Employee Profile - Joe de Leon

When patients and their families walk into Three Rivers Behavioral Health, Joe de Leon wants them to immediately feel comfortable with the surroundings.

"As housekeeping supervisor, I have one goal — to maintain a clean and safe environment. It's my number one priority that when patients staff, or visitors come through the door, they will be impressed by the appearance and the cleanliness of the hospital," de Leon says.

His devotion to meeting the highest standards has always been a part of de Leon's work ethic. As a teenager in the Philippines, he answered a call for recruits into the U.S. Navy in 1969. He passed all the requirements for enlistment, and though he intended to stay for just four years his plans soon changed. "I served in the Navy with pride," he says. "The job was so very important that I decided to make it a career." He stayed for 21 years, talking to sailors about continuing their own Navy careers and eventually moving on to finding new recruits.

"As a recruiter, you have a quota to meet every month," de Leon remembers. "No matter how much they raised my quota, I met it." In fact, de Leon was so valuable to his recruiting office, that they practically demanded that he stay on the first time he mentioned retirement.

When he finally did retire from the service in 1990, he went on to work as a corrections officer for South Carolina, and a stock manager for a department store before joining Three Rivers Behavioral, in West Columbia, S.C., in 2000.

He supervises a housekeeping staff of five, taking a methodical approach to each day's tasks, prioritizing and delegating jobs to ensure that patients and staff always have a safe and clean environment.

As he learned more about PSI, de Leon felt a great deal of pride in his association with the company, and put two of his artistic skills to work. A published poet, he sat down and wrote out a tribute to the work that PSI does, spelling each word out in beautifully flowing calligraphy. "It took me just one night," he says. "I just felt that I was happy to be a part of this company and wanted to write it all down."

His colleagues at Three Rivers Behavioral Health know all about de Leon's talents, and often call on his calligraphy skills. "If there's an awards certificate for an employee that needs to be filled out, somebody usually asks me to do that. I always say, 'Sure, no problem.'"

And with his easygoing demeanor, dedication and good cheer, it's a good bet that "Sure, no problem" is de Leon's answer to most requests for help.

Hometown: Paranaque, Rizal, Philippines
Current residence: Irmo, S.C.
Married: Since 1971 to Estelita
Children: John, a schoolteacher; James, a graphic arts designer; Jonathan, manager of KFC; Joy, U.S. Army medic, stationed in Iraq
Grandchildren: Josiah, Tabetha, Tasirose
Hobbies: Calligraphy, poetry, fishing