Her Story
About Elaine
I've spent my entire career in customer service, working with people and making sure they have great experiences. For the past 25 years, I've been an usher with Local 176 union, primarily at Madison Square Garden where I just received my 25-year ring. I've also worked at Nassau Coliseum, Coney Island Cyclones, and spent 22 years at the US Open tennis tournament in Queens until my husband passed away in 2022. I work the ADA platform at the Garden now because I have bad knees and ankles from years of standing, and I love working with those customers. I have my own customer service trick where I ask everybody where they're from, so by the time I get my people seated, I know New York is sitting next to Jersey, which is sitting next to France, and I tell them about each other so everybody talks and is friendly. Before retiring from the airline industry around 2012-2013, I worked for an airline in ticketing and reservations. I also spent 10 years doing customer service at Siegerman's Furniture. I've received customer service awards and been named a 'rock star' twice for getting letters from customers. Beyond my day job, I'm starting a podcast called Peanut Butter Toast, just silly stuff to get me out of the house and help with my depression after losing my husband. I've been taking comedy classes at the Magnet theater since 2017, studying improv, comedy, and clown for at least 6 years. I also took stand-up comedy courses at the Brooklyn Comedy Collective before COVID and performed at the Brick theater. I like helping people and making them smile. That's what I do best.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Elaine
01What do you attribute your success to?
I believe you can never be too kind. A nun told me that once in high school, and I probably mocked her back then, but it really fits. I think all people are the same, and they're the same as you. That's how you handle people, especially in customer service. If you put yourself in their position, it's much easier to know what to do. You know in your heart, if it was you, what you'd want to happen. If you handle everything from that point, it works. In customer service, it's more empathy than anything else. I like helping people, I make people smile, and I know I do my job pretty well.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
My father on his deathbed said, join a union and never get married. It was a joke, but I repeated it for years and years. He told me to always join the union and never get married. The other best advice I got was from a nun in high school who told me that you can never be too kind. I probably mocked her back then, but it really fits now.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Humor doesn't hurt. All people are the same, they really are, and they're the same as you. That's how you handle people, especially in customer service. If you put yourself in their position, it's much easier. You know in your heart, if it was you, what you would want to happen. If you handle everything from that point, you'll do well. In sales, they tell you to say yes, yes, yes, but in customer service, it's more empathy than anything else.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
In any union, you can go into different positions. You could be on the board of directors, you could be the person that deals with money, or you could be the person that takes notes at union meetings. There's always a place to go in unions. I'm not really one of those kind of people, but I still believe in doing a good job, whatever you do. In the end, it all boils down to keeping one foot in front of the other. I'm still walking that beat to work, and I'm still doing stuff on the side, like the comedy. It doesn't hurt to take a class here and there for your own soul. You don't have to necessarily go to college to take a side class.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I believe in kindness. I know it's not mostly popular, but I think you can never be too kind. A nun told me that once, and I probably mocked her back in high school, but it really fits now. I like helping people and making people smile. I try to be green and use public transportation because it's better for the environment and better for the world. I believe we need to support each other as women, we need to be together. There's so much going on in the world against us. It's good for us to help each other. I went to an all-girls Catholic school, and I never realized how influential that is in my trust for women, because a strong woman on your side, you got a force to be reckoned with.
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