employees. This is one event that I especially enjoy. It is truly gratifying that so many extraordinarily talented people have started and grown their careers at my company. Of course, we welcome new young talent on a regular basis and sincerely hope, that once they become established, they too, will choose to stay at the company for a long time. Here are the facts: This year there were nineteen employees who met their ten-year mark and were warmly welcomed into this distinguished group bringing the total number to eighty having ten-plus years of service! This year’s party was, once again, held at Co. (Company), Jim Lahey’s (Sullivan Street Bakery) pizza restaurant located in the heart of the Chelsea section of Manhattan. It’s a great place for a celebration with delicious and great food!
1 The exterior of Co.
2 The menu honoring MSLO 10 Years +
3 Co. (pronounced Company) opened in January 2009 at 230 Ninth Avenue at 24th Street. The restaurant celebrates bread as the centerpiece of the meal and features a variety of pizzas, toasts and salads.
4 Co. has a really terrific wine list.
5 A toast of broccoli rabe and ricotta
6 Roasted eggplant toast
7 The wood-fired pizza oven
8 The chef busy at work
9 Pizza Boscaiola with tomato, mozzarella, pork sausage, mushroom, onion, and chili
10 Ham & Cheese Pie made with pecorino, gruyère, mozzarella, prosciutto, and caraway
11 Brussels Sprout Pie with shaved brussels sprouts, béchamel, parmesan, mozzarella, lardons, chestnuts, red onion, and chili flakes
12 Peering through the service window into Co.'s kitchen
13 Here I am with Co. owner Jim Lahey - baker extraordinaire - He surprised us all by taking time out from his very busy schedule to show up and actually cook for us!
14 We all had such a good time!
15 Welcoming and honoring
16 We played a fun little trivia game using facts about me and the company.
17 Sarah Carey - AVP Food Editor MSL and Hannah Milman - SVP Executive Editorial Director Crafts
18 Sarah and Fritz Karch - SVP Editorial Director of Collecting
19 Lisa Wagner - SVP Supervising Editorial Producer and Paul Delmiche, Sr. Post-Production Editor/ Tech Manager
20 Brian Steindl - TV Promo Editor, Jutta Amse - Prop House Manager, Sean Steyer - Videotape Editor, and Sean Elms - TV Editor
21 Jean Graham, who helped to organize this event is our Director of Community Relations.
22 Here I am with Sean Steyer
23 Eric Pike - EVP Creative Director, Daniel Boguszewski - Senior Art Director, Rich Fontaine - SVP Consumer Marketing
24 Lucinda Scala Quinn - SVP Executive Editorial Director Food & Entertainment and Gael Towey - Chief Creative and Editorial Director
25 Here I am with Gael
26 Tanya Saffadi - SVP Human Resources
27 Jocelyn Santos, Managing Editor for Radio, Magaret Lee, TV Distribution Production Manager, and Greg Jannacone, TV Editor
28 One of our newest members, Scott Star - Digital Imaging Manager
29 Brian and Scott
30 Darcy Miller Nussbaum - SVP Editorial Director Weddings, Suzanne Wall - AVP Customer Relations Director, Jodi Levine - Crafts Designer, Marcie McGoldrick - VP Editorial Director Holiday& Crafts
31 Alex Peruzzi - VP of Licensing, Hosanna Houser - Set Decorator, Chip Glynn - Set Decorator
32 Marc Bailes - Assistant Managing Editor- MSL, Duane Stapp, Sr Design Production Associate, MS, Talley Sue Hohlfield, Managing Editor, Weddings, and Marsha Hager, AVP, Production Director
33 Lillian Fuentes - Process Manager PMG, Beth Eakin - Sr. Design Production Associate EDF, and Mitch Mondello - Design Production Manager
34 Mike Fiore - Property Director
35 Ana Velasquez - Hospitality Associate, Cecilia Butris - Hospitality Associate, and Fernando Ferrari - Operations Assistant
36 Ilonda Burgos - Hospitality Associate, Kate Lewis - AVP Dir. of Standards and Compliance (Merchandising)
37 Jutta Amse and Thomas Eberharter - AVP Director Design & Fabrication
38 Jeff Allen - Assistant Prop House Manager
39 Angus Chen - Executive Support Analyst and Martin Mendoza - Maintenance Supervisor SL
40 Martin Mendoza and Ana Velasquez
41 Kristen Wendling, Customer Relations Manager, Kim Dumer - Customer Relations Sr. Manager, and Jane Ventresca from our Events Team
42 Jeffery Carnevale - Director Business System and Nitesh Patel - Director Web Operations
43 Lynn Goodwin - Purchasing Director, Adriana Weisberg - Hospitality Associate, and Nila Cabezudo - Accounts Payable Coordinator
44 Amy Conway - Editor at Large, Silke Stoddard, Deputy Crafts Editor, and Tanya Graff - Deputy Style Editor
45 Megen Lee - VP Design Director and Jodi Levine
46 Kim and Eric
47 Dan, Rebecca Robertson - Decorating Editor MSL and Chip
48 Aida Ibarra - Test Kitchen Assistant, Anthony Santelli - Senior Home Editor, and Yolanda Florez - Test Kitchen Assistant
49 Mary Ann VanDerventer - Coordinating Field Producer and Sarah Carey
50 Dessert was really great gelato.
Martha Pins
Martha Tweets
It looks like a good time was had by all, but...where were the ones the party was for? I thought there would be a group picture. Or, were some of the ones we saw the ones that had been there 10 years. I know a lot of them have been there longer, but still didn't know which ones the celebration was in honor of.
Gloria G!!
Posted by: Gloria | January 27th, 2011 at 1:00 am
Hi Martha, You sure do have a superior group of employees who work with you at MSLO! I love this party you had to honor them for working for 10+ years! Having the party at Jim Lahey's fantastic restaurant must have been delightful and having him do the cooking was superb! Your photos are terrific and it's easy to see how happy everyone is to be working at MSLO! I recognize many of your employees and I'm glad to see many of them who work behind the scene on your TV Show. You must be so proud to work with these brilliant, extremely talented people! Congratulations to all of you! Loved seeing you on the 'Today Show' and your TV Show today was another terrific event, especially the part about the ferns! Take care with that new snow storm and stay warm. Hope you had another great day! Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | January 27th, 2011 at 2:08 am
Congratulations! Always great seeing your wonderfully talented staff and how you honor and showcase them.
Posted by: Sonya | January 27th, 2011 at 2:15 am
So very fantastic to see a company honor employees! Thanks for doing this, and thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Jeff | January 27th, 2011 at 5:06 am
Thank you..really informative!!
Posted by: softstars | January 27th, 2011 at 5:37 am
Darcy Miller Nussbaum always looks fabulous, doesn't she?
Posted by: Judy Ware | January 27th, 2011 at 9:00 am
Hi Martha,
Believe it or not, whenever Super Bowl time rolls around, I think about Sean Steyer and spicy chicken wings. If memory serves me right, he is the one who introduced you to that restaurant where you tasted them for the first time dipped in blue cheese dressing. You liked that they also served celery sticks on the side and the hotter the wings, the better you liked them. My mouth is burning just thinking about that!
~
Thanks for sharing another get-together with us honoring your wonderful employees. I think it is great that you show your appreciation for their excellent work. I didn’t see Kevin Sharkey in your pictures but possibly that was when he had the flu.
~
Co. is certainly a perfect place for pizza – I have never been to a restaurant that serves it so many different ways. I think I’d like the one with Brussels sprouts, picture #11 but since I won’t be going to New York anytime soon, I better get busy with devising my own version! Thanks. Trish
Posted by: Trish @ Trish_EllenC | January 27th, 2011 at 11:23 am
I have many fond memories of my days working with the lovely ladies of the Letters Department. I agree, it's wonderful that you honor Suzie, Kim, and the rest of your long-serving team!
Posted by: Suzanne | January 27th, 2011 at 12:35 pm
Co. looks like an excellent and fun venue for hosting your 10-year employees...i am sure they were most appreciative of the honor.
Posted by: sherey | January 27th, 2011 at 12:36 pm
Martha, It always impresses me how you go to great effort to recognize your employees and their contributions. A hardworking employee is an integral part of the team and nothing means more than to be noticed and to have your work valued. No wonder your employees want to be a part of MSLO for the long-term! The celebration at Co.looked festive and fun. Your photos are so great, I can imagine the aroma of those incredible pizzas! Lastly, Re: the trivia quiz, exactly what IS your favorite flower? I'm hoping it is peonies, because I've never seen greater variety nor more beautiful ones than the ones you've grown.
Posted by: Mary Kay | January 27th, 2011 at 3:44 pm
This is amazing- I love that you're encouraging people to stick with MSLO!
Posted by: Jasmine - This Moment Events | January 27th, 2011 at 6:28 pm
Very good, Martha. I was studying all the peoples' names and jobs (positions) that are listed in your magazine. I am so thrilled that you can have so many people employed and further more so many on the 10 + year list. Fantastic as it seems to be no one is wearing a lanyard name tag with picture attached.
GOOD JOB.
Posted by: Margie | January 27th, 2011 at 7:42 pm
Where the heck was Kevin???
Posted by: KTRADER | January 28th, 2011 at 12:01 am
Fun!
Thanks Martha, you always make us feel involved. I find it quite interesting when I recognize some of the names if not all the faces! It speaks volumes that these folks have stayed on. Best of luck to them and to you this year.
I sure would love some oven baked pie right now
Posted by: robin ball | January 28th, 2011 at 10:45 am
What a beautiful collection of butterflies and beetles! I enjoyed looking at them and also seeing how you displayed them! I run across dead butterflies in my greenhouse and around my garden occasionally and wonder what to do with them, they are so beautiful and I hate to just throw them away. This inspires me. A funny story...recently I maxed out my memory on my computer because of my photographs. I told my son that I think that there are duplicates because of a new program installed and asked him to help me. He looked at my photos and exclaimed "well heres your problem, you don't need all these photos of bugs and butterflies unless you are an entemologist! Just clean out all these!" I just laughed, he doesn't get that I find them beautiful, that I garden specifically to attract butterflies and love to photgraph them in all their different stages. He thinks I'm very strange. By the way he's a teenager! PS, he didn't seem to mind so much when he had to make a bug collection for science class and his teacher liked his so much that he requested to keep it. This seems to happen whenever i help him with any of his school projects!
Posted by: Kathryn Tate | January 31st, 2011 at 4:00 pm
Its truly said: "Old is Gold"! Old employees do deserve appreciation for the dedicated services they have given to their organisation.
Posted by: Martin Claybold | April 4th, 2011 at 2:50 am
Hi Martha,
Just wanted to let you know how nice it is seeing these pictures and the great way you recognize your loyal staffers. I also wanted to tell you that you have one heck of a guy in Sean Steyer.
My girlfriend, Celeste and I were making our annual visit to NYC at the Bowlmor and ran into Sean. He was exceptionally friendly..and frankly, I can't tell you how loyal he is to you and your show. He couldn't say enough great things about what you guys are doing there and the fantastic atmosphere it is working at MSL. It was a pleasure meeting Sean and sharing all of his funny, and heartwarming stories. Best wishes to all of you at MSL. You're still our favorite after all of these years.
Doug and Celeste - Otisville, Michigan
Posted by: Doug Quinn | November 29th, 2011 at 1:04 pm