Celebrating David Gex: 46 Years of Commitment & Exceptional Service

We recently had the privilege of sitting down with David Gex to reflect on his extensive and dedicated career in the utility industry. David, who is now exiting the industry, shared his valuable insights, beginning with his very first role as a meter reader at Louisiana Gas Service. Having spent his entire professional life in Louisiana, holding multiple positions across various offices, he has been a first-hand witness to the significant evolution of the sector.   Read on as he discusses the considerable changes he's observed over the years, specifically concerning advancements in technology and safety protocols.

Five in Five with David Gex

1.  Q:  Tell me about a typical day in the role of David Gex. What does your day                look like; what time do you start?

     A:  So you know what? My day starts, I get at the office just like everybody

else at 7.30. I try to spend time talking to the employees, even though I'm a            manager, I'm not a supervisor. But my big thing is that I want to be                            approachable by all employees and I think spending time and talking with                employees, whether it be work or just anything in general about their personal life, I think that's very important.

I think employees really like that. So I spend time doing that. And then the rest of it, you know, a lot of emails. So, respond to a lot of emails. I'm the type of person that if you send me an email, I'm going to respond. And if you call me, I'm going to respond. So I'm very personable. And I'll be honest with you - I do email, but I prefer talking to people. So just my way of how I like to communicate.  I know that's not popular these days, but [for] some of us, it is. Then it is just meeting after meeting and solving problems.

2.  Q:  Looking back over your career, who was your favorite supervisor and why?              Maybe not the who, but definitely the why.

 A:  My favorite supervisor was my first supervisor that I had as a service              technician.  His name was Wayne Mara, he worked for Louisiana Gas Service, and he taught me a lot.  He was one of those guys he was into everything, he was always helpful, and he was just a good supervisor. He really loved his job.

You don't always find that. A lot of times people take jobs, but they take a job and they're only worried about the next one they're going to get. He didn't worry about that. He worried about the job that he was in and what kind of job that he was doing. And then, of course, he also knew that his success was tied to his employees' success. And that's something that I learned from him early on, and it's paid off throughout my career.  Because if your employees are not successful, then you're not successful.

3. Q: What's one thing you wish the general public knew about your job the utility industry?

A: I think the one thing that I would want them to know is that their safety is the number one concern of utility companies. Their safety as a customer, being a customer of the utility, is the forefront of everything we do. You know, we try to keep our employees safe, but it's also about the safety of the customers too. We try to do the right thing for them.

4. Q: All right. So I'm going to talk a little bit about your personality. So tell us about your favorite hobby or interests outside of work?

A: So in my career, being working in operations, you take home your job a lot because you're on call out and things like that when I worked in the field. And even when I became in leadership positions, it stays with you. So I always tried to find something that I could do that would take my mind off of my job, where I could just get away - some downtime. With me, it became golf. It's the one thing that when I'm doing it, I don't think about work as much. Golf is the avenue for me. I started when I was about in my early 20s and today I'm retiring and looking to play a lot of golf, a lot more golf than I did when I was working.

5. Q: What advice would you give to someone who's just starting out their career path in this field?

A: The advice that I would give them would be advice that they could really use in any field. When you get a job with a company, it's usually entry level sometimes. Let your focus be on the job you hired for and try to become the best you can at what they hired you to do. If you're really good at it, you don't need to tell anybody. They're going to know it, that opens doors in the future to other jobs, and then one day you'll get your your opportunity. Have patience when you get on with utility companies.

David's Final Words

I always used to think about when I leave - writing a letter saying, "For those who may be concerned, I'm leaving my job to pursue other interests one fairway at a time." Well, I didn't have to do that because I never had to resign my position. I got to retire and I'm very fortunate.

I've been very blessed to have 46 years working a career for a utility company like Atmos Energy - so very blessed! That's a rarity these days. You know that - working for the same company for 46 years? We got bought out twice... Louisiana Gas and Citizens Utilities and then Atmos. Blessed!