The boomerang is a powerful hunting tool that originated in Australia where it is known for its amazing ability to be thrown in one direction and after a short pause, return to the place where it started.
This curious dynamic of leaving and returning like a boomerang is something ORAU has witnessed among its workforce in surprising numbers in recent years as many employees who have left the company on good terms have, after a short time away, returned to ORAU. Since 2018, nearly 40 employees have left and come back to work at ORAU.
According to ORAU Chief Human Resources Officer Meghan Millwood every situation is unique, but what is common in almost all of them is that because ORAU is such a great place to work people often eagerly return when the opportunity arises.
“For some it is many years, for others several years have gone by, and in one case I am aware of it was after only a few short weeks,” Millwood said. “It has always surprised and delighted me to see familiar faces ‘returning home’ to work at ORAU. Since I have worked here for 22 years, it is also personally gratifying to get to work with great people that I have missed. They could choose to work anywhere else, but they choose to come back here. That’s one of the best testaments to what a great place ORAU is to work.”
Four of these “boomerang employees” Vivian Vargas, Elaine Smith, Greg Nichols, and Melissa George each had very different circumstances that led to their departures from ORAU. But all of them agree that returning to the company was a great decision.
Vivian Vargas
Vivian Vargas
Vivian Vargas began her career at ORAU in 1992 and spent 25 years helping research participants with their travel needs. She remembers that times were very different during her first round as an ORAU employee, but even then, working at ORAU meant being close to her coworkers.
“We were a very close family. Everyone knew everyone. It was more of a slower time. People were not in a rush. They took time for each other,” Vargas said. “We always had big gatherings, with work events, and events with the Employees’ Club.”
In 2017, Vargas left her job at ORAU to help care for her aging parents in Texas. A few years later, after her mother and father had passed, Vargas said she and her sister both felt the urge to return to Oak Ridge where they had grown up.
Once she had returned to East Tennessee, Vargas said she was interested in returning to ORAU but wasn’t sure if it was possible. Turns out, it was. “I wasn’t sure if I could come back, being gone for seven years, and I am so grateful I got to come back. ORAU is a very good company, and they care about their people,” she said.
In her second act at ORAU, Vargas has found some things to be very different. But what hasn’t changed is what made her want to return in the first place: the people.
“It’s very different with everyone working from home. It has taken some getting used to, but it does work, and I am enjoying it,” Vargas said. “My group, Travel Central, is a great team. They help each other. They get things done, and they enjoy doing it.”
Vargas said the relationships she had with coworkers were the main thing that led her back to ORAU. “My draw was coming back to the people I knew. Almost everyone is still here, which is great. It’s like I never left.”
Elaine Smith
Elaine Smith
In her first stint with ORAU, Elaine Smith worked in the project management office from March of 2017 until November of 2017. During those nine months, Smith said she always felt very welcomed and deeply integrated into projects across the organization.
“I was able to work with people from other departments which was a great way for me to get to know people. I enjoyed attending the company-wide events such as the all-staff meetings in Pollard and the Fall Chili Cook-Off. It was a fun working environment even though I had a learning curve for working at a government company versus a publicly traded company,” Smith said.
At the nine-month mark of her time at ORAU, Smith had a unique opportunity arise at a different company that needed her skills to help with a large payroll project. For that project, Smith worked as a contractor, and a few years later when the project was complete, she found herself looking for her next opportunity.
She said she was drawn to look at ORAU for a second time because of all it offered, including a much better work-life balance. After interviewing with a few companies, a project management position came open at ORAU and she applied.
“Coming back to ORAU has been a little easier than the first time since I already know some people and know the rules,” Smith said. “However, it has been different since things changed during Covid and people work from home and in the office. I’m used to working from home and enjoy it since I worked from home at the other company. I try to stay involved and enjoy participating in the Employees’ Club.”
Melissa George
Melissa George got her start at ORAU in 2007 where she served in a variety of roles, all in ORAU’s Human Resources Department. She started off as an HR assistant 1, and over the next seven years she reached level three in that role. At that point, George said she loved her job but was also feeling a great deal of uncertainty about the long-term stability of ORAU. Although the change she made at the time was meant to ensure she could continue to provide for her young family, George said she found that other companies were just not the same as ORAU.
“I had the experience of working at other companies where there were no friendships or personal relationships, only work relationships and employees were treated as such,” George said. “So, when an opportunity to return to ORAU presented itself, I was very excited to apply and return to a place where I could thrive.”
George returned to ORAU in 2018, once again in Human Resources, and said she has enjoyed her return even more than her first stint at ORAU. In this second act, she said she has enjoyed a chance to advance even further professionally while also connecting with colleagues on a deeper level.
“The work environment, friends and the ORAU reputation for being a great place to work drew me back,” George said. “I have experienced this personally, and this definitely inspired me to do my best to go back to a place where I would be my best version of me and continue to grow, develop and thrive.”
Greg Nichols
Greg Nichols
Greg Nichols began his career at ORAU in 2009 as a health research intern supporting the company’s work on the Kingston Coal Ash Spill project. Thanks to the good work he did there, when he finished his master’s in public health in 2010, he received and accepted an offer to move from intern to full-time employee and quickly climbed the ladder in ORAU’s Health Studies program. Among other things, Nichols launched a new nanotechnology initiative and became an important part of ORAU’s business development activities in the health studies space.
“I got to work with almost every department and support unit from the get-go. It was kind of cool!” Nichols said. “I also had an opportunity to pitch a few investment ideas to the senior leadership team and was fortunate enough to get some initiatives funded, mainly the Nano Program. I got to work on almost every program that ORISE Health Studies had.”
His work in the nanotechnology world got the attention of another company and that led to a job offer and a chance to keep the typical young professional career track moving upward after seven good years with ORAU.
Nichols spent the next eight years with that company, helping them in many ways including playing an important role in their Covid response. But some of the key relationships he had built at ORAU, including with ORAU President Andy Page and current ORISE Health Studies Director Ashley Golden, kept him on ORAU’s radar. And when Golden needed a new operations manager in the ORISE Health Studies program, she worked hard to bring Nichols back to the fold.
“I just felt in my heart that ORAU was the right place to be in my career,” said Nichols. “It’s very comfortable being back, like a warm hug. It does feel like home to me.”