December 9, 2009

Company promotes the dignity of work

By John Gleason

Mike Eppler is a strong believer in a good work ethic.  He also holds to the Catholic social teaching that there is dignity in work.  And he and the company he works for have made it their mission to operate their business by those teachings as laid out in the papal encyclical “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor” and the U.S. bishops’ “Economic Justice for All.”

Eppler works for Team Service USA, a company whose guiding principle is the meaning of work and work’s value to the client.  The company is owned by Team Service International, an organization which believes that by investing in human capital—in their formation, training, education and living wages—the company maintains a superior edge, attracting a high caliber of worker, which translates into quality and security for their clients.

“Team Service started in Rome in 1982,” Eppler told the Denver Catholic Register, “as part of an association of Catholic businesses called The Companionship of Work.  At that time, the unemployment rate in Rome was 28 percent.  The original purpose of the company was to address the crisis of education with young people as they enter into the workforce at any level— blue collar, white collar—but it’s also to preserve and promote the dignity of the person via the environment of work.”

Team Service offers janitorial services, food service, lawn care and maintenance, after-school child care, and temporary staffing, moving and relocation services.  It maintains an internal temporary staffing agency that allows them to deliver consistent services for its clients without interruption as these laborers are ready to step into their role and immediately contribute to productivity.

Within a short time of its founding, Team Service had won cleaning and food service contracts for the Vatican.  The company continued to grow and soon included services to many universities, schools and government offices across Italy.  Today, Team Service has more than 20,000 employees in eight countries including the United States and prides itself on the fact that the greatest asset of the company is its human capital; it places its emphasis on its people and generating a workforce that knows the meaning of work, it respects the dignity of the worker and the stresses the importance of partnership with a client.

Eppler, who works at the corporate office in Evansville, Ind., was in Denver recently to explore the possibility was of expanding here.

“Team Service USA has several locations,” he said.  “In addition to Evansville, we have offices in Chicago, Indianapolis and we just opened an office in the Toledo-Fort Wayne area. 

“The thing about our company is that we don’t have a business plan per se, as far as going and conquering America,” he added. “We follow our friends and follow people who are Catholic; men and women who understand the meaning and the dignity of work.  We feel that here in Denver there’s a strong Catholic lay presence that’s conducive to expanding our company here.”

Eppler, who has a master’s degree in theology, joined Team Service USA after having worked for the Diocese of Evansville for two decades in youth ministry.  As wonderful as that ministry was, he said, he wanted to try something else.
“I wanted to do something that helped people grow and provide some stability in their lives,” Eppler said.  “This company allowed me to do that.  It exists for profit to be sure, but from our employees’ standpoint, it helps to put roofs over families’ heads and food on the table.  This is what drives me.”

Although a specific time table hasn’t been laid out, Eppler said that when the company begins to make bids for work in the Denver area, they’ll be looking to hire.  For now, more information, including applications, can be found on the company’s Web site, www.teamserviceusa.com.

“As soon as we have things set up here, we’ll be contacting people,” Eppler said.  “For now, all people have to do is go online; everything is there.”