Retiring employees still feel at "top of their game"
Gerry Jones handles 7,000 payments every payday, 14,250 income tax slips, and $300 million every year. But no more: after 40 years of service to Concordia University, the payroll director is about to turn off his calculator for the last time.
One block and thousands of words away, Senior Translator Ghislaine Daoust is also bidding farewell to Concordia this month. For the past 33 years, she’s translated into French everything from event invitations to the most confidential information.
Despite decades on the job, both still speak with passion about what they do. “I looked forward to going to work every Monday,” recalls Jones of his earliest days, “and I still do. I enjoy the environment.”
Jones began his full-time career in accounts payable at Sir George Williams University, one of Concordia’s founding institutions, in 1972. He was there when Loyola College’s payroll system was merged into Sir George’s in 1975, which almost doubled the number of total employees to 2,800. The regular payroll has since grown another 250 per cent.
It would be easy to get lost in the numbers, but Jones still sees the people behind them. “The reason I stayed so long is that every person this office pays is an individual, and I hope I treat them as such whenever I deal with them.”
Daoust has seen many changes at Concordia since she was hired as a translator in October 1979. Of those changes, one of the important and rewarding to her has been the shift in attitude towards translation. “In the beginning, some people would say, ‘Oh, just type it up in French’,” she recalls. “The clients have evolved a lot since then: they understand now that translation is a complex process.
“And, they appreciate the quality of the French. The university’s translators adhere to high standards, and that’s one of their strengths.”
As well as seeming genuinely enthusiastic about their work, both exude energy and both are a few years shy of the official retirement age. Why leave now?
“I’m healthy, and I’m at the top of my game,” says Daoust. She plans to do more of the things she loves: travelling the world and volunteering, including — among many — reading to the blind and comforting palliative-care patients.
Jones says it’s a good time to retire in part because he has a milestone birthday this month. “When you turn 60, you wonder how many more years you have. I have other things I want to do," he says, adding that those include playing golf, gardening, cooking, and reading books. "For the first 12 months, I just want to relax.”