I love meeting people and enjoyed maths in school . My first post with Cork City Council (Cork Corporation at the time) was in Finance where I met lots of different people. I worked with estimates, abstracts and claims.

The best times were at Christmas when the Council had a scheme running for the unemployed for about eight weeks where each person if they turned up would get 2 weeks work each. There were such a mixed group of people who turned up - from people who had only been recently unemployed to people who lived at Simon Community, St. Vincent dePauls and those who lived on the streets. We called them Happy Fridays as to see the joy on these peoples faces when they got their money would make you realise how fortunate we are. They’d always try and give a few pence when they were leaving. There were very jolly people just very much down on their luck.

Most definitely my parents were the biggest influence in my career, they decided what schools I went to, which courses to take as they obviously knew. Left to me I would have spent my life on a hurling and football pitch (tomboy) as I just loved sports growing up.

I have worked in several different departments down through the years, my current job is attached to housing. I am now in housing maintenance. I moved from housing allocations to here due to the fact that City Hall had built new offices whereby there would be 30 + people in each office – a lot of these would be new young people and whereas I have always worked in offices with 6/8 people I felt I would suffocate with such a large crowd so fortunately a vacancy became available in the maintenance section and I approached my boss at the time to see if anything could be done for me to get the job and she sorted it out. I am now working in the maintenance section with plumbers, carpenters, plasterers, painters and general operatives and our Engineer – all who are very pleasant and great to work with. It is an extremely busy section but it is a happy place to work.

Starts at 8.30a.m. – meet the foremen and the lads with job slips for them all. The lads leave to commence their jobs approx. 10/15 minutes after that and then all electrical jobs are sent to our contractors. E-mails and phone messages are then taken and logged in our system to create dockets for when the men return at 10.30. Time sheets (wages for the men) are then coded and faxed to City Hall so the men can be paid on the Friday.

Tenants are in and out of the office with problems surrounding the houses they live in. They too are logged and passed again to the men when they return at 1.30. I also liaise with two sub-offices we have within the area here who also are inundated with people calling to them regarding repairs, anti-social behaviour, rat infestation, burnt out properties, abandoned properties, break-ins etc. and also I communicate with 2 community wardens we have who patrol the area.

My role is to establish where the priorities are and what job should get priority. I establish what is an emergency, urgent or routine jobs, by finding out who and how many people are in the household, whether there are special needs children, elderly or disabled in the house, whether these people are in the middle of an anti-social behaviour area and if they would need extra security so that we can assign the appropriate tradesman.

I also process the necessary paperwork required for the wages payment of the tradesmen. The elderly and disabled are our first priority with regard to security at their homes, heating and maintaining, a comfortable environment for them to live in (not always possible but we do our best). Safety for children is also a priority with regard to replacement of broken glass (which happens on a daily basis), locks being replaced from doors being kicked in the previous night etc.

My main challenge is to try and make life for a lot of our tenants as easy and as comfortable as possible. This is hard to do as in this area there are approx. 2,380 properties that must be looked after. Obviously we would not get calls from everyone every day.

The extremely busy time would be in the winter where people have constant heating problems which need urgent attention. We just have two plumbers to deal with all the heating in all these houses so I reckon the challenges are for the most part with our plumbers. To be fair a lot of credit must go to them for they actually get to the majority of these calls within 2 days which in my opinion is superb.

However a lot of the tenants feel it is unacceptable to have to wait 48 hours to have a job done free. Over a period of a year if 3 households rang back to thank anyone it would be a lot.

What I think is cool is that everybody looks after each other – even though people would have differences of opinions. Some people have nothing in their homes e.g. cupboards, doors kicked in, toys for children at Christmas, clothes etc. and we here in the depot are in the fortunate position whereby we come across good items that people dump occasionally and we can confidentially pass usable items to people that have nothing. To see the joy on their faces when given small things is great.

People feel we are here solely for them and their needs only. They feel we owe them everything as they don’t see us as working to help them only that we have ‘cushy’ jobs and are there to serve them.

The sad side also is the amount of anti-social behaviour in certain areas and the fear it puts into people trying to live – some people become prisoners in their own homes afraid to go out, afraid to sleep at night, afraid of break-ins and are constantly living in fear.

In my opinion particularly when working in the area of housing the skill (if it can be classed as that) I have would be I love meeting people. I think I have an understanding of how they live, I always try and put myself in other peoples shoes before making decisions. I hope the decisions I make regarding emergencies and priorities are the right ones.

I am particularly aware of the elederly as they rarely ask for anything and if possible they will try and do things for themselves. This is probably due to the fact that they have been doing it themselves all their lives and are too proud to ask.

The subjects I took in school were English, Irish, Maths, History, Geography, Music and Domestic Science (these were all the subjects available back at that time – except that you could choose between Science or Domestic Science and I chose Domestic Science).

I was sent to Premier College and did a secretarial course (shorthand, typing and commerce). I applied for a secretarial job with Cork Corporation after that and was with them in a temporary role for 2 years.

I really liked working there so i did the exam and here I am 32 years later. I feel I took the right path (or should I say my parents picked the right path for me) I have worked with Engineers, Roads, Parking Fines (courts), Finance, Rents, Housing Allocations and Housing Maintenance and looking back there is not a thing I would change about the career I took – guess I’m one of the lucky ones!

Leaving Certificate (went to premier college half way through as the vacancy arose in the college and had to take it or wait another 2 years). Did a night course in Commerce in Skerrys College. Played a lot of sport so did not do any more courses for a time.

Definitely maths as a large part of my job involved finance such as paying of invoices, calculating percentages, vat. etc. I have dealt with cash in some of the areas I worked e.g. finance, parking fines, rents etc. and I did the books for the Local Government Auditors while working in Parking Fines.

The shorthand course I did was and is still very valuable to me as in the early days shorthand was used a lot when taking minutes of meetings etc. and I still find to this day, even if its just on the phone, I still use it.

The most rewarding would have to be knowing that I have contributed in helping a few people live in a happy environment when they thought all was lost. I would like to be remembered for always fighting for the underdog – winning some, losing some.

I think the type of personality I have just suited the type of jobs I have done. I tend to be relatively outgoing, grew up in times where everybody shared everything and all helped each other – so this I brought with me to Cork City Council when I came – there are quite a few people with the same nature. I think I am the patient type (well, it would take a while before I could explode!!). I have never been ambitious as I felt I could do a better job staying as I am and doing a good job here and a good job at home whereby if I was constantly going for promotion I would have to study at home a lot and go to a lot of meetings at work and family life would then suffer so I still believe I have taken the right route.

Dream job would be President of Ireland whereby I could make final decisions on important matters.

Yes – I am 32 years with Cork City Council, started temporary for 2 years in 1976 did the exam in 1977 and got the exam and was made permanent in 1978.

In those 32 years I can honestly say there is not a day I did not feel like going to work. I have been very lucky with the departments I have worked in and the people I work with. The flexibility that exists within Cork City Council has given me a good lifestyle as when the children were small I could start early and finish early etc. Also when they were sick I could take annual leave with little notice. It also allowed me to purchase a somewhat decent house as the banks would have no problem giving out extra money for mortgages due to the fact that it was a permanent position I held.

We always had leisure activities within the City Council e.g. we used to use a building owned by our union for lots of things like volleyball, tennis, we went to Harliquins and played hockey (even though we had never played before) we had our own football teams (male and female). Down through the years these activities faded away, I think it was because people then got interested in promotion and moving on – which is no bad thing but in my opinion it just took over where people then studied in lieu of activities.

The security my job has given me is superb – I could always sleep at night knowing (even when money was tight) there will always be next weeks pay package and that is very reassuring for people especially where children are involved as we never know when they need doctors etc. So thank God for Thursdays (pay day).

Even though I am a day by day person I have 8 years to go before I retire and looking forward to clearing my debts and spending what they give me on one good holiday before I go to the next world!!!

The qualities that you would need would be that you would be a people person – there are so many people working in the organisation and so many members of the public calling to every department on a daily basis that it would be important to be able to communicate with them – not very easy at times as particularly some members of the public don’t like the word ‘no’.

Also patience would be a main contributory factor if ever working for the Public Service. I think for my job all one would need is an interest in people, patience and definitely a sense of humour (not saying I have all these but it certainly would help).

• An eagerness to help – because everybody that calls to housing is looking for something and someone to help them.
• Patience – as almost 30% of people will come in shouting abuse you need to be able to stand back and let it go over your head otherwise if you react nobody wins.
• Understanding – one must put oneself in other peoples shoes and try and understand where they are coming from – what seems so small and unimportant to you is life threatening to others.

Classical

Gone with the Wind, Sound of Music

Cancer

I have taken some computer courses, but due to the fact that I am not working on what I have learne on a daily basis, I found it of very little use to me.

I have taken a first aid course which has been very helpful here for me as I have used it when people have been hurt and some badly hurt.

At the moment I don’t plan on taking any further courses (as I am nearer the back door rather than the front door) (retirement) but one would never know.

I have approached personnel with regards to holding Polish classes as we get a lot of polish coming here to the depot and it would be helpful to be able to understand them. Who knows I might be fluent in polish before I retire!

In my opinion I think every person leaving school/college should do at least one month in a housing area – this is an education for a lot of people because we never know how the other half live – I always felt I did until such time as I went to allocations. It makes everyone thankful for the things they have, appreciate the hard work their parents have done and sacrificed for them and a learning process on how to avoid a certain amount of situations in life that we would not like to see ourselves in.