May Employee Recognition: April Nielsen

May Employee Spotlight:

April Nielsen
Operations Administrative Assistant

Joined Natech: January 3, 2019

From feeding stray cats to pretty skulls on her desk, April is the whole enchilada. Or empanada, which April loves!

April is a wonderful team member. Her professional mannerism and passionate hard work ethic make it a pleasure to work with her every day. April is reliable and dependable. She has a collaborative personality and enjoys complex and new tasks. April comes to work every day with a smile, a positive attitude, and the desire to do more. She strives to beat the expectations of anyone’s needs for any task.

Betty Merrifield

Q: What do you do at Natech? 

A: I assist production and engineering with administrative work. I create purchase orders, enter sales orders for customers, send confirmations, and disposition material for production. If anything else comes up, I always try to help out when needed. 

Q: What’s your favorite part about working at Natech?  

I really like the people that I work with. I like how there’s accountability and structure and processes. You can see how well everything flows. That takes a lot of the stress out of the day-to-day. You want to work with people that have the same priorities as you and the priorities need to be your actual job and keeping things flowing. 

Q: How do you feel like you’ve grown since you first started here? 

To be honest, when I first started, I was nervous and worried that I wasn’t up to the position. I was terrified of screwing things up. But the more I’ve learned, the more confident I’ve become in my abilities. 

April always finds a way to get it done, and done well! She’s reliable and her humorous personality makes her a pleasure to work with.

Jennifer Nagler

Q: What is something that most people might not know about you?

I have 4 children. I have a son who’s going to be 18 in a week, and then two other teenagers, a 14-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl, and a 6-year-old girl. I’m still getting used to the fact that my son is going to be 18. We watch a lot of YouTube together which is probably not something you’re supposed to do with your mom. I’m a “cool mom.”

Q: How did you start your career in manufacturing? 

I realized that I liked being involved in the back end of things. At my previous job, we remanufactured things; one piece would take four to six weeks to make. Here, we produce mass volumes of parts. Everything here is so organized and I love how well everyone works with each other. Working at Natech is a whole different world.

Q: What do you like to do in your free time?  

I like to read. I tend to read horror, science fantasy and fiction, and I’m a big Stephen King fan. I even have a tattoo on my leg for Stephen King. It’s a tower for The Dark Tower series. I’m a dork. My mother worked for the library when I was growing up and books were free. I was like, I don’t need cable. My mom was a Stephen King fan so that’s why I was introduced to those books at an early age.

I like books about horror, supernatural and scary stuff. But I also like stories of hard times, authors like John Steinbeck and Upton Sinclair. Apparently, I like reading about people who are not having a good time.

Q: What is something you have always wanted to do? 

I have never been anywhere off Long Island and everyone tells me that’s crazy. I’ve never been on a plane. I certainly don’t want Long Island to be my only reference point for the rest of my life, so I would like to see more of the world. 

Q: What’s one thing that you can’t live without?

Coffee. My coffee has way too much of International Delight creamer. It doesn’t actually taste like coffee, but it does the job.

Q: What motivates you?  

Definitely my kids. I just want to be able to provide my kids with stuff that I couldn’t have while growing up. I’ve been successful so far, because they’re all ridiculously spoiled.

April is the most hard-working, friendly and approachable person I know. She makes everyone around her feel comfortable, always makes me laugh, and makes the work environment a more fun space to be in!

Noor Lone

Q: What do you value most? 

I really value honesty and work ethic. I try to bring those qualities out through myself and I see it here in others.

Q: What are three traits that define you? 

Empathetic, kind, good work ethic.

Q: What are three traits that define Natech? 

1. Accountability, because to me, that is what sets us apart from other places. 2. We are very teamwork oriented; everyone’s opinion, regardless of their position, is taken into consideration and considered valid. 3. It’s such an ethical place. We care about our customers and we care about our employees. We care about our impacts on people’s lives, the world, and society in general.