Name: Karen Gollagher
Job title: Payroll Supervisor
Tell us a bit about yourself
I live with my partner Stu and have a 19-year-old son, Owen. I also have a stepson, Luke, stepdaughter, Stacie, and I am grandma to Harrison and Robyn. We’re a very loved and well-balanced ‘blended family’. Me and Stu love travelling and socialising, particularly at our local pub, so much so that we have recently purchased a renovation house nearer to our local (so not as far to walk home after a few drinks).
Describe your job to a five-year-old:
I make sure that everyone is paid on time when they have done all their work.
What do you like most about your job?
The strict deadlines I work within to complete everything on time, with a few curve balls thrown in and my amazing colleagues I work alongside, who I am happy to call my friends away from work.
How did you get here?
I started a Youth Training Scheme at 16 with a company called ITEC, learning computer skills (many moons ago)! I then moved onto a placement with a company writing wills, then I moved to our local bus company EYMS in accounts doing purchase ledger. Whilst there I had an opportunity to move into payroll where I gained my payroll qualifications. After five years I moved to a local computer business still doing payroll for a few years before moving to Ideal Standard in 2000. I have been in payroll the whole time and as you can imagine have seen a lot of comings and goings. I will also reach 25 years with the business next year!
What motivates you?
Family.
If you could swap jobs with anyone, who would it be?
A film locations manager.
Your favourite song lyric or line from a film.”
“Luke, I am your father” – Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back.
Your favourite app?
WhatsApp.
Biggest facepalm moment at work?
I hadn’t been with the business long and we did a factory visit to one of the many sites we had back then. I’d noticed attached to a couple of the walls between the office’s and factory there where glass holders with loads of what I thought were coloured sweets. I mentioned it to my old boss Dennis Wildridge saying how cool it was to have them about the site for employees to which he replied “If you eat them you’ll end up very ill: they’re ear plugs for the factory!!!!” In my defence I was young and never been in a factory before!