Stories from Jaime Ditterline, Systems Manager
Favorite moments:
Some of my best Prudential memories are from those late, late nights doing inventory. The longer we’re there, the more delirious we all get. One year, we had a small crew working into the wee hours. A few of us went to walk the factory to make sure the lights were off and exits locked up. As we walked, we started hearing voices we didn’t recognize. It stopped us cold. We all went silent, hearts pounding, wondering if the building could be haunted. We were all very aware of the building being old and full of history.
As we were caught somewhere between fight and flight, we looked at each other and then crept toward the voice cautiously. We heard it again and froze, unsure of what to do next… as we got closer, we realized that what we were hearing was not voices from the past as the voices were using slang from today.
I am not sure which of us figured out that we still had walkie-talkies in the shop that were plugged in and charging. There was one picking up a signal from – well – somewhere in this dimension! We all burst out laughing but, still slightly spooked, hustled back to the office where the lights were on.
Other highlights with my team? Making Groundhog Day our team holiday, singing random kids’ songs to each other to get them stuck in each other’s heads (mostly that is me and despite what they tell you, my team loves it…fruit salad? Yummy, yummy…), sharing snacks from around the world, rocking onesies to do inventory, and our annual tradition of toasting the end of the year with a bubbly glass of sparkling apple cider.
Favorite people:
I am so thankful for my team! I’ve been privileged to partner with an incredibly hard-working group of people I genuinely love, who invest so much to make the department awesome, while also making me laugh.
I will be forever grateful for my time at this company since it led to me meeting, and eventually marrying my husband Hector. He may have initially drove me crazy in the lunch room, going on and on about what everyone’s food was made from, but we eventually started to talk about other things and discovered we had a lot in common. At one point, he was tasked with teaching me wiring, and I knew that if we made it past then, we would be good forever. That was 13 years ago, and while I am still not entirely sure about wiring, I am sure that we are forever.
Favorite fixture:
My favorite fixture ever will, of course, always be the Vader because I spent my high school days quoting Star Wars at parties… I was not invited to many parties.
