Hearts Afire

Harry's Inbox: PTO, ice and 'healthy' food trucks

Hearts Afire, episode 70

David King
From the Norman D. Kalmin Podcast Studio in the spectacular Alamo Admin Building, it's Hearts Afire, the podcast for the team at BioBridge Global, where we're working every day to save and enhance lives through the healing power of human cells and tissue.

This episode marks the debut of something new for Hearts Afire. Instead of a host and a guest, Angelica Sandoval and I will be responding to your submissions to Harry's inbox.

The inbox has gotten busier in the last year or so, we thought it might be a good idea to bring you some of the questions and answers in a slightly different form.

Angelica Sandoval
Some of today's questions already have been posted to One BBG and the BBG Broadcast app, and some are a little new. The new posts will be added to One BBG and BBG Broadcast for the five or six of you out there who don't listen to Hearts Afire. Hint, hint.

So let's get started. Let's see here. Our first question. Do we earn any additional PTO after 20 years of service?

David King
I'll tell you, we had to dig through master control for this one. And if you want to look it up in master control, it's SOP number A-09-001. Just in case you wanted to look at it.

Angelica Sandoval
Just in case.

David King
Yes, Unfortunately, after finding this SOP, the answer is no. PTO accrual and rollover rates are determined by how long you've worked here, but they stop increasing once you reach 10 years.
So for individual contributors and supervisors, for example, if you have one to three years of experience, you earn exactly 4.92 hours of PTO per pay period.

Angelica Sandoval
Great.

David King
For more than three years and up to 10 years, you earn 6.46 hours exactly per pay period. If you're here for more than 10 years, you earn 8 hours per pay period of PTO.

Rates are slightly different for managers with direct reports, directors, vice presidents, executives, Fuhrers, et cetera.

Angelica Sandoval
Et cetera, et cetera.

David King
Sorry about that, but thanks for 20 plus years of service.

Angelica Sandoval
Thank you, yes. All right, next question. For the next, this is a really exciting one. I'm excited to hear this answer.

For the next food truck event, can we get something different? I know that we've had, let's see, what have we had in the past? We've had BBQ. We've had, I love the pink truck. What is that one called? The one that's like the fusion one with the BBQ nachos.

David King
Chef Dom's.

Angelica Sandoval
Chef Dom. I love that one. The Suni something. I always forget the name. And then we've had burgers. ice cream. But can we get something different, like Indian, maybe Chinese, or some healthier options, perhaps? What do you think, David?

David King
This brings up those age-old questions. Is healthy food truck a contradiction in terms?

Angelica Sandoval
We like to think it's not.

David King
And is there such a thing as a Chinese food truck? You know there's a Panda Express right over by Walmart, right?

Angelica Sandoval
Yes.

David King
So there's your Chinese food truck. Actually, we do have a new option for the next food truck day, which is coming up on Wednesday, Nov. 5.

Angelica Sandoval
Exciting. Mark your calendars.

David King
Mark your calendars. In addition to a taco truck, B Daddy's BBQ, and our dessert trucks, we're going to have Rooster's. Rooster's menu includes chicken wings.

Angelica Sandoval
Oh, my kryptonite.

David King
Chicken. chicken sandwiches, and most importantly, a variety of salads featuring, yes, chicken. It's funny, we actually found Rooster's through our weekly posting of food trucks over at the tower, which is next door to the Annex.

They send us their schedule every week with their menus, and we post them on the One BBG food truck page in case anybody's interested.

Angelica Sandoval
And how often do they have food trucks over there?

David King
They have them two to three times a week. They'll have one truck, two to three times. They'll have one truck sometimes on Monday, different on Wednesday, and then breakfast on Friday.

Angelica Sandoval
Oh, that's great.

David King
Yeah, so like I said, some of the ones that come here, go there. But Rooster's, I found them through the actual link.

Angelica Sandoval
I see. So it's always good to keep in touch with our neighbors.

David King
That's right. That's right.

Angelica Sandoval
All right. Let me see here.

David King
It's all downhill from here.

Angelica Sandoval
It's all downhill from here. Like I'm going through my questions, people. Hold on one second. There's a lot of questions from y'all and we love it. OK, so next question.

Is the ice from the ice machine on the first floor for consumption? I've seen people using it for drinks. However, I also see other departments use it for shipping labs, etc., that would make me believe it would be contaminated. Can we get clarity on this or a clarification on what it should be solely used for?

David King
Well, you know, it took me a minute to figure out where this ice machine was. It's down there in what we used to refer to as the coffee dungeon on the first floor of the Headquarters.

Angelica Sandoval
Oh, that's that very hidden space. They have an ice machine down there? Yeah, I don't even know. We're in the Alamo.

David King
They not only have an ice machine down there, they have Anand's very fancy water machine in there for some reason.

Angelica Sandoval
Gotcha.

David King
So yeah, they have purified water and as it turns out, fit-for-human-consumption ice. I reached out to Luis Cardona, who's Senior Manager of Facilities about this one. He says the ice in that machine is for human consumption.

Angelica Sandoval
Oh, fantastic.

David King
There's regularly scheduled preventive maintenance on that machine as well. So Ice away, folks.

Angelica Sandoval
Isn't that funny? We love our ice. I was really interested in how they do it in other countries, because in other ones they think that we're ridiculous whenever we come over and we ask for ice, for instance, in our tea. Yeah, American.

David King
We're watering it down.

Angelica Sandoval
One last question. What, when, and I'm really interested in this one, when is the next break room, fridge, and counters cleanup?

David King
I didn't know. And we're in the Alamo, so we're on a completely different schedule than everybody else.

Angelica Sandoval
Absolutely.

David King
We're sort of on a different internet from everybody else, too. I think we're at the end of the telegraph line up here. So I reached out to Charlie Ward in Facilities. I picked up the phone. I called Charlie. He answered it like he had six other things going on, as usual.

Angelica Sandoval
Because he probably does.

David King
Because he probably does. And the answer was very simple. The next break room cleanup is whenever you want to have it cleaned up. If your break room fridge and counters need cleaning, submit an UpKeep ticket to facilities and they will get the crew scheduled to come clean it out. Anybody can submit an UpKeep ticket. There's a link on the One BBG homepage as well as on the menu in the BBG Broadcast app.

Angelica Sandoval
That app is so handy.

David King
It is handy. I mean, you know, who knew? If you can't get into your computer.

Angelica Sandoval
Absolutely. Right in the palm of your hand.

David King
Reset your Windows password from the palm of your hand.

Angelica Sandoval
Absolutely. So thanks to everyone who submitted questions, suggestions, and observations to Harry's inbox.
Today's questions and answers will be posted in the Harry's inbox page. You can find the link on the 1BBG homepage. And feel free to keep submitting. We want more questions. We'll do our best to respond either on Hearts Afire or One BBG or the app.

David King
That's right.

Angelica Sandoval
That's right.

David King
On the next Hearts Afire podcast, we'll meet Brandi Bradford, our first Manager for Organizational Design and Culture. Brandi will be talking about why career development is so important, the role our organizational culture plays in career development, and perhaps most importantly, what you can do if you feel stuck in your career. Our visit with Brandi debuts on Monday, Nov. 10.

The Hearts Afire podcast is a production of BioBridge Global Corporate Communications, Mary Uhlig, Executive Director.
Standing in for you, the inquiring minds of Team BBG, was Angelica Sandoval.

Angelica Sandoval
Thank you for having me.

David King
Standing in for Harry, the Answer Man, was David King.

Angelica Sandoval
Yet again, if you have a question or suggestion for Harry's Inbox, there's a link to submit on the Harry's Inbox page on One BBG, on every Harry's Inbox post, and in the menu in BBG Broadcast, the app.
If you have an idea or suggestion for Hearts Afire, you can e-mail us at heartsafire@biobridgeglobal.org. Thank you so much for listening.

David King
Thanks for listening, y'all.