Name: Joseph Hartshorne
Job title: Internal Sales Executive
Tell us a bit about yourself
I live with my mom, dad and dog after coming back from university last year. My sister lives in London working at the children’s hospital in Barnet. My girlfriend is originally from Blackburn but is also living in Birmingham after finishing university. I love football and I am a massive Aston Villa fan. I had a season ticket for eight years but started playing football on a Saturday afternoon for a local club. I played for England Schoolboys under-18s and won the Centenary Shield in 2017 which was one of the best experiences of my life. I also like a bit of golf, gaming on my PS5 and squash.
Describe your job to a five-year-old
I assist with the selling of bathrooms to a vast range of customers, speaking to merchants, plumbers and contractors to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible!
What do you like most about your job?
I love speaking to customers and trying to make every one of them feel welcome when calling or emailing Ideal Standard, providing the best experience possible. I love chatting to my amazing colleagues about different challenges that every day brings, with one never being the same as the other.
An amazing part of my job is working with my external colleague Dave Buchanan who is one of the most supportive colleagues I could work with. He always manages to make me laugh no matter how hard the day gets.
How did you get here?
I worked part-time jobs at McDonalds, Tesco and Food Delivery throughout my time at university. I studied Sport, Physical Education and Coaching Science at the University of Birmingham, hence where my passion came from for bathrooms!
I noticed the job advertised online at such a great company and had to apply, and was lucky enough to get the job offer. It is the start of what I hope and trust will be an amazing career with Ideal Standard.
What motivates you?
I love being the very best that I can be in absolutely everything I do. I love making people around me (colleagues, customers or anybody that walks into the building) smile and have the best experience with the company as they possibly can. I am motivated to have a fantastic career and have absolutely loved and thrived off my first 10 months here.
If you could swap jobs with anyone, who would it be?
It would have to be a footballer. Jack Grealish being a fellow Brummy, just won the Premier League, was in Ibiza last week and training with England now would be a dream swap (although I would NEVER leave Aston Villa).
Your favourite song lyric or line from a film
The classic – ‘life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get’ from Forrest Gump would match my life quite well. It matches to my day to day job, every day and every case that comes through is different and that is what I love about it.
Your favourite app?
Candy Crush… It’s really old now, but I have a long-standing competition with my sister and I will take over her soon (I’m currently on level 2470).
Biggest facepalm moment at work?
Looking after Scotland from an internal role, I have a facepalm moment most days when trying to pronounce Kirkintilloch, Ayrshire or even Achluachrach. The customers or my external colleague Dave will laugh at me most days!!!