Women’s History Month

Interconex Employee Spotlight: Susan Barton

March 28, 2023

In honor of Women’s History Month, I reached out to our New York office General Manager, Susan Barton. Here are some insightful and inspirational highlights from our conversation:

This summer of 2023, will compute 22 years since Susan Barton joined Interconex, after a stint with CARTUS. Susan started out as an on-site liaison for Interconex and was invited to join our organization.

“And I decided to join Interconex.” And we’re happy that she did! ” I’m happy that I did as well,” she responds gleefully.

We asked her what has been one of the most challenging aspects of the moving industry.

So when we work in the business, we’re very much aware that things are going to happen, nothing’s going to go smoothly all the time. Trying to explain that to a transferee or the client can be difficult. So it’s really trying to set those expectations upfront, or going back to reconfirm the expectations – so someone’s aware, there are different steps that we have to go through. It can be difficult, but when it’s received properly, it can also be very rewarding because you’re helping to educate the transferee and the client about what happens with an international move.

As a company that prior to Covid 19, was somewhat reluctant to hire people to work remotely, once working from home became the standard, we benefited from it as a company. Susan has some insight on this as our New York office General Manager.

It’s a two-edged sword. Because yes, it showed that for our industry, you could work remotely – you could be just as effective as if you were in an office. I do think that having people in an office, perhaps not full-time, perhaps part-time, is a benefit – only because you are interacting with your peers, you get to hear things on a daily basis. Your ears could perk up and say, “Oh, I’ve got the same situation going on. How are you handling it? Or what have you found out?” And that’s missing. And I think that’s a valuable purpose of going into an office – is that share of information.

The collective learning that happens in a collaborative environment is harder to duplicate in a virtual setting. Human interaction can sometimes go missing. Because we don’t really sell a thing, we sell a service and it’s not a short-term thing – it’s a real investment – when people ask me what we do, I say, “We’re people-people!” That’s what we do!

I’d like to add that I think that anybody who does this job has to retain their sense of humor. You have to look times at the absurd, the bright side, however, you want to look at it – you’ve got to find something to laugh about. I find my mother is usually a good icebreaker, and when I talk to people, I say “Yes, I know, I live with my mother. She’s 95 and this and this and this.” And here I am 62 years old, she sends me to my room to work because I’m too loud!

Then I asked Susan for some final thoughts for the day:

Sometimes I wonder why I’ve stayed in this industry so long, but then when you look at it, it’s almost like, well, what would I have done instead? I think that there’s challenges, there’s disappointments, there’s upsetting days, but a lot of times, most of the time are good days. You’re always learning, you’re dealing with different people, you’re hearing about different aspects. It keeps you on your toes. So, I enjoy the industry. I enjoy being in the industry, and I hope the people on all our teams, all throughout Interconex enjoy what they’re doing.

And, realizing at the end of the day, what you’re doing is you’re helping someone get settled in a new home, starting a new chapter of their life. You’re an integral part of it. By getting them in, getting them settled and letting them know you care about getting their stuff there to them. So I think there’s a lot of joy, there’s a lot of satisfaction in what we do within our positions here.