Bonding with employees is plus for manager
Staff writer
Toni Williams feels her job as manager at Pizza Hut has been rewarding — especially seeing her young staff grow and mature through the years.
Toni grew up in the McPherson and Galva area and is a 1979 graduate of Canton-Galva High School.
She moved to Salina and attended Brown-Mackie College for 18 months where she received an associate degree in business administration and accounting.
After graduation, she moved back to the McPherson area where she worked in the library at Abbott Laboratories.
"I was sort of like a secretary," Toni said. "I updated the books on the different drugs."
She also worked part-time as a shift manager at McDonald's.
After two years at Abbot, she went to work full-time at McDonald's in 1981 where she worked for a combined total of five years.
She later went to work for Hardy's where she met her husband Danny Williams. The couple were married in Oct. 1985 in Galva. In 1986, her husband joined the Army, and they moved to Fort Riley, after his basic training was completed.
For one year, her husband served unaccompanied time in Korea. When he returned to the States, the couple went to Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colo. While her husband was stationed in Colorado, Toni operated a daycare out of her home for two years.
The family then moved back to the McPherson area, and Toni worked for Hardy's again for another year.
She later took a position at Braum's as a breakfast manager, working her way up to manager.
In December of 1997, she accepted the position as manager of Pizza Hut in Hillsboro. Her duties include hiring and training employees, providing service to the customers, taking inventory, doing a payroll, as well as other duties.
"As manager we also do the dishes, cook, and clean," Toni said, laughing.
"We pretty much run the store," she said. "We make sure food and labor stay in line."
Toni said her best reward in working at Pizza Hut is her crew, especially the crew from last year.
"Kids like Chuck Bina, Jared Hefley, Jordan Plett, Andrea Fiedler, and Heather Pankratz, just to name a few, became very precious to me," she said.
"It made me cry to see the kids leave," she said. "We even left for a short time to see them graduate,"
Toni explained that when she came in 1997, most of the staff was young and inexperienced and had been through a number of different managers.
"They came in young; for most it was their first job," Toni said. "The most rewarding thing for me was to see them grow and mature — not just in their job, but as people. It was a just a delight to see."
She enjoys reading, especially historical romance books and some of Stephen King's books. She is learning to play golf and said she is excited about that.
Toni and her husband have three children, Travis, 21, works in Moundridge; Daniel, 17, is a junior at Canton-Galva High School; and Katie, 15, is a freshman at Canton-
Galva High School.
