Leading on excellent service

How long have you worked at Leeds Beckett?

I’ve worked here going on 12 years. I started here as agency and then built my way up, term time, full time and then the team leader role. This was my first job and only job, so I’ve been really, really thankful for that. I left catering college after three years of training, and then started on a weekend doing a barbecue here and ever since I’ve just stayed. I’ve never wanted to change.

What’s the best part of your job?

It’s a real family base here, we’re all friends, family, like a work family. The vibe has just been good. A lot of faces come and go. It’s always been a lot of fun. 

The best bit of the job is the satisfaction of getting everything produced and ready, the number of students we feed, the challenges. For me, I’ve always thrived on the rush and the adrenalin of being constantly on the go having things to do. More recently, after being made a team leader, looking into it in terms of what sells and what doesn’t sell, what the team things works, and working with everybody in every direction to make sure you have a standard that you want to put out.

I’ve got three people in the Chicken Shack, I’ve got four staff on the food court. It’s pretty much constant work most of the week.

It’s amazing having the students back, honestly since it first opened in the first week – we expected it to be quiet, but it picked up much faster than we expected. There were a lot more people, a lot more footfall. 

We instantly see the familiar faces that we’ve seen in previous years, and staff as well. It was so refreshing and it felt like you continued where you left off, even though it’s been such a big gap. It’s been really nice.

Is there something you’re particularly proud of from your time working at Leeds Beckett?

I’m most proud of becoming a team leader, and building the respect for what we do, and building the team. A while ago everything got changed around, and building the connections with the teams, finding what worked and what didn’t work with them was a challenge in itself. You get to a point where you stand back and look at both sections and you know you’ve helped design it, helped build it – that’s massive really.