Our first Employee Spotlight of 2023 is Joe Pement. Joe joined the Total Solutions team as an accountant at the end of 2021. During his time at Total Solutions Joe has gone above and beyond to provide support for his clients as well supporting the rest of the accounting team. Joe brings a positive attitude and a strong work ethic to the team. Continue reading to learn more about Joe!
Favorite part of working at Total Solutions?
My favorite part about working here is being able to be involved in a number of different businesses and industries at the same time. Keeps things fresh and you learn a lot in a short amount of time!
What has been your proudest moment working at Total Solutions?
My proudest moments have been when I’ve been able to help clients simplify frustrating processes. Helping them automate data-entry tasks or eliminate redundant effort is very satisfying and helps everyone save time and money.
What Total Solutions client do you think everyone should visit?
The Rust Belt in East Moline! I’m a music lover so helping to get awesome bands in town is one of my favorite parts of the job.
What would you be doing for a career if you weren’t doing your job?
Being a semi-professional musician while doing just enough accounting to prevent starvation. I play drums, and bass, and sing with a few rock n’ roll and heavy metal groups and love playing on stage!
What is the best career lesson you have learned?
Healthy conflict. Being able to address nonfunctional processes and problem situations in a productive way is far more valuable than technical skills.
What is something you learned in the last week?
While serving on my church’s audit committee last week, I learned about special clergy tax withholding regulations while examining their payroll documentation. Tax is a field where there are always more niche cases than any one person can remember, which is why I believe having a tax professional familiar with your specific industry is critical.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I love playing music with my friends and running tabletop roleplaying games such as Dungeons & Dragons and Call of Cthulhu.
What is one thing you can’t live without?
To my shame, I can’t live without my phone. I’m addicted to this thing! One of my new year’s goals is to stop scrolling through social media without a set stop time.
What is your favorite place to be?
On stage behind my drum kit. It’s a blast!
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
In relation to personal choice, “It is what it is” is usually a useless phrase. Quite often it is what you’ve let it be or what you’ve made it to be. Growth happens when you act mindfully that the “future you” and those around you will be better or worse off based on your current choices.
What would your autobiography be called?
“Insert Clever Title Here”
If you could be any fictional character, who would you choose?
The version of me that gets 8 hours of sleep every night!
If you could have dinner with any 3 people dead or alive who would you choose?
My 3 siblings. I enjoy spending time with them and I don’t often get the chance to have us all in the same place with our busy lives.
What’s the worst style choice you’ve ever made?
I don’t have enough fashion sense to know the answer, which is a little scary. It could be my current style!
If you have to sing karaoke, which song are you picking?
Probably Shinedown – Diamond Eyes, Halestorm – I Miss the Misery, or Slipknot – Wait and Bleed. Or the Gambler by Kenny Rodgers. If I’m with my musician friends, I’ll sing something “normal” but if there are people who don’t regularly hear me scream and growl, that’s exactly what I’m doing!