Longtime Bradenton employee bucks the norm by spending 40 years with the same company
In an era when frequent job changes are the norm, Bonnie Wilson seems to be the exception to the rule.
Wilson, customer service manager for Air & Energy, joined the company at its inception 40 years ago on Anna Maria Island.
These days, the median number of years workers stay with their current employer is 4.1 years as of January 2022, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Thursday, company owners Stewart and Trudy Moon, and Wilson’s co-workers toasted Wilson on her four decades with the company, which provides air conditioning, plumbing and electrical service.
“You’ve been here longer than I’ve been alive,” said Stewart Moon Jr., who runs Air & Energy with his mother, Trudy.
Other co-workers cited her calmness under pressure, her passion for her work and the fact that she is fun to be around.
They also talked about how well she knows her customers.
“It doesn’t matter day or night, she will call you and ask you to go help a customer,” one service technician said.
Bradenton employee celebrates four decades
Wilson, 66, says her co-workers are her family.
Plus, it has been fun to see the company grow so much after the Moons bought it, she said.
The Moon family was so impressed with how Air & Energy serviced their home air conditioner that they bought the company in 1991.
“If you find a place that you like, and somebody who looks after you, you should stick with it,” Wilson said. “There was nothing better out there, and I never figured I needed to look elsewhere.”
Wilson joined the company before computers became commonplace in offices, before the arrival of the internet.
“I’ve learned and unlearned a million things,” she said of changes in technology and procedures over the years. “So many people have come and gone.”
“Bonnie held us together for so many years. We have been blessed with employees who have stayed with us through thick and thin,” Trudy Moon said.
Air & Energy has grown so strongly that in 2015 it moved from a cramped space on Anna Maria Island to 555 Sixth Ave. W., in downtown Bradenton. The centralized location has made it easier to serve more of Manatee County.
One more thing that Wilson wants her co-workers to know: “I am not retiring.”
