Introducing: On the Job, Episode 7

Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey, they're Brainstuff listeners. Today, instead of a normal episode, we have for you another preview of the podcast On the Job. We've joined up with their team to bring you a few samples of what they do, which is engage with professionals from all kinds of businesses about what they do, from elephant training to blacksmithing. Through these stories, the team tries to help explain and explore different aspects of what working means in

I am Demenie Pollt and I am the owner of Gurlington Garage in South Burlington.

Vermont, Beautiful.

I appreciate you building a fort there for our recording.

You're welcome. It was kind of fun. I haven't built a sheet fort since I was a kid.

Welcome back to on the Job today. We're speaking with Demanie Pollett, who, as you heard, is the owner of a female run auto repair shop in Vermont. But Girlington Garage is more than just a cute name. Demenie's mission. It's a creative place where women feel comfortable having their cars repaired.

They walked in and they didn't feel out of place or like they didn't belong. They immediately felt like, yeah, I can sit down here, and this feels like I don't want to say this feels like home, because you know, it doesn't feel like home to go to a repair shop, but something equivalent to home.

This feels like a comfortable coffee shop. Maybe I don't know.

As she tells it, Demni was far from a natural born mechanic. In fact, it took a lot of trial and error, sometimes at her own expense. Pre Girlington, Demni was working in the social services field, tending to the elderly and people with developmental disabilities. But it seemed that no matter how much she worked, she just couldn't get ahead. So she came up with two potential career paths.

So the only two things that I thought would be at all interesting were psychology. I thought that would be very interesting fixing cars, figuring out these machines, fixing their mysterious mysteries every day. So I did a little bit of research and I realized it was going to take six years to become a psychologist in two years.

To become a technician. And so that was my decision. Right there.

I thought, God, I wish I knew of a woman mechanic. I would drive long distances to bring my car to a woman who was a mechanic. And then I thought, I bet a lot of other women feel this way. I'm going to open up an old girl garage and I'm going to make a million dollars.

And then from that point on, that was my plan.

That was what I was working towards, was figuring out how to open my own business.

But the more Deminie learns about the industry, the more she realizes opening up a business is a lot of work, much more than she can do alone. Luckily, she knew just who to call.

My mom was looking for something new to do with her life, and so I said, Hey, come up to Burlington. I'm trying to sort this business. Why don't you come help me? And so she did.

Eight years into the business, Demni came down with a thyroid condition. She struggled to even work the two and a half days a week, and that's when her mother's unconditional love took over.

My mom, being a really, really good mom, said you need to take some time off.

So your mom held the fort while you were gone.

She did, Yeah, my mom. She ran the business all by herself.

With her health greatly improved. Demanie is back in the shop these days, but she admits she's in that challenging phase of ownership where it's no longer as exciting as it once was for her.

I care about the business, I really do. And I love my employees. I love the people that I work with, and I do want Gurlington to run forever. So I'm mostly just there for support for the manager, Susan McGrath. She's fantastic and running the business like nobody's business.

Demanie still goes in two days a week, but her goal is for Girlington to grow independent of her. So what are you thinks next for Deminie?

I have no idea. I'm still in a transition, getting it to a stable point. Once that is sort of settled, I'll have to think about it. I haven't thought about it. I don't know what's next.

We'll see.

From the job. I'm Avery Thompson.

A strong work ethic, takes pride in a job well done. This is the kind of person you need. Express Employment professionals can help because in good times or bad, we understand how critical it is to manage your.

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