Name: Rachel Watson
Job title: Order Fulfilment Manager (UK Independents and Ireland)
Tell us a bit about yourself
I live with my fiancé Andrew (no plans for a big wedding – I’m not good with being the centre of attention so I will just turn up one day with a wedding ring on!), I have a 13-year-old stepson (very much Kevin the teenager since the clock struck midnight on his birthday) and a three-year-old rescue dog called Pumpkin. I like to make sure I have plenty of tickets to see comedians stacked up to look forward to. So far this year I have seen Jimmy Carr, Tom Allen and Henning Vehn and still have Lucy Beaumont and Russell Howard lined up in 2023. Apparently I am also a hula hoop champion.
Describe your job to a five-year-old
I get shouted at when people’s toilets arrive late.
What do you like most about your job?
It’s going to sound cheesy but… my team. I couldn’t do my job without having the right people around me and I’m really proud of every single one of them. We work in a really challenging, high volume environment that can be very negative at times but to see them all pulling together every day… that’s what it’s all about.
How did you get here?
I was a straight A art and design student but due to attending the worst school in Hull, I wasn’t given much career guidance and didn’t know what I could do with it. I started a YTS scheme at Hull City Council while I decided what I would do with it and ended up in jobs I was good at. I have spent time in the welfare benefit area, including benefit fraud (so I’m skilled in the art of interrogation and unravelling lies… be warned!). I once visited a home and was offered a cup of tea, I quickly said no as within the first five minutes I had realised that the two buckets in the corner of the living room were in fact toilets – one for liquids, one for solids (and there was nothing wrong with their bathroom). I also went on to work in central government at the Student Loans Company, specialising in quality and knowledge management. After 18ish years within a government environment and going through a divorce, I wanted a change so I took an opportunity to work for a commercial business in the travel industry, before deciding to move back to Hull (I lived up in Darlington and Middlesbrough for several years). I saw a role at Ideal Standard and it just all made sense. Just over five years later and I’ve seen a few changes but I am looking forward to what the next five brings!
What motivates you?
I like a challenge (now you know why I work in order fulfilment!).
If you could swap jobs with anyone, who would it be?
I would have said Paul O’Grady but sadly he passed away. I’d love to spend my days with rescue animals nursing them back to health and helping them trust humans again. My lottery dream is to buy a house on lots of land and look after as many of them as I could.
Your favourite song lyric or line from a film
It’s a line from the film Short Circuit – ‘holy sh#t! where is the sh#t?’ amused me as a child and continues to do so to this day. It’s probably lost on most, but at the time it was probably the rudest word I had heard in a film and had laughed at without getting into trouble!
Your favourite app?
Spotify – music fixes everything.
Biggest facepalm moment at work?
Probably going back to when I was an apprentice at Hull City Council, I did lots and lots of filing, and back in the days when mobile phones were not a thing I had to go down to the Guildhall basement on a regular basis. I went down late one Friday afternoon and got distracted talking to someone and forgot to sign myself in. I got lost for time and walked back up to find the doors had been locked. I had to wait half an hour in a dark cold basement waiting for the security guards to do their patrol and bang on the doors to get their attention – needless to say a lesson was learnt!