Working with your mom can be Bliss

Vicky Bails and her mom, Alma, have both used their talents to make Pantex great.

It’s important to see people who look like us and who we can identify with both to mentor and to help us grow in the workplace. Compliance, Assessments, and Analysis Lead Assessor Vicky Bails took that quite literally, as her mentor and hero at Pantex was her mom, Alma Bliss.

Bliss worked at Pantex from the late 1970s until she retired in 1994. She spent most of her career in Purchasing, which is now named Procurement. She told Bails stories of old, like rattlesnakes in Building 16-12 and the van pool she took from their home near Lake Tanglewood to Pantex, which was exactly 29.5 miles from her front door to the parking lot. When reflecting on her mom’s retirement, Bails recalls how sad she was to be leaving.

“It was really hard for her to leave and walk away from her team and the work that they did. She always told me it was a family out here, and I got to see that. I got to go on site many times to eat lunch with my mom. I got to go to her department Christmas parties. They really lived like a family. I was part of the Pantex family before I could even remember.”

As Bails prepared to start a family of her own, her mother encouraged her to apply at Pantex. She knew it was a good way to provide for a family and knew Pantex treated families well. Not long after starting her position in Information Technology in 1992, Bails met her husband Tony, who worked in her brother’s department. Two of Bails’ brothers have also worked at Pantex.

“It has been continual blessings. I got a bachelor’s degree for less than $500 because of the educational assistance. Additionally, we had a really sick child when he was first born, and our supervisors were very kind and understanding through the whole process.”

Though mom and daughter were in different organizations for the two-and-a-half years they worked together, there were lessons learned that translated across departments.

“My mom told me to let my work prove my worth. Because my dad died and left her with four children, she had to work. She had to be a very hard and dedicated person. I think I took after her in that respect.”

Since Bails has worked at Pantex, she has worked in Information Technology, Operations, Safeguards and Security, Engineering, and now Quality. No matter where she works, people love to tell stories of her late mother.

“She made people toe the line, and if they didn’t, she would let them know. I’ve heard countless stories about people who still revere her. Even when she was not the one in charge of the department, people say she ran that place.”

As an organization filled with people who take great pride in our history, it is easy to forget that generations of Pantexans have come through the gates. Though there are many lineages that span three generations of men at Pantex, there are far fewer women whose mothers or grandmothers worked at Pantex despite the majority of the workforce being women at Pantex during World War II. Generations of women being raised by Pantexans now are the future. As of today, Pantex is the proud employer of more than 1,000 women who play a critical role to further the success of the Pantex mission.