Diana Triana can be plainly described as compassionate, devoted, and reliable—traits that are cherished in the workplace. These exact character marks have made her successful in her dual role as an AffinEco Area Manager and Administrative Assistant. As a manager, she embodies patience and strives to put her team first above all. As an Administrative Assistant, she demonstrates attention to detail and the ability to handle various tasks at once. These qualities have helped her earn praise from her bosses and recognition in this season’s AffinEco newsletter.
Triana has worked for AffinEco for more than five years. She initially came on as a supervisor, then was tapped to support office staff in East Hartford during the daytime.
As she describes it, “[During] the day, I work in the office as an administrative assistant. I work with the payroll, closing work tickets, creating orders, contacting the suppliers, talking to customers and employees.”
She also supervises two large, class A buildings – one of which is a 14-story building that spans 275,000 square feet; the other is a five-story, 99,000 sq. ft. facility. It’s a job she handles with care and executes with consistent encouragement and communication for her team.
“At night, I work as an area supervisor. One of the buildings that I have is a state (owned) building and we have 10 people during the day. At night, we have eight,” Triana explained, adding AffinEco secured the contract to service the building three years ago. Triana said some team members can be intimidated by the size of the building. “So, I try to show them there is enough time to handle the work. If I can do it, you can do it as well. There’s plenty of time to do it.”
Triana says the people are what she loves most about working at AffinEco. They’re not only colleagues, they’re confidants. She says people have an immense level of trust in one another.
“It’s really nice, the teamwork. People you can trust and people that you can talk to. Every day we have something to talk about and [we] cheer about our experiences during the day,” Triana said. “Everybody helps everybody here… It is really good to work with them.”
Triana recalled how the pandemic worried many of her teammates at first, but with her reassurance and faith in new company protocols, workers kept safe. “It was kind of challenging because people were really afraid about everything, so [I tried] to encourage everybody to come to work and do as much as we can.”
She said the employees felt safe because of the PPE the company provided and because the building was not too crowded. “[The pandemic] did have an effect, but we know what to do and continued to do it.”
AffinEco Vice President and General Manager Sandino Cifuentes acknowledged Triana’s ability to take care of several tasks at once and noted her work attendance is stellar.
“She’s a multi-tasker who never misses a day, other than scheduled vacation.”
He also recognized her “consistency and dependability” as the primary qualities that steer her exemplary work performance.
“Not long ago, we were short an area manager for over four months, she stepped in, along with two other managers, to cover the responsibilities without ever complaining,” Cifuentes said.
Triana says her time at AffinEco has helped her realize the extent of her capabilities. “When I came here, I was just looking for a job. And I found a great opportunity to start here,” Triana said, recalling the “step by step” process that eventually led to her role as an administrative assistant. “[It] was like a surprise. I was able to do it so I was like, ‘Okay I’ll do it.’ After some years, it became like my second home. Now, it’s like my first home, and I’m very happy.”
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