00:00:02 My name is Debbie Bedwell, I work in a dispatch department in Gibson’s Foods. Basically I’m responsible for training, picking customer’s orders, making sure customers get the right orders delivered at the right time to the highest possible standard. We send out pies, pasties and grapes and fruit and basically a whole range of different things, mainly sandwiches.
00:00:31 School, I wasn’t from, at the first couple of years I was good but then after that I wasn’t really, just went a bit off the rails, really, and then I realised then that after that you would have to go out and find a job and if you weren’t behaving and didn’t do things properly then obviously you wouldn’t be able to get a job anywhere that was any good. So, I just pulled myself away from that, really.
00:01:01 I did a course that I found interesting when I was in Skilful Work Experience and that was doing welding and metalwork and electrics so I did all of that. I thought that was quite interesting but then when I left school I went and did a training scheme doing that but then I applied for a few jobs unsuccessfully so I decided not to do that anymore. I went to work where my Nan worked at this other factory filling envelopes and that for different people and then I went to an agency who sent me here and then I was with the agency for 13 weeks and then Gibson’s took me on.
00:01:47 My first was quite interesting. I started on production on the production line but then I was in there for another three months and then one of the old production managers that used to work here, she told me there was job coming up in dispatch. She said I’d be good at it so she said put it in for that so I did and I got that job in dispatch. It was good getting it because then it was something more that I could do rather than being stuck on a production line and it was a lot more interesting, a lot better. I think if I’d have been left in production I don’t know what would have happened, if I’d have still been here now. It was interesting but I like different things. My job now is a lot more interesting. It’s more physical, more, you have to use your brain a bit more and sort things out more and you’ve got a bit more freedom as well.
00:02:47 It’s only eight people I’ve got, three in the back room and then I’ve got five pickers. I get on with them and we make it a friendly atmosphere but if I have to discipline them then they know that they will be disciplined. I had to last week. I had to do a disciplinary with one member of me staff who was caught doing something that he shouldn’t do. That’s the hardest part of your job, really, because you get to know everybody and know how they work and things and when they’re doing something which they shouldn’t be doing it’s hard to turn and then have to discipline them for it. It’s quite upsetting, really.
00:03:25 I’ve done what I’ve wanted to do. I’ve done everything that I’ve wanted to do so far. Obviously there’s still lots more to do. I don’t think I’d change anything. I want to be supervisor one day which hopefully that will happen soon and then move onto probably manager, dispatch manager. ENDS
Debbie Bedwell
Debbie Bedwell
My name is Debbie Bedwell, I work in a dispatch department in Gibson’s Foods. Basically I’m responsible for training, picking customer’s orders, making sure customers get the right orders delivered at the right time to the highest possible standard. We send out pies, pasties and grapes and fruit and basically a whole range of different things, mainly sandwiches.
School, I wasn’t from, at the first couple of years I was good but then after that I wasn’t really, just went a bit off the rails, really, and then I realised then that after that you would have to go out and find a job and if you weren’t behaving and didn’t do things properly then obviously you wouldn’t be able to get a job anywhere that was any good. So, I just pulled myself away from that, really.
I did a course that I found interesting when I was in Skilful Work Experience and that was doing welding and metalwork and electrics so I did all of that. I thought that was quite interesting but then when I left school I went and did a training scheme doing that but then I applied for a few jobs unsuccessfully so I decided not to do that anymore. I went to work where my Nan worked at this other factory filling envelopes and that for different people and then I went to an agency who sent me here and then I was with the agency for 13 weeks and then Gibson’s took me on.
My first was quite interesting. I started on production on the production line but then I was in there for another three months and then one of the old production managers that used to work here, she told me there was job coming up in dispatch. She said I’d be good at it so she said put it in for that so I did and I got that job in dispatch. It was good getting it because then it was something more that I could do rather than being stuck on a production line and it was a lot more interesting, a lot better. I think if I’d have been left in production I don’t know what would have happened, if I’d have still been here now. It was interesting but I like different things. My job now is a lot more interesting. It’s more physical, more, you have to use your brain a bit more and sort things out more and you’ve got a bit more freedom as well.
It’s only eight people I’ve got, three in the back room and then I’ve got five pickers. I get on with them and we make it a friendly atmosphere but if I have to discipline them then they know that they will be disciplined. I had to last week. I had to do a disciplinary with one member of me staff who was caught doing something that he shouldn’t do. That’s the hardest part of your job, really, because you get to know everybody and know how they work and things and when they’re doing something which they shouldn’t be doing it’s hard to turn and then have to discipline them for it. It’s quite upsetting, really.
I’ve done what I’ve wanted to do. I’ve done everything that I’ve wanted to do so far. Obviously there’s still lots more to do. I don’t think I’d change anything. I want to be supervisor one day which hopefully that will happen soon and then move onto probably manager, dispatch manager. ENDS
Debbie Bedwell is a Dispatch Operative at Gibsons Foods. She came to the company as an agency production line worker and one of the managers recommended her for a job in dispatch. "My job is now a lot more interesting. It's more physical, more, you have to use your brain a bit more and sort things out more and you've got a bit more freedom as well."
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