In Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger’s (D-Md.) office, commonly known as “Team Dutch,” it comes as no surprise that new hires and promotions are a group affair.

“We do everything by group,” said communications director Heather Molino, demonstrating that credo herself as she sat in on an interview about the office’s two new hires and one recent promotion. “The congressman really likes the group concept.”

So far, so do the team’s newest and most recently promoted members. The new hires are Kristin Barcak, a government and business liaison, and Amanda Bregman, a staff assistant. The promotion went to Maya Hermann, who rose from staff assistant to legislative correspondent and speechwriter.

Bregman, 22, was hired for Ruppersberger last summer and got a taste of “Team Dutch” on her first day, which happened to fall on the office’s annual retreat on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

“I was like, ‘Oh, OK, what am I getting into?’ ” said Bregman. “But I think [in] this office … everyone seems to get along. It makes you feel really comfortable coming into this office.”

Bregman coordinates the office’s interns, processes flag requests, gives tours of the Capitol and handles other office odds and ends. There is just one aspect of the office’s team environment that Bregman has not yet adopted: The congressman encourages everyone to call him Dutch. Bregman, a Southerner who graduated from the College of Charleston, cannot bring herself to do it.

“I don’t really call him anything,” she said, explaining that where she comes from, superiors are called “Sir” or “Ma’am.”

Barcak, another College of Charleston graduate, is the newest addition. She started in January after launching an aggressive phone campaign to secure the job.

“She’s very assertive, and she called me several times,” Molino said.

Barcak, 22, works out of the congressman’s Timonium, Md., district office, attending community events and debriefing Ruppersberger on other local goings-on.