Facilities Manager
Lewisham Council

Fresia C

00:00:04 My name is Fresia C, and my job title is Facilities Manager. I look after the corporate cleaning contract, and also the corporate security contract. And added on to that, I also look after the common parts within a building, to ensure that it’s safe for staff to use, and it covers all the Health and Safety Regulations. Just part of one element of my job, and that is to ensure that the buildings that I look after are compliant for fire evacuation, and making sure that staff are trained in the use of fire evacuation equipment. And making sure that fire evacuation equipment up to standard, and are tested regularly, and so on.

00:00:48 I stayed at school until I was 16, and then had to start thinking about career options. I was never actually told about A-Levels, or to move on to A-Levels, so I decided that I wanted to go out to work. So I went to the Careers Office, and we had some advice about, you know, what’s the best route I could take. And as an Admin Assistant was one of the routes that they suggested. And I got 6 jobs, so I just looked at the 6, and decided, well which one pays the most? And that’s the job I went for, and that was at the Cabinet Office at Whitehall, and I was there for two years.

00:01:27 I decided I wanted to work in the bank, or the financial field. So I actually left the Cabinet Office, and got a temporary job in an Australian bank. And the dealers – we used to sit amongst the dealers – and as some of the dealers would call out there trading, we used to enter them in. we experienced some ups and downs, and we experienced the Black Monday, where everything came crashing down. I’ve had experience where one dealer traded on the wrong stock, and lost the company £20 million. So, you know, the emotions, and the adrenaline that – that’s pumped, you know, when something like that happens, you know, can really bring you down. But then again, you got to pick yourself up, and keep going. So I’ve experienced the highs and the lows within the dealers’ floor.

00:02:13 My experience of work has been pretty good, ninety-five percent have been fantastic. But I did have an experience where I went to a local company, and when I got there the HR Manager looked at me, and just indicated to the secretary, just find her something and get her out. And I felt that that was in relations to my colour. And they asked me to do this test, which was nothing to do with the job that I was going for, and as I was doing the test, you know, I became emotionally upset and, you know, the tears were just falling down my eyes. But at that point I just decided that no, nothing is going to beat me down, I’m going to stay up. I just want to encourage anyone that, you know, you may go through negative experience, but allow that to help you to grow. And allow that to focus you, and to move you forward.

00:03:07 Outside of my work I’m a foster carer, so I look after young people. And my passion is to go and work in the community. And I believe that, you know, you can do anything you wanna do. You may not necessarily have the qualifications to do it, but you can always find a way round it, and gain the qualifications. I’ve had to go back to learning, to just get me qualified for the job I’m doing at the moment. And I’ve been out of school now for nearly thirty years. So it’s not impossible. If it’s not impossible for me to go back after so long, it’s not impossible for anybody else.

00:03:43 I see myself running a community project, for young people. They just need a helping hand really, they just need someone to motivate them and encourage them and say, you know, come on, you can do this. I did it, I’m an example, you can. And just give them that helping hand really, just to get to that next step. That’s what I’d like to do.

00:04:03 ENDS