The People Make ROC Carbon

These ROC Carbon history blogs have shown how authentic leadership drives a company. Whether discussing ROC Carbon Founder Morgan Ricks or current CEO Curtis Sager, leadership at ROC has meant treating your customers and employees with respect. By creating and fostering a positive work environment and by investing in his employees, Curtis gave his workers room to grow.

Trust in your Employees

By following the Golden Rule and treating others like you would like to be treated, ROC has created a workplace where workers will come in on their days off to help the company. How a person manages a company will trickle down to the employees. Workers are bright. When they are working with a manager who doesn’t care, that will negatively affect morale, but when they watch a manager give everything they have, your workers are going to work much harder.

Every company will say they strive to be the best, but what does being the best mean? To ROC Carbon, that means being the best in the industry and being the best place to work. Being the best means studying and adapting to the times as they change. While change can be scary, if you put faith in your employees, they will put that faith back in the company. That drive is why ROC Carbon has quality customer service and high-grade products.

Employee Investment Pays Off

While current CEO Curtis Sager brought automation to ROC as a tool for his machinists, former CEO Pam Carlson started this process by bringing Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machining to ROC Carbon in 1991. The family environment at ROC was so strong that one worker, Cuong Tu, volunteered to take over the CNC process, and he just latched onto it. His devotion was so intense that he took it upon himself to sit there, shift after shift, and teach himself programming. Now? He’s the operations manager, training others on how to program. Through Curtis’ trust in his team, and the culture of bringing up from within, ROC continues to flourish, and the employees have built new opportunities for themselves.

We all get told to “leave our drama at home” or “when you come to work, be prepared to work.” but there are times when life gets to you. Curtis pushed that old thinking aside, understanding that there are times when life gets to you, and you need help. Pam brought in a chaplain group called Marketplace Chaplains that comes in and speaks with employees. The group works with employees one on one and helps them through a variety of issues, whether they be family, stress, hospitalization, or loss of a loved one. The employees always give excellent feedback that they enjoy Marketplace Chaplains, especially since the employees can come to work and feel as though they are in a safe space.

At the end of the day, ROC Carbon always asks itself, “are we living up to our best potential and to our own standards”? Whether updating the company’s technology or bringing in a chaplain support group, ROC Carbon believes in caring for its employees, mind, body, and soul. In return, the employees take care of ROC Carbon.

To be concluded…

51st Turbomachinery & 38th Pump Symposia

ROC Carbon is heading back to the 51st Turbomachinery & 38th International Pump Users Symposium. An important industry event now surpassing 50 years, the TPS is a forum for exchanging ideas between rotating equipment engineers and technicians worldwide. It impacts turbomachinery, pump, oil & gas, petrochemical, power, aerospace, chemical, and water industries through two pathways: the technical program and exhibition.