00:00:02 My name's Graham McGhee and I'm a ticket examiner at Glasgow Central Station. You're not stuck in an office with this job, you get out and about and it's very varied. You get to meet many different wide and variant of people of all ages and I enjoy that. My Mum had always said to me, "Get through school, get a job," and that was it, you know, to get a job. So, when I went to secondary school I was, "Right, I'm here for four years. I'll get through this, do what I can, get to 16 and then I'm leaving to get a job."
00:00:36 The finances of the family weren't great so I was to get out and get a job, earn and bring money into the house. And that's the way I was kind of pushed along, and that's the way I thought. And that stuck with me for years because I've always, I've never been out of work for any more than two weeks and it's always been to earn money to look after my family and to this day I still go with that.
00:01:03 I couldn't wait to get out and start earning because, ok, I was earning money for family but I was also earning money for myself so I could then start doing the things I wanted to. Going to the football, going out with my friends, just doing normal everyday teenage things. And it was in a wholesale firm, a cash and carry, and it was just stacking shelves. So, I worked for them for five years doing much the same thing for the first couple then I started being a stock controller.
00:01:31 There was one day a rep came in to get an order and I hadn't counted the stock and my manager kind of tore a strip off me and said, "That should've been done," and I wasn't happy about it, being spoken to like that. So, during my break I went down the town just to get away from the place and I walked by the Army Careers and I went, "I'm going to give that a go." Walked in and applied.
00:01:59 The appealing side to the Army was it got me out of my home town. It got me away from the mundane because I had been working for five years, I had been doing the same things for five years. It was very repetitive so I wanted a change. My expectations when I joined the Army was to sign on and make a career for the rest of my life. It didn't quite work out that way. My wife had come along, I had...my daughter come along and being the way I am and I want to look after my family, I felt the amount of time I had to spend away from them was horrendous, really.
00:02:39 So, that kind of made me decide it was time to go and do something else. Believe it or not, I ended up back where I had previously been in the cash and carry. I walked into the Job Centre and I looked about for jobs and that one just jumped out at me. When I went and asked the man at the Job Centre what it was about he said, "That's Booker's Cash and Carry."
00:03:02 And I thought that is fate and I was sent for an interview that day. I walked into the office, it was my old boss and I started the next day. Within three weeks I was giving the staff on that floor jobs and within six months I was a supervisor. Within two years I was assistant manager. I moved branch, I moved up to Lanarkshire, a place Bellshill.
00:03:27 It worked alright but then the company sold off a couple of the branches. The one I was in being one because it was too small and we moved to a branch in Hamilton but there was too many people and the opportunities just dried up so I decided again I'm moving. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do and I was just on the internet one day looking through all the job websites and ScotRail popped up. And I thought, "The railways, my Dad was in the railway."
00:03:56 And I looked in and I had a wee look through all the jobs they had and I thought, "Ticket examiner sounds alright, doesn't sound too difficult. I can start at the bottom and then I can try and work up." And that was five months ago and here I am thoroughly enjoying it.
ENDS
Graham McGhee
Graham McGhee
My name's Graham McGhee and I'm a ticket examiner at Glasgow Central Station. You're not stuck in an office with this job, you get out and about and it's very varied. You get to meet many different wide and variant of people of all ages and I enjoy that. My Mum had always said to me, "Get through school, get a job," and that was it, you know, to get a job. So, when I went to secondary school I was, "Right, I'm here for four years. I'll get through this, do what I can, get to 16 and then I'm leaving to get a job."
The finances of the family weren't great so I was to get out and get a job, earn and bring money into the house. And that's the way I was kind of pushed along, and that's the way I thought. And that stuck with me for years because I've always, I've never been out of work for any more than two weeks and it's always been to earn money to look after my family and to this day I still go with that.
I couldn't wait to get out and start earning because, ok, I was earning money for family but I was also earning money for myself so I could then start doing the things I wanted to. Going to the football, going out with my friends, just doing normal everyday teenage things. And it was in a wholesale firm, a cash and carry, and it was just stacking shelves. So, I worked for them for five years doing much the same thing for the first couple then I started being a stock controller.
There was one day a rep came in to get an order and I hadn't counted the stock and my manager kind of tore a strip off me and said, "That should've been done," and I wasn't happy about it, being spoken to like that. So, during my break I went down the town just to get away from the place and I walked by the Army Careers and I went, "I'm going to give that a go." Walked in and applied.
The appealing side to the Army was it got me out of my home town. It got me away from the mundane because I had been working for five years, I had been doing the same things for five years. It was very repetitive so I wanted a change. My expectations when I joined the Army was to sign on and make a career for the rest of my life. It didn't quite work out that way. My wife had come along, I had...my daughter come along and being the way I am and I want to look after my family, I felt the amount of time I had to spend away from them was horrendous, really.
So, that kind of made me decide it was time to go and do something else. Believe it or not, I ended up back where I had previously been in the cash and carry. I walked into the Job Centre and I looked about for jobs and that one just jumped out at me. When I went and asked the man at the Job Centre what it was about he said, "That's Booker's Cash and Carry."
And I thought that is fate and I was sent for an interview that day. I walked into the office, it was my old boss and I started the next day. Within three weeks I was giving the staff on that floor jobs and within six months I was a supervisor. Within two years I was assistant manager. I moved branch, I moved up to Lanarkshire, a place Bellshill.
It worked alright but then the company sold off a couple of the branches. The one I was in being one because it was too small and we moved to a branch in Hamilton but there was too many people and the opportunities just dried up so I decided again I'm moving. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do and I was just on the internet one day looking through all the job websites and ScotRail popped up. And I thought, "The railways, my Dad was in the railway."
And I looked in and I had a wee look through all the jobs they had and I thought, "Ticket examiner sounds alright, doesn't sound too difficult. I can start at the bottom and then I can try and work up." And that was five months ago and here I am thoroughly enjoying it.
ENDS
Railway Train Conductor/ Railway Station Assistant
Age at filming:
46-55,
Employer's name:
ScotRail,
Job location:
Glasgow
Graham McGhee is a Ticket Examiner at Glasgow Central Station. It's always been important for Graham to provide for himself and his family, so he left school and went to work at a warehouse. 5 years later he was walking past an Army Career's Office and decided to give the armed forces a go thinking he would have a job for life "It didn't quite work out that way. My wife (and) my daughter come along and being the way I am... I felt the amount of time I had to spend away from them was horrendous, really."
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