Stability, a great team and the ability to care for his family drew David Ursetta to an Information Technology career at Denver Water. 

Then, 17 years later, similar reasons drew his daughter, Gianna Gonzales, to join him at the utility in 2022 as a business operations senior support person for its Public Affairs team. 

“I’m so glad Gianna works at Denver Water, and not just because I get to see her when we’re both in the building,” Ursetta said. “She has the job stability I wanted early in my career. It makes me and her mother so happy.”

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Ursetta started working in the fledgling tech industry in the 1980s, a turbulent time when companies grew rapidly and some failed just as quickly.

“I lost my job five different times in those early days,” Ursetta said. “I was out of work for nine months at one point.” 

Between jobs, he stayed home and cared for his young daughter, Gianna, and son, David. He’d take Gianna to and from kindergarten and throw backyard picnics and living room puppet shows. 

Fast-forward to today, and Ursetta’s job-hopping days are long gone. Instead, he’s thinking ahead to his future retirement, having worked as an IT support senior specialist at Denver Water since 2005. 

However, having his daughter as a co-worker for the past few years has been an experience both have absolutely loved, especially when they think back to Ursetta’s earlier days in tech and how stressful it was for the entire family. 

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“I was really little and I remember times Papa would come home early from work, even before lunch,” Gonzales said. “Mom would say, ‘Why are you home? Did you get laid off again?’” 

“It was that frequent. His shoulders would slump, my parents would look stressed, and I’d know what the answer was,” Gonzales said.

Ursetta resigned himself to job turnover turmoil as just the way of life in the tech industry.

“After I finished my training at the Denver Institute of Technology, I got my first job. Then there was the tech crash in 1981, and I was laid off after I’d been there about a year. After that, I moved around to wherever I could find a job,” Ursetta said. 

Looking for a good fit that was stable, Ursetta tried different fields. 

“I worked in the medical field in technology research and development, then in data storage, and later in finance for a banking company that worked on ATM and bank teller equipment,” Ursetta said. 

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Fortunately, Ursetta’s wife, Joni, had a stable career for over 18 years working in communications at Mountain Bell and later, for US West. But both Ursetta and Gonzales remember those days by the financial challenges the family faced.

“We found free clinics for getting our children immunizations and physicals,” Ursetta said. 

“At one point in elementary school, I had free and reduced lunches because of Papa’s job situation, which was so precarious,” Gonzales said.

For a time, Ursetta worked at a storage technology company along with several family members. Ursetta thought he’d finally found a steady paycheck and a great work environment.

“That was such a fun time. My cousins worked with my dad, and sometimes they would stay at our house overnight to skip the commute to work,” Gonzales said. “It was great having everyone around.”

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How IT keeps Denver Water flowing.

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Then came Sept. 11, 2001, the day terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger planes. Two were flown into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in New York City, one crashed into the Pentagon and the fourth crashed in a Pennsylvania field. The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people and injured an additional 6,000.

Ursetta’s company, the one that he’d hoped would be stable, had a major client based in the World Trade Center. Ultimately, Ursetta’s employer would go out of business, and he would be unemployed — again.

Ursetta decided to transition into Information Technology, having earned his associate degree during night school when he was a stay-at-home dad. He’d completed Microsoft training to better understand software systems along with hardware. 

He also changed his approach to finding a job.

“I started thinking about jobs where people were always going to be needed, like government, hospitals and water utilities,” Ursetta said. 

His first “real” IT job was with the Colorado Department of Revenue, working with the gaming and revenue section within the agency. Ursetta frequently went up to Blackhawk and Cripple Creek to support agents who work for the state and monitor the industry. 

“It was such a big deal to us kids,” Gonzales said. “Papa worked at the casinos. How cool is that?”

“I would bring home playing cards the casinos couldn’t use anymore, which had holes drilled through them, and give them to the kids,” Ursetta said. “It completely cracked me up. They thought that was just the best thing ever.”

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At the state, Ursetta thought he’d found a job he liked with the solid pay and benefits he needed for his family. Then he saw a job posting for an IT position at Denver Water and applied. 

“When I got offered the job at Denver Water (in 2005), the amount of money I had to pay for health insurance was cut in half and I got a 25% salary increase,” Ursetta said. “There was no way I could turn that down.” 

And when Ursetta talked about how great it was to work at Denver Water, his daughter listened. 

Though not as volatile as her father’s early years in his career, Gonzales would deal with her own challenges finding a career path, one with a good salary that was also interesting and fulfilling.

After graduating from the University of Colorado Boulder with a business marketing degree and a desire to work in advertising, Gonzales worked random jobs due to a tight job market. At one point, a colleague mentioned Gonzales would be a good teacher. 

“I’d never thought about teaching, but that sounded interesting,” Gonzales said. “Every day would be different, and I could use my management skills and creativity mentoring students.”

Gonzales went back to school at University of Colorado Denver to get the additional credits she needed to teach math and her master’s degree. While she went to school, Gonzales worked part-time as a receptionist where she originally envisioned herself — in an advertising agency.

“I really loved the agency, which was such a great environment,” Gonzales said. “They were even starting to talk with me about working with client accounts.”

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But she had to choose: Stay with the agency? Or accept her first teaching job at her alma mater, Pomona High School in Arvada?

Ready to teach, Gonzales started her new career as a math teacher. And it was anything but easy.

“The school created a new class to help high school seniors who needed their math credits to graduate,” Gonzales said. “Some of these students had previously failed one or two math classes before getting to my classroom.”

It was up to Gonzales to help them learn — and pass — math. As a brand-new teacher, it was a difficult year.

She found her footing and stayed in that job for four years. She loved being a teacher, got more comfortable managing a classroom and branched out to teach student council, mentoring more students. 

“I thought about leaving teaching, then I accepted an offer to teach junior high math at Evergreen Middle School,” Gonzales said. 

But the not-so-great things about teaching were overwhelming. Stress. Anxiety. Student issues. Mean parents. Security threats. School shootings.

“Her mother and I were concerned,” Ursetta said. “Gianna had worked so hard to get there and she was a great teacher. But I didn’t know if I wanted her to stay in that job.”

Then Gonzales became a mom to Elliana, who is now 3 years old, and she wanted more flexibility. 

How did she make the jump to Denver Water? 

“It’s my dad’s fault,” Gonzales said. 

“True, totally my fault,” Ursetta responded. “I kept sending her job postings at Denver Water, telling her, apply for this one, apply for this one. I think she applied for three different jobs?” 

“Not even close,” Gonzales said. “It was way more than that.”

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Gonzales wasn’t deterred. She kept applying and kept being turned down for jobs, something she attributed back to herself. 

“Honestly, I seem to have a history of doing terrible in interviews,” Gonzales said. 

However, feedback from a different Denver Water employee made a difference.

“I had interviewed for a job at Denver Water and didn’t get an offer, but one of the people I interviewed with responded to my thank you email,” Gonzales said. 

“She told me to keep an eye out for other job openings, because she thought I’d be a great fit at Denver Water. It was a huge confidence boost.”

When Ursetta sent Gonzales yet another job posting at Denver Water, she was intrigued to see it was in Public Affairs, the group that works with the utility’s customers and stakeholders. That felt more like the environment she loved at the advertising firm.

“I read the job description, which I thought I could do, and then saw the salary range, which was way more than my teacher’s salary,” Gonzales said. “I thought, there’s no way they’ll interview me, but I applied anyway.”

She was happily surprised to get a phone interview — which she thought she flunked — and was floored when she got an in-person interview. The interview felt great, though Gonzales couldn’t tell if she’d nailed it or bombed it again.

Looking at the calendar only increased her stress. It was late July 2022, with the start of a new school year looming weeks away. It was almost time for Gonzales to return to the classroom.

“Waiting to hear about the Denver Water job was tough. If I was going to make a change, I needed to let my school know immediately,” Gonzales said. 

The week after her in-person interview, Denver Water called to offer her the job.

“I was at my parents’ house with Elliana, and when I hung up the phone after talking to Human Resources, my mom was waiting, just looking at me,” Gonzales said. “I told her what they offered, including the salary, vacation and benefits. We both just started crying!”

“I was at work,” Ursetta said, beaming. “I missed this!”

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It took years of perseverance for Gonzales to get a job at Denver Water. Was it worth it?

A huge smile on her face, Gonzales simply said, “Yes.” 

“I get to work with the best team at Denver Water,” Gonzales said. “The Public Affairs team is so energetic and creative, and while they work really hard, they still make the workday fun with so much laughter. I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else.”

While they work in different areas, both father and daughter make a point to connect during the workday, and Ursetta is always happy to help troubleshoot any IT questions whenever needed.

“There are busy days when one of us doesn’t swing by the other’s desk or send a quick note, and then it’s entertaining to see a chat pop up from her saying, ‘What, you’re not going to say hi today?’” Ursetta said. 

Gonzales said the most frequently asked question from her dad is about his granddaughter. When Gonzales goes into the office, Elliana stays at Ursetta’s house with his wife.

“Papa always wants to know who is on pickup duty, me or my husband, Bret,” Gonzales said. “If Bret’s on point, he has enough time to get home and see Elliana after work. It’s pretty adorable.”

With Ursetta thinking ahead to his next gig as full-time grandfather, he understandably has a big goal in mind.

“I can’t wait to spend more time with my granddaughter.”