#MVP Monday: Mike Waczkowski

MVP Monday is back like it never left! Every Monday we do our best to highlight a new member of the Dave and Adam’s Community. Lately, things have been pretty busy here at Dave and Adam’s especially in the warehouse. Our MVP this week has been right in the midst of all the chaos! Meet our Vice President of Operations, Mike Waczkowski. If you work for Dave and Adam’s you most definitely know him as “Kowsk.” We are excited to chat with our MVP and learn more about him!

What are your interests outside of work?   

Kowsk: “I Enjoy craft beers and breweries. I try to travel when I can. I also enjoy concerts, video games, and chillin”

After a long day of making sure our operations are running smoothly, Kowsk most definitely deserves to be “chillin.” The holiday season is one of the busiest times of the year for us. We kick it off with Black Friday and continue dropping good deals all the way through Christmas, so you could imagine how slammed the warehouse and operations teams are during this time.

Do you have any hobbies? 

Kowsk: ” I played hockey for 25+ years. I am also into photography and recently started learning leathercraft.”

It’s amazing to see some of the cool things our employees do outside of work. If you aren’t familiar with leathercraft, it’s the practice of making leather into craft objects or works of art, using different techniques. Unfortunately, we don’t have any pictures of Kowsk’s masterpieces, but we bet they are pretty awesome!

Do you have any collections of your own? 

Kowsk: “I collect concert posters from the shows I’ve been to. (preferably venue specific rather than generic tour posters)”

Now this is a pretty awesome collection! I wonder how many concert posters Kowsk has acquired over his lifetime?!

What’s an interesting fact about you? 

Kowsk: “I just got a puppy. Meet Tonka! He’s a 12 week old English Bulldog”

Can he get any cuter? I mean COME ON!

Tell me about your background with DA/HP? 

Kowsk: ” I started working in the warehouse as a fulfillment specialist while I was going to college. I moved around the company quite a bit over the years, learning multiple jobs along the way (product management, projects, inventory control, and finally operations.)”

Kowsk is another employee who has been a superstar and worn multiple hats for our company throughout the years. Having a diverse background has lead him to be very successful as the current Vice President of Operations.

Is there a particular moment or time that sticks out about your experience here?

Kowsk: “How well the company performed under extremely challenging times with the pandemic. Volume was crazy and work conditions weren’t ideal with all of the new protocols we had to follow. Every department really pulled their weight, but I’m extremely proud of how well the warehouse performed.”

Many of our MVPs have spoken about our companies efforts during the pandemic. It has certainly been a crazy year and we are very thankful for how this company rallied together.

What inspires you to be the best at your job?

Kowsk: “This will sound lame but I’m a perfectionist, when I make a mistake I do my best to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Also the customer service aspect, although I don’t collect trading cards I understand where we are on the collecting map and want to make sure myself and my team are doing their best to stay there. “

To us, being a perfectionist definitely isn’t lame! We appreciate you Kowsk, and are lucky to have you on our team.

Thank you for joining us once again for our MVP Monday employee spotlight! We will catch you next week, but until let’s pray for a Bills win this weekend…we need it.

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