The most famous “employee number one” was technically not an employee, but a founder. Steve Wozniak was assigned badge number one by Apple Computer president Michael Scott, reportedly to annoy Steve Jobs. Marc McDonald was the first salaried employee at Microsoft. Shel Kaphan and Craig Silverstein were the first salaried employees at Amazon and Google, respectively.

James Pollie, California Termite’s employee number one, has a long way to go to achieve the wealth or notoriety of any of those tech giants. But after I cut him a check yesterday, no one else will ever hold the title.

As the owner/operator of California Termite, I had a decision to make: hire someone experienced and retrain that person to operate at our standards, or hire someone with no experience and start fresh. I chose the latter.

I was mainly looking for someone with the communication skills to eventually become a termite inspector, but who was willing to start out completing termite treatments.

If his first week is any indication, I chose the right person.

James took to borate treatments like a baby otter takes to water. His first local treatment was a work of art. At the same time, his twenty years behind a bar gave him the gift of gab.

Normally, I struggle to maintain a conversation with a customer while I’m entering their credit card information. It’s a long process. One mistake and you have to start all over again. You hope you made a mistake because the alternative is having to tell the customer their card was declined.

But now, I can concentrate on data entry while James chats away.

James reached a high level of trust so quickly that he was assigned a truck on his third day. I was nervous about what effect he’d have on the company’s insurance premiums, but when I contacted our insurance company to add him to our policy, our premium actually decreased.

Don’t tell him.

Adding James will shorten our termite inspection and treatment windows. We were scheduling customers two weeks out. Now, working together, we can complete more treatments and inspections each day, freeing up future dates.

James’ time completing treatments will also make him a better termite inspector. He’ll understand what is—and isn’t—possible and how long it takes to complete a particular treatment. A future termite technician will respect him more because he’s done the treatments himself. James will have more respect for future termite technicians because he’ll know how hard the job can be.

That’s important to me. I don’t want an inspector who simply identifies a problem and writes it up. I want someone who understands how the work gets done.

Think you have termites? Contact us today to schedule a free termite inspection. Not only will you receive an honest, thorough inspection, but you’ll get to meet James, California Termite’s first—and only—Employee Number One.