Evolving Systems Inc., a fast-growing software development company, isn't exactly a mom-and-pop operation.
But it does have a "mom" on the payroll.Joy Reel is the official "Office Mom" for the company.
"I'm a mom for big kids," said the 37-year-old Reel.
For the past three months, Reel has spent 25 to 30 hours a week tending to the needs of the 96 computer jockeys at ESI.
"It's the job of the Office Mom to keep us in junk food, soda pop and things like that," said Harry Fair, president and chief technical officer for the privately held ESI.
"A lot of people also like to stay in the office and work during their lunch hour, so she'll take their orders and send out to a restaurant," Fair said.
Reel - a journalism major at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the mother of two - also hosts a monthly birthday party for employees, waters the plants and tends to sick workers.
"On Friday, I had a guy who wasn't feeling well, so I made sure he had lots of Sprite and dry crackers," she said.
ESI, where the sales volume is expected to jump 100 percent to 120 percent this year from last, has had an Office Mom since the company was founded seven years ago. The first Office Mom recently quit because her husband retired and he wanted to travel.
Reel found the job from a newspaper ad seeking an "office parent."
"It just seemed like a good idea," said the 41-year-old Fair, a co-founder of ESI. "It's one of those things that if you thought about it, it would be a fun thing and a good idea, but nobody does it because nobody else is doing it."
Having an Office Mom fits in with the company's mission statement, which is to "provide an excellent work environment for our employees that fosters growth and job satisfaction."
"I would not call our company a `mom and pop' kind of deal," Fair said. "But I would say it is a little more humane, a little more old-fash-ioned. We do try to worry about our employees as people. We don't just hire 40 people to get the job done. We try to be a little more personal.
"And having an Office Mom is all part of that."