China has also impacted PLP.
Though the job can at times be
demanding, Ziebarth said he enjoys knowing
that the products PLP produces often get sent
to areas recovering from disasters.
“Everybody wants to be able to help
somebody if they can,” he said.
Products function like Chinese
finger traps.
The wires go through a machine which
coats it with a special coating and forms the
unique helical shape. The wires are shaped
in such a way as to be secure enough to
withstand any type of resistance, whether it
be weather-related or even animal-related.
Ziebarth said the wires are engineered in a
similar fashion to the popular children’s gag
toy, the Chinese finger trap. The finger trap
is a puzzle that traps people’s fingers in both
ends of a small cylinder woven from bamboo.
The more a person pulls on one side of the
trap, the tighter the other side becomes.
“When you have conductors sitting on
top of an insulator, you don’t want it going
one way or the other,” Ziebarth said, “and so
they use the helical concept because as one
side pulls, the other side gets tighter -- so it
stabilizes it...the harder you pull, the tighter
it gets.
It’s about the people
When asked what’s his favorite part
about working at PLP, Swarigen mentioned
his peers.
“I just enjoy the people I work with,”
he said. “It’s a good group of people I
work with.”
PLP has an education reimbursement
program where employees can receive degrees
while working for the company. Swaringen
was able to utilize the company’s education
reimbursement program to receive his
bachelor’s degree, Ziebarth said.
Ziebarth also said interacting with
employees was his favorite part of the
job. He enjoys seeing how younger and
older generations embrace and adapt to
technological changes within the industry.
“It’s enriching and rewarding to see
employees grow and blossom and be
empowered and to achieve their own
personal self-actualization,” he said. “That’s a
manager’s quest.
Made in Stanly Magazine | 2020
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