Employee ownership made my retirement possible; let’s make every worker an owner

In August of 1975, I was looking for work and a friend told me a building supply company in the Chicago suburbs was hiring. I entered through the back door, interviewed and was hired to work in the warehouse stocking shelves, picking out orders and receiving products.

August at Parksite turned into the end of the year, which turned into the end of the next year, and … the next 41 years.

Here’s why I stayed so long. Little by little, my duties expanded. I started buying inventory, managing inventory and hiring people in the warehouse. I jumped in the truck and was a full-time driver for nearly five years. We were small in those early days, about 10 people. And everyone chipped in. At the time, our marketing department didn't exist. We wanted to start creating ads and brochures. So, I did that. I even ran out on a few sales calls with a colleague, but after a couple of angry customers, I decided that wasn’t for me. I stayed focused on the operational side of the business.

The company grew. When Dupont came out with a product called Tyvek that was being used in the medical industry for sterile packaging, our original founder realized it could be used to wrap homes and conserve energy. That application of Tyvek changed building practices around the world. We added that and other products and took on more territory, expanding throughout Illinois and into Ohio and Florida.

Parksite was a great place to work, but it was about to get even better. About 15 years after I started, one of the two founders decided to retire. When we first heard of his plans, we couldn’t believe our ears. Instead of selling his stake to an investor, he wanted to make us — the employees — owners via an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, a qualified retirement plan that gives tax benefits to companies that share ownership with employees. I'm guessing nobody knew at the time, but the work culture established by the founders in the early years at Parksite would later make for a seamless transition to an employee ownership business model.

It sounded too good to be true. But there it was, alongside our 401(k), and we didn’t have to pay a penny out of our pockets. All that was required from the employees was to give your best effort each and every day, in whatever role you were in. In those early years, we’d get our ESOP statement, review it, appreciate its growing share value, then put it in the drawer and get back to work. Not really thinking about it again until next year.

But year after year, we’d get the statements and see the accounts grow as the company grew. We added still more products, more territory and began acquisitions of other companies. As the company grew so did the roles and responsibilities of its employees. Twenty-five years into my career at Parksite, I became vice president of logistics.

In 1997, our other founder retired and we became 100% employee owned. The older I got, the more I grew to appreciate that ESOP statement every year. As I was approaching 60, the balance had grown to the point where I started to think I might be able to retire. I had some health issues and the ESOP enabled me to think about retirement sooner than I would have imagined in a million years.

In 2016, I retired, at 61. My wife and I bought a house in Estero, Florida, just south of Fort Myers, and kept our house in the Chicago area. We spend winters in Florida and summers in Illinois. I’ve probably renovated every square inch of both houses. I love the next home project. We're not doing any spectacular, headline things. We're conservative people. We travel. I get to play all the golf I want, jump on a flight and visit the kids and grandkids for their birthdays, a big game or special event. We also find ourselves in the position to do things for the kids and grandkids I never thought we’d be able to do — in the near term, and, I hope, even the long term.

It's all so simple. And wonderful. And all too rare in today’s America. Most Americans have little to nothing saved for retirement, and retiring early, like I did, is out of the question. My wife and I talk about it all the time. We now have options that most people just don’t have at our age. It’s not just us: the kids, grandkids and even extended family will have options because of the wealth we’ve been able to build.

And it’s because of the ESOP. It’s a phenomenal benefit that, unfortunately, is not nearly widespread enough. There are about 6,500 ESOPs across the country, including 314 in Illinois. A new national coalition seeks to change that and turn workers into owners of every company in the country. I am excited to lend my voice to that effort.

My retirement may seem boring to some. If only everyone could be so bored.

• Steven Schmidt of Geneva retired from employee-owned Parksite, a wholesale distributor of building materials, in 2016 after 41 years on the job.