MIDDLETON, Wis. — If you have a green thumb and you love the great outdoors, you might want to consider a career with a 70-year-old landscaping company.
“They’re just such a nice hobby when you’re feeling stressed,” The Bruce Company Customer Service Lead Lexi Keller said while watering some of her favorite nursery plants. “And it just brings you so much peace and joy to have a little activity, to help something grow and thrive.”
Keller, who began about a year ago as a store associate, is now growing her budding career. Her boss, Lisa Briggs, said the work is fulfilling for so many individuals like Lexi who like to be surrounded by beauty and a commitment to excellence.
“It’s a very zen job at times, and other times it’s super exciting. We’re coming up to spring when trucks are going to be coming in every day with new flowers and new trees and shrubs, new plants. It’s like Christmas if you’re a gardener,” Briggs said.
And this year, The Bruce Company is excited to announce dozens of new openings. Vice President of Sales and Marketing Tom Raemisch said the placements are available across the board and hourly wages start at $25 for snow removal.
“Really here rain, sleet, snow shine, we prefer the shine. We know we need the others as well, but we get guys that get up in the middle of the night to shovel and plow. We get guys and gals get up early in the morning to plant trees and landscapes,” Raemisch said. “We get people to come into our garden center early to water plants and to make sure that every day is a great experience for our customers and our employees.”
General Manager Casey Mathura said he was impressed by the low turnover rate of employees. He said associates stick around because The Bruce Company cares for its workers.
“Yeah, they (associates) do have to feel that sense of openness and they have to be willing to approach their leaders, their leadership team. I think a lot of times people feel intimidated when they have ideas and they don’t want to come forward because fear of getting shut down or whatever it is,” Mathura said. “We welcome that. We tell them from the interview process, ‘we welcome your feedback.’”
The landscaping architect business will welcome soon something state-of-the-art, a brand new building on their current footprint in near historic downtown Middleton.
“We constantly see ourselves growing not only from a physical location, where we’re going to be breaking ground on a new facility here, but we’re constantly growing personally and some of our technologies,” Raemisch said.
You can learn more about those positions, and how proud The Bruce Company is of their advancement and diversity platforms, here.