Not Just Another Job: What I Found at Mainstay

Truthfully, I came back to Saskatoon for something much simpler than that.

I came home.

I wanted to be closer to my mom and dad, to my kids and their growing families, to the friends who still feel like they know me without needing an explanation. I grew up in Saskatchewan. This is where my roots are. And at a certain point, you stop pretending geography doesn’t matter. It does. Home has a pull to it, and eventually, you listen.

Career-wise, I wasn’t searching. At this stage, I’m not chasing titles or trying to prove anything. I’ve worked enough places to understand how most of them operate. There’s a rhythm to it—show up, do the work, keep things moving. Over time, a lot of those places start to feel the same.

You do your job well, but there’s always that quiet understanding that you’re filling a role. The expectations are clear, the structure is set, and there isn’t much room outside of it. You don’t question it too much. That’s just how the industry works.

So when I first started talking with the team at Mainstay, I wasn’t expecting anything drastically different.

But it didn’t take long to realize that it was.

Not in a big, flashy way. Nothing forced. It showed up in the small things first.

The conversations felt different. People took the time to listen—not just to respond, but to actually understand. There was space to think. Space to ask questions. Space to learn without feeling like you were slowing things down or stepping out of line.

And over time, those small things started to matter.

At Mainstay, people aren’t treated like positions on an org chart. They’re treated like people. Everyone brings their own background, their own experience, and their own way of approaching the work. Instead of trying to standardize that, the team leans into it.

There’s a respect for individuality here that you don’t always find in this industry.

And there’s trust.

You’re trusted to figure things out, to bring your experience to the table, to take ownership of what you’re doing. But you’re never left on your own. That balance—being supported without being micromanaged—is rare. You don’t realize how rare it is until you find it.

What surprised me the most is how much ownership people have, not just in their day-to-day work, but in how the company itself is growing.

My role here isn’t perfectly defined, and instead of that being uncomfortable, it’s actually one of the things I value most. We’re shaping it as we go. Together.

There’s a belief here that the people doing the work should have a hand in building how the work gets done. That kind of trust changes how you show up. You care more. You think differently. You invest yourself in a way that goes beyond just getting through the day.

You can also feel that Mainstay is growing.

There’s momentum—some might call it controlled chaos—but it’s intentional. There’s strong leadership, a supportive team, and a shared understanding that what we’re building matters.

It’s not something that needs to be said over and over again. You see it in how people treat each other. In how problems get solved. In how people show up, day after day, doing the work and backing each other up.

After being in this industry for as long as I have, I didn’t expect to find something that felt this different.

But I did.

And I’m glad I did.

If you’re at a point where you’re not necessarily looking for something new—but you’re open to something better, something more grounded, something that actually feels like a team within a real community—it might be worth taking a look.

I didn’t come here searching for it.

But I found it anyway.

Subscribe to receive real stories, lessons, and insights from the people behind the scenes.