Tilly

Interviewee: Tilly

Interviewer: Cathy Shrank

Date of recording: 19 July 2022

Recording location: on-line; interviewer and interviewee in Sheffield

Length of recording: 29:13

Subjects (key words): Stoke, Potteries, Covid, deindustrialisation, family, History degree, hospitality, overdraft, retail, recruitment, redundancy, working-class culture, working parents

Abstract

[00:37] Brought up in Newcastle-under-Lyme; dad a furniture salesman; mum worked in the NHS, beginning as a podiatrist and working her way up. Grew up in an ex-mining town; a lot of teachers were ex-miners. Family and friend’s families have/had jobs in the Potteries.

[02:19] First job in jacket potato restaurant, aged 16-17. Hospitality and retail seen as a good place to get a first job. Supportive work-place culture, where she was allowed to fit paid work around her studies; friendly atmosphere, got to know colleagues well, but the age-gap meant that they didn’t socialise outside work.

[04:22] Aged 17-19, worked at Marks & Spencer, initially in the café; because of Covid-19, diversified into different departments: food hall, women’s wear, and home wear. In 2021, moved into job recruiting people to work for Amazon Warehouse. April [2022] job with a smaller recruitment agency in Sheffield, specialising in financial services. Feels lucky to have found it. Positive working environment. Remembers working in M&S in the 2020 heatwave, when the air conditioning broke.

[06:37] In the past, contracts have been fixed term, e.g. for three months, then reviewed. Current contract is permanent, for part-time hours.

[07:32] Months between jobs when she had to use overdraft; realises that lots of students are in that position. People’s expectations that a History degree leads to teaching. Why she chose to do degree in History. Sees herself having a career in recruitment.

[09:47] How studying History has helped prepare her for the workplace (raising awareness of inequalities; holding professional conversations). Impact of online teaching during first year, due to Covid.

[12:31] Working during Covid; physical distancing; stress; the uncertainty of things. Made redundant; re-hired. Sense of collegiality and solidarity in Covid.

[15:08] What makes a good workplace (people). Snobbery about jobs; hierarchies in the workplace. Sister’s experience as receptionist in NHS.

[17:22] Gendered nature of some roles, e.g. in M&S men’s department, deliveries.

[18:48] Four months without work. Financial relationship with family.

[21:43] Stoke; working-class pride; instability; attitudes to money.

[23:28] Childhood ambition to be politician or lawyer. As teenager, thought that she’d move back to Stoke after university.

[24:20] Comes from a political family; sister works for charities; very involved in animal rights.

[24:59] Memories of parents working; attitudes shaped by parents’ working life, although they provided different modules (mother worked way up through NHS; father happy in his role). Awareness of the varied socio-economic area in which she grew up.

[26:46] Future ambitions; searching for jobs; careers guidance.

[27:58] Friends’ jobs. Best friend’s family are in recruitment. Lots of friends from home are nurses and paramedics.

Excerpt

[00.40]

So I was born in, it’s technically classed as Newcastle-under-Lyme, but it’s Stoke-on-Trent basically, so a town in like the north, a city in like the north midlands. Erm, I come from a working-class background, erm didn’t, you know, no private education, nothing like that, and a lot of people in my area didn’t really. Erm, yeah, my parents, my father was a furniture salesman, well no, is – was – well, as I was growing up he was a furniture salesman! My mum worked in the NHS, not as a nurse or anything, she actually worked her way up, she started as a podiatrist and worked her way up to like big boss consultancy, so that was er, you know, aiming high.

[01.24]

[…]

[21.47]

Coming from a town, or city where it’s very industry-heavy, I mean it still is, it’s still ‘The Potteries’, I mean that’s, that’s what they call it, and I do know a lot of people who have, who are working in that industry still, and it gives me, I think it’s given me like a lot of working-class pride, I mean even if I were to you know, one day, hit the big time, like I think it’s instilled in me – massive pride and respect for those who are committed to the industries that, you know, put our town on the map and that sort of thing. But I’m also aware of like instability in that kind of thing. Like for example I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that my maths teacher, who was in his, he was in his late fifties, I just couldn’t wrap my head round the fact that he was a miner for so many years. I was like, ‘what do you mean you were a miner? You’re a maths teacher’.

[22.40]