Donna Boeing is a mother figure, at home and in the office.
As an office manager, she keeps things running smoothly, assuring everyone and everything is in their proper place. And if anyone on her team is in need, she’s always fast to help.
When she started, she didn’t know much about being an office manager, or running a print room or helping architects layout their spec books.
But 30 years in, she’s learned all that and more.
And she’s always ready to take on the next challenge. “I don’t know what that’ll be yet, but I’m sure there’ll be something,” Donna said.
From the farm to the conference table
Donna is nothing if not committed.
She lives in St. Rose, Illinois, where she teaches a religion class before driving to Highland for work each day. She began teaching there when her daughter attended the program as a first grader — 15 years ago. Now she teaches eighth grade and confirmation classes.
“The church was in need of teachers, so I volunteered, and I’ve been doing it ever since,” she said.
A born helper, Donna grew up working alongside her older sister and younger brother on a hog farm in Pocahontas, Illinois. She also helped on her grandfather’s nearby farm, where they raised dairy cows and chickens.
“I drove tractors, I bailed hay, fed the pigs. I showed pigs at the 4-H in Highland when I was young,” she said. “When we bailed hay, my brother got to drive the tractor, and my sister and I had to throw the bales up on the wagon for my dad to stack them.”
After graduating from Highland High School, she attended at 10-month program at Hickey Business School in St. Louis. While attending school, she met her future husband.
Shortly after graduating in 1987, she applied for a job as an administrative assistant at The Korte Company. She then worked her way up to office manager.
Learning the ropes, lending a hand
Donna was quiet and shy when she started at The Korte Company. Fortunately, she sat next to Sandy Grapperhaus, who helped her feel at home.
“She was in the interiors department, and I was in the architectural department,” Donna said. “We actually sat side by side because our divisions tied together. She was a good person to talk to. She never criticized me. She always explained things well. It was easy to work beside her because she’s an easygoing, fun person.”
After overcoming her shyness, Donna wanted to learn everything she could. She was soon helping with contracts, specs, job reports, working estimates and more. Now she is the one answering questions for her coworkers.
“I was one of those people who always wanted to do something and not just sit there,” Donna said. “I always had a little cheat sheet they gave me when I was helping with specs, because back then we didn’t have these cool programs to write specs. The guys would mark up stuff on paper, and then I would have to go in and actually edit and organize the documents before we put the books together.”
And it was a good thing she learned quickly, because Sandy went on maternity leave three months after Donna started. She filled in on many of Sandy’s responsibilities on top of her own work.
When a new job comes in, Donna sets things up with accounting and gets contracts started. And she runs monthly reports on projects to show if they are on track and on budget. She gets submittals to the print room, and then there’s the billing and change orders to consider.
Fortunately, computers have made all these jobs a lot faster and easier than 30 years ago, giving Donna time to learn more new things. For one, the interior designer, Meaghan, is teaching her about furniture layouts on a CET program, so Donna can help check proposals and answer questions while the designer is out.
Always a mom, at work and at home
Donna got married in 1995 and had two kids who are now in college. Her son is studying at SWIC in Granite City to be a precision machinist. Her daughter is in her third year studying agribusiness at SIU Carbondale, where she hopes to graduate a semester early.
They still live on a small farm, which her husband works part-time on top of his job as an automotive technician for a Dodge dealership.
The family enjoys weekend tractor pulls and travels throughout Illinois to different county fairs, competing in the hot farm class.
“Last year, we took home a first and a third in the two classes,” she said. “My kids are out there throwing weights on and off the tractor. My husband and the two kids drive. I’m the cleaner. I keep it nice looking.”
Just like with her family at the tractor pulls, Donna keeps things on track at The Korte Company.
“It’s like I’m mom at work,” she said. “You got to tell mom where you’re going. And we’ve instilled this in our department that if you’re going somewhere, a meeting, traveling, you send me an email so I know where you’re at because people may need to know. I’m like Mom. Mom at home, Mom here, keeping everything in line and running smoothly.”
Doing it all and more
Donna has come to practically run the print room as well. She coordinates all the pieces and helps prepare the books and stocks the materials.
As with everything else, it used to take a lot longer before they had these computer programs in the office.
“If I got a big project and I had to do 20, 30 sets, I would coordinate and stay as needed late to get it ready to go out the next day,” she said. “Things came in and I adjusted the schedule where I could stay and work. The print machine can only print so fast.”
Rather than assembling 500 to 600 pages and running it through the printer to make copies, she now organizes it all in a computer and simply hits print.
“Right now, I can print 10 to 12 drawings a minute,” she said. “Back then I was probably doing three drawings a minute.”
That gives her more time to handle the print room’s invoicing, along with the incoming and outgoing mail.
At the end of the day, she just wants to know that she’s done her part. And that includes helping her younger coworkers learn new things, just like people have done for her.
Donna has experienced ups and downs as The Korte Company developed from a small company into a national player. Along the way, it’s been great to watch her coworkers develop and thrive in their careers. Just like a good mom.
The Korte Company couldn’t ask for a better office matriarch.
