Virginia Beach firm surprises workers with big bonus

Helen Ulmer wasn't expecting much more than free food and entertainment when she went to her company holiday party Saturday evening.

What she got was a check for $10,000 - about half of her yearly salary.

Paramount Builders Inc., a Virginia Beach-based home remodeling firm, doled out bonus checks ranging from $5,000 to $75,000 to 47 employees at its party.

"I almost passed out when they told me how much," said Ulmer, 45, who has worked as a door-to-door marketer for the company for a decade. "I can't even wrap my mind around having that much money."

All told, the bonuses amounted to $1 million.

Ed Augustine, the company's founder and CEO, said he'd been planning for months to surprise his employees with the bonuses, which went to workers who had been at the company for at least five years.

"The economy is brutal," he said. "I've got employees who have lost their homes this year. Some who have to take a bus to get to work. I just thought about these folks and how hard they work. Sometimes I sit around and think about how I could survive on the salaries these people live on."

For Paramount, which had about $17 million in revenue last year, coming up with an extra $1 million wasn't easy, Augustine said.

He set aside what money he could devote to the bonuses. For the rest, Augustine took out a loan.

"We're going to have to work very hard and pay some of this back," Augustine said. "Over 20 years, we've saved our money and invested, and now we've stretched ourselves back out there. But you know what, to be there Saturday night, it was worth it."

Ulmer, who makes about $10 an hour at Paramount, said the $10,000 bonus will make buying Christmas gifts for her family a little easier. It'll also help her with bills.

"I'm a working girl," she said. "I live paycheck to paycheck. My car has started acting up, and I haven't been able to get it worked on. My daughter has been battling cancer, and I have medical bills to pay."

Mike Finley, the company's vice president of sales, was one of three people who received a bonus of $75,000. He's been working for Paramount since 1995.

"I think I ran the gamut of emotions that everyone went through - from completely being stunned to seeing people's lives change in front of your eyes," said Finley, 54. "For it to come now, it's way more meaningful than it would have been at any other time."

The money will allow him to catch up on a stack of medical bills and to contribute to charities, including the Wish-A-Fish Foundation, which funds fishing trips for children with special needs.

"For me, as much as anything, it just cements the fact that I've been working for and with a great group of people," Finley said.

Josh Brown, (757) 446-2318, josh.brown@pilotonline.com