Starting out at The Lebermuth Company
On Monday May 14th, I started my internship at The Lebermuth Company. The Lebermuth Company is my family’s business, which has been family owned and operated for 110 years and counting (it was established in 1908). This is not my first summer interning at Lebermuth, so I was happy to see some familiar faces. That said, many new employees have been hired since I last worked for the company two summers ago.
In fact, the HR Director and Assistant, Juli Mast and Sara Plonka, respectively, are two new Lebermuth employees that helped me on the first day. They were very welcoming during the on boarding process and gave me all the paperwork I needed to sign on the first day! After I signed all of the documents related to state taxation, company policies, and more, I was led to my work space area.
This summer, I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work in a cubicle. My cubicle is one of about eight, and there are around a dozen employees in the room in total. I share the cubicle with a woman named Hannah MacLeod, who is very kind. My desk has three computer monitors, and I have access to all the office supplies I need. If I am ever in need of extra pens, pencils, notepaper, etc., I know that I can ask for what I am looking for without any problems.
The highlight of my week took place on Thursday afternoon. Each Thursday at 2:00pm, Brandon, a recent hire who specializes in flavor chemistry, hosts an informal lecture about one raw material flavor. Old coworkers from previous summers were pleasantly surprised to see me at this learning session, albeit I lacked the official uniform, a white lab coat (perhaps I will wear one next Thursday). We were all given the opportunity to learn about Dimethyl Sulfide’s flavor applications.
Dimethyl Sulfide in its concentrated form is rancid; many associate its sulfuric aroma with rotten eggs. What value does it have in flavors then? When diluted to a certain point, the aroma of this flavor material resembles something like “creamed corn” — fitting, given that it is summer and we are a bunch of Indiana Hoosiers. Interestingly, the brave among us were able to take a swig of the diluted Dimethyl Sulfide. I had the opportunity to do this, so I did, and was amazed by the odd but equally refreshing taste of creamed corn flavored water.
Thus far, I have really enjoyed being back at The Lebermuth Company. I look forward to building professional relationships with my coworkers and learning more about my main project this summer, preparing for the Safe Quality Food audit. This project requires me to enter confidential supply chain and vendor information into our CRM. I will have more on this project later in my next week!
I’m not exactly sure which category this belongs to…you didn’t select a category. It is important to select a category, otherwise it doesn’t find a home. I thought perhaps this was “organizational culture” as you talked a bit about on-boarding, you talked about a ritual of sorts (the informal lecture on the raw material flavor). But then in the end, it really was not addressing key elements in organization culture (in general and in terms of the prompt). I would ask that you select a category for the rest of your weekly reflections; if you do not, they will not have a home in the blog. Also, make certain remaining reflections address the prompt in whichever category you select. You might also want to pick a more unique name for the post each week, as we discussed in class.