Not sure what I do if there wasn’t a Labor Ready in town.

The sun was just peeking over the tops of the buildings to the east, giving Chris Bridges’ face an orange glow as he stood. He cast a long shadow in the concourse of the under-construction annex building at the University of Georgia. It was 6:50 a.m. and his workers from Labor Ready had just pulled up in the parking lot. "The thing about Labor Ready workers is they’re always here on time, first thing," said Chris, assistant superintendent with Atlanta-based Choate Construction. "And it’s so simple. Just call up the night before and however many workers I need will be here front and center at 6:50 a.m."

Bridges and his team will be at the U of G for another year working on this building, which will serve as a training facility for the Bulldogs’ basketball teams. Our Athens branch is busily supplying them workers, sometimes as many as eight a day.

"I make a point of sending our best workers to them, always making sure that they’re completely equipped with the correct safety gear," said Athens Branch Manager Tonya Jackson. "Usually, they let us know the night before how many they’re going to need, but I’ve had workers out to them with as little as an hour’s notice."

Chris said he’s not too sure what he’d do if there wasn’t a Labor Ready in town.

"Hiring people on full time doesn’t make sense. If we hire somebody here in Athens, are they going to want to go with us when we finish this job and go to a new job in Nashville or Charlotte? I guess I could put an ad in the Athens Banner Herald for temporary workers if there wasn’t a Labor Ready here. But then I’d have the hassle of interviewing people and doing the drug tests, and I’d have to pay for workers’ comp, which is something Labor Ready covers. To be honest with you, I don’t know what I’d do. I guess I’d be out there doing all the jobs that the Labor Ready workers do for us.

"In other words, I’m very thankful that I can rely on Labor Ready."