Hello, I'm Bobby Harbuck! I grew up in the picturesque Augusta, Georgia area, just on the South Carolina side of the Savannah River. After graduating from Clemson University in 1992, I got married and moved to metro-Atlanta where I’ve been for half of my life. I've been happily married to Paige for 31 years, and we have two grown children, Randi and Bryce, who couldn’t be any different if purposely ordered from a catalog.

Randi (27), at 5'3", has a very structured, organized, reserved personality. Bryce (24), a towering 6'7", is a musically, and artistically, talented free spirit who “never meets a stranger”.

I am active in our church. I enjoy spending time outdoors, camping, and at the beach. Paige & I plan to start traveling now that our kids are grown, and she’s retired from teaching.

In April 2023, I joined SteelBlue in the Purchasing Department. My workdays are never boring because of the multitude of different directions I’m constantly pulled.  This forces a person to learn to organize and prioritize tasks and requests.  Otherwise, you run the risk of allowing constant interruptions to cause a loss of focus, which will turn into emergencies.

Purchasing at SteelBlue means direct interaction with nearly every department, from Scheduling/Inventory, Manufacturing, and Shipping/Receiving to Accounts Payable, and sometimes IT, Sales, and HR.

Each of the core values are extremely important for the success of SteelBlue.  However, the one that resonates most with me is Safety.  My degree was in Business Management with an emphasis on Industrial Safety and Health.  The benefits of safety are tangent to both our personal and work lives.

You may hear me talk about “the possibility, not the probability” that an accident can happen.  The definition of an accident is an “unplanned event causing unintended results”.  The thought I hope to leave with people when talking about probability and possibility is “It may not be probable that a workplace accident occurs to you, but it only takes that single, possible time to turn yours and others’ worlds upside down, forever.”

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It is refreshing to work for a company that lives the core values presented.  I see a team of employees who work toward success because a clear vision is shared, the “goings-on” are transparent, and folks are made to feel included because of open communications such as happens with town-hall meetings.  I truly feel SteelBlue values each member of this team and doesn’t view us simply as a “means to an outcome”.

I was proud to be able to use previous experience to source and obtain the new swing door hinge screws.  These screws, despite a small learning curve of figuring out how to utilize the self-drill tips, have sped up hinge installation on the shop floor.

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I don’t want to swap roles with anybody. My workdays, I’m sure, aren’t the only daily whirlwinds being navigated across the company. I’ll certainly say that I believe I can benefit from the adage of “walk a mile in his shoes…”.  A more thorough understanding of what constraints and expectations come with others’ workdays could help each of us better support our teammates.

The way anniversary dates are handled is a nice perk. I’ve had past experience with a policy that could cause a long wait for gain of additional vacation days. Using my own hire date of April as an example, I would have to wait 8 months to get an extra week of vacation upon reaching a “years of service” milestone. Those unlucky enough to have been hired any given January, for instance, would have to wait almost an extra year for their milestone reward. SteelBlue doesn't have this policy.

• SteelBlue is only the second “grown-up” job I’ve held since getting out of college 31 years ago (and I’ve not been here a year yet).I was a football walk-on at Clemson in the fall of 1987.
• I made the choice not to continue for two reasons. First, I was much too small to play on their offensive line; the only positions I’d ever played. Second, I needed a job to pay my way through school, so I got a job with the university Police Department.
• Buttermilk, asparagus, oyster stew, and rutabagas are, all, DISGUSTING!! (You’ve not had any regrets in life until you’ve made the choice to stay indoors when rutabagas are cooking. I always chose to go hungry when Mama cooked them because I couldn’t get past the smell)

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