With covering a such a diverse range of roles across the UK, we’re super lucky to work amongst families of all shapes and sizes. With today being Fathers Day we’d like to honor the dads who shape our lives.
Hi, so I’m James. I manage the day-to-day work and movements of our business development (BDM) and account managers, including a central team of business assistants. I work with my dad! He’s a customer service engineer and completes day-to-day planned preventative maintenance and plumbing tasks in the Midlands area.
To be honest, there aren’t as many as people would think. From my perspective, I do my very best to keep work stuff at work so that it doesn’t blend into home or personal time. I also make it very clear to the operations teams that when we are at work, Andy is their engineer, and I see him the same as all other engineers supporting our business on the front line, completing the PPM and ad-hoc work we do to keep our customers satisfied and compliant!
Yes, at times, if our BDMs need to pull jobs forward, there have been occasions where I may be asked by one of the supervisors if I could have a chat with Andy and ask for a favour, but as I’ve said above, I try my very best to keep it professional and remind them it’s their engineer at Aqualytix, and not ‘Dad’ or ‘Super Grandad’ as he’s known by my daughters!
For me, I think I learned a lot from Andy (as we were at work!) from his knowledge and experience in the industry and his years working as a central heating engineer prior to his water hygiene and treatment role here at Aqualytix. He has a depth of knowledge and challenges in my eyes, and he is my go-to person when I’m in need of a little technical support.
James – That’s a tough one! 37 years of support from my dad (and mom, of course), and I could name quite a few memories we’ve shared personally. However, I would probably say either our family holiday to New York for my 30th, or his 50th in Spain, which happened to be in the same year.
I used to work at a bank until an old lady asked me to check her balance… so I pushed her over.
I think this one would be the easiest one to answer for both of us. It’ll be spent with the children and grandchildren as a family and, more than likely, over a Sunday lamb dinner (a Mrs. Leeson special).
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us today, James. We hope you have a lovely Father’s Day with your family!
