U.S. General Services Administration
Gwendolyn Smith celebrates 50 years with GSA
Gwendolyn Smith, a supply service representative in GSA’s National Customer Service Center, received her 50-year service award last month. She is the longest serving GSA employee in Region 6.
Smith first joined GSA in 1969 at the encouragement of a family friend, who had told her GSA’s Region 6 supply depot was hiring its first women. At the time, she was working at National Bellas Hess, a mail order catalog company in North Kansas City.
“I was the fifth woman hired to work in the warehouse,” she said. “I was told that work was hard and dirty and I will be on my feet all day, but my mother reminded me of the purpose: soap and water, and I have a baby to feed — meaning working hard and getting dirty will not kill me.”
Working under a temporary GSA “man power” appointment, which was allowed at the time, Smith was ultimately hired on as a full-time WG-6 (wage grade) worker in 1972.
“In the warehouse, my title was a selector/packer in the bin section. We stocked all kinds of merchandise, from A-Z,” she said. “It was set up like today's Amazon warehouses, with quotas per hours and a year-end reward if you maintained your quota. The depot stocked everything — from food and medical supplies to office and hardware supplies.”
While she had many fun memories working in the depot, she said one stood out in particular:
It was payday on Wednesday, and one of my co-workers lost his wallet. He was so upset he went home. Well, we had a conveyor line that runs from the back of the bin section to the front, and his wallet was among the items in my line to pack. When I noticed it was his wallet, I was shocked; I was about to ship his whole two weeks pay. He offered me a reward, but I could not accept it. Ultimately, I became part of his family. I was his first granddaughter, so to speak.
The Region 6 supply depot was eventually outsourced. With no similar wage-grade positions available in Kansas City, Smith took a clerical position in GSA’s national payroll services office for about a year before moving to the legacy Federal Supply Service’s Office of Travel and Transportation.
In 1995, she eventually landed in the National Customer Service Center.
“My years working with the federal stock system helped me since I was familiar with selecting and packing, unit of issue coding, shelf-life, and those working behind the scenes with pens and paper,” she said.
Smith credits her weekly Christian ministries with helping her maintain work values and respect authority.
“One personal belief is that if I have respect for others in authority, male or female, the end result is that you are respected as well,” she said.
In addition to her ministries, Smith spends her free time reading, listening to “some down home blues,” and watching old movies on her favorite channel, Hallmark.
She also spends time with her two children, one of whom has special needs.
“He keeps me focused and balanced,” she said. “I often tell others he does more for me than I do for him.”
Asked if she has any advice for new GSA employees, Smith says it’s important to work hard at any task assigned, even if it may not be exactly what you applied for or what you think you were hired to do.
“As one of my supervisors once told me, regardless of the task for a day, or an hour, work hard at doing your best, and update your resume,” she said. “It may be that one thing you did that will land you an ideal job for life.”