Anne Vascik is a Safety Champion. Why? She Picked Up the Phone

At AEP Ohio we strongly believe in “being your brother’s keeper” and looking out for each other’s safety. Dispatcher Anne Vascik remembered this mantra and put it into practice – in a very simple but important way. That’s why her peers across the company have selected her as the AEP Ohio Safety Champion for the month of October.

On the evening of Sept. 25 Vascik assigned a meter specialist to reconnect a customer’s power in Mount Vernon. It was a routine job, but as the hours ticked past 8 p.m. and night fell the employee hadn’t checked in and Vascik grew a little worried. She was concerned about the employee’s well-being, so she called to make sure everything was OK.

It was good news: The meter specialist had been tied up completing other jobs and hadn’t been able to report her status yet. So all was well … this time.

The simple act of checking in on someone to make sure they’re doing all right – even when they probably are – is the kind of behavior we encourage at AEP Ohio. It’s the kind of behavior that keeps people safe.

Meter Revenue Operations Supervisor Steve Minyard made sure to thank Vascik and let others know he was extremely grateful she was looking out for members of his team.

“It was very much appreciated. It showed me she went above and beyond the job to make sure the meter servicer – who was out there by herself, late at night, in the dark – was safe,” Minyard said.

As for Vascik, she’s surprised by the recognition because she says it’s pretty common for people at the Distribution Dispatching Center to call and check on others.

“I tend to like to check in just because I want to make sure everything is OK. It’s just me being paranoid,” Vascik says. “It’s not an unusual thing at all at the DDC. Maybe it’s just me but I don’t think it’s particularly remarkable. It’s just something we do and how we operate. You look out for your guys, you check up on them. You make sure they’re safe.”

Published October 22, 2019