Lyn Longsworth during his EotM interview.

It speaks volumes that Lyn Longsworth is our Employee of the Month for September. Lyn’s been with IA Stage a whopping six months and his presence here has already made a positive impact.

A tall, fit man with an easy smile, a firm handshake, and the subtlest hint of a Bahamian accent, Lyn comes across as confident and comfortable in his own skin. His parents are from Belize, but Lyn was born in the Bahamas. His parents began the emigration process in 1979/1980. They didn’t get the call to come to the U.S. until 1994. Lyn was straightforward and told me he came to the US undocumented in 1992.

After 9/11, he joined the Army National Guard and began basic training at 36 years old, 6 months before the cut-off age to join the military.  By 2012, Lyn was out of the military and a U.S. citizen. His primary focus was “looking to get a job and to take care of my parents.” He drifted for a while. By his own telling, he went through a pretty rough patch where he “was just going in the wrong direction.” Lyn was able to turn himself around and continued to search for a place to set roots.

Lyn spent some time with a maintenance company and moved on to a tree farm in Brooklyn, FL. He couldn’t see a path forward there, so he returned to the temp agency and within three days, he was assigned to IA Stage. Lyn works in the paint shop as a painter. It’s not something he’s done before, but it is something that he finds surprisingly satisfying.

“I’ve worked in warehouse and banking and office environments, but this is the [work environment] I’ve been looking for my entire life,” he said. “There’s a culture here that you don’t find in other places – there’s an atmosphere of brotherhood.” For a man who demonstrates personal integrity through a solid work ethic and consistently producing quality work with a great attitude, which is exactly what got him the Employee of the Month nomination, knowing that his contribution is appreciated matters. Lyn made a point to call attention to “an owner who buys everyone ice cream and calls me by my name and all the guys smiling and saying good morning when we circle up for Safety Meeting in the morning.”

Outside of work, Lyn enjoys keeping fit, 4×4 mudding, and his faith. He also loves music. “I’m into Celtic stuff, Enya, and Lisa Gerard these days,” he says. He spent some time deejaying and video editing in the early 80s along with developing his skills as an amateur photographer. Now that he’s settled in, he’s looking towards picking up photography again.

When I asked him if there was anything he wanted people to know about him, he said, “I’m really a farmer, you know? My job is to keep the crops – my friends and my family – to keep the crops healthy.”