My name is Allison McDonough. This past May I concluded my first year of college at The University of Detroit Mercy where I’m studying political science and playing division 1 lacrosse. Returning home for the summer; the opportunity of having an internship with At Your Service Employee Leasing and Payroll Services was presented to me. Going through the application and interviewing process was nerve wracking; with no true experience in the field I feared I wouldn’t be qualified enough. Yet I was hired and this opportunity has morphed into the most influential, beneficial, and eye opening experience of my life so far.

My intern duties didn’t match those of the normal internship. I didn’t fetch coffee or file papers. The members of the AYS Team treated me as an equal and quickly took me in as part of their family. The healthy and positive work space environment they created transpired into me being excited and motivated to come and give my best effort, something that is very rare in most workplaces. Now my responsibilities within this workplace ranged from writing blogs, keeping the social media updated (I mean what else are millennials good at?), and researching different client prospects, which are all important and helpful tasks. The amount of trust they put into me and my work allowed me to blossom and be creative and useful. They wanted the best for me just like they do for all of their clients.

One of the greatest lessons learned from my time spent at AYS was to treat your clients with the highest level of dignity and respect. Not everyone really understands what an Employee Leasing and Payroll Companies do. So because of this large grey area, the bigger payroll companies took advantage of the opportunity and over charged its clients. Not only are they over charging them, but they are overcharging them for work being done by some entry level employee who is receiving $10 an hour and learning from a manual. AYS saw the wrong in that, thus creating the same services for an affordable flat fee price and more personal and hands on support from their payroll company. They have dedicated their lives to providing a service that supports small business and serves the community they live in. In a world that is so greedy and everyone always being out for only themselves, working for those who truly care about the individual success of all of their clients is refreshing and taught me what is really important while running your own business.

As my summer and internship comes to a close and I prepare to travel back to school, I go with not only a better understanding of how business works, but of how people should work. Working at AYS has shown me how to cultivate a great work environment, how to keep your clients happy, and most importantly, how to promote your clients success while building your own. I couldn’t be more thankful to have been a part of such a welcoming and fantastic team, all while learning skills and lessons that are not only going to better me as a person, but also as a future business owner.