Stuart Gettings — My Nuneaton Signs Journey
Working at Nuneaton Signs has been both an eye opening and rewarding experience!
I started back in March 2014, as an extremely shy lad who didn’t like to even make eye contact.
Now I well and truly have my feet under the table, and I can say I am much more confident and happier than ever before.
I’ve always lived in ‘Sunny Nunny’ but would blissfully walk past all road signs, I cannot do so now without commenting ‘we did that’. My coming to Nuneaton signs was more luck than anything else, I was doing a course with a locally based company, and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. The chap that ran the course managed to get me an interview, I say an interview, it was more of a relaxed informal chat, which I soon learnt was the way most things run at Nuneaton Signs.
I quickly learnt that not all disabilities are visible, and any impairment you may or may not have is not important — as help is always on offer here. That’s when I began to learn and appreciate what was meant by Nuneaton Signs opening in 1982 as a meaningful employer for people with disabilities.
I’ve had various jobs, from warehouse work to retail, so coming into an office was daunting to say the least. I started just part time and my job was as an admin assistant. I remember my first day like it was yesterday, I started at 8am and by 8.30am I knew Nuneaton Signs was for me. I have lived with a disability that was caused by brain damage from birth, I suffer from chronic pain in my ankles and back, and I have seizures. I am ashamed to say I let that run my life. That attitude stopped on March 17th 2014.
My main role when I started was the filing of and helping with delivery notes. Oh, and being the ‘tea boy’, I don’t mean to show off but that’s a job I’m still brilliant at! Using the phone was a problem, I’d clam up just at the thought of it. But I was made to do it and once I got going, I was well on my way. A real icebreaker for me was a few people would take up the break times playing magnetic darts — I still am the reigning magnetic signs champion now!
The first 6 months I was basically watching and learning, slowly started doing the odd quote myself. This quickly got me helping on the Nottingham tram job and therefore, my introduction to Road Signs. After 12 months I was hooked and moved from part time to full time. I was given my own account Lyreco, that covers Balfour Beatty. I was learning as everyday went by and was lucky enough to work in an office with brilliant colleagues who would and still do go out their way to help me.
As part of my disability, I suffer from long periods of pain. I have a specialised chair that helps with lower back pain and a desk that rises up down, so I am able to stand at the desk as times if needed. Although I may have been shy of asking for so much as a paperclip when I first started, I now know and understand that through access to work I can have (within reason!) everything and anything I need to make my day-to-day routine easier.
In 2016, I was given my own account in Lyreco. Having the responsibility of my own customer helped me massively, I saw it as my time to sink or swim. Dealing with the same people, day in day out, is something I genuinely love doing and I found that although it’s always professional, having friendly relationship in a must.
I am coming up to 8 years at Nuneaton Signs. If I was to say every day of the 8 years has been perfect, it’d be a lie. But what I can say is, every day I come to work happy and content that we in our own little way are making a difference. People with disabilities have been a valued member of our workplace since we opened our doors in 1982, here’s to another 40 years!
I am proud to be a part of the crazy train that is Nuneaton Signs and I have no desire to get off it anytime soon. You may have read some of our other staff blogs that mention the workplace is like a family. I am jumping on the family bandwagon as I have made lifelong friends here, and like some families there are a few that just don’t get you!
Who knows what the future has in store for any of us. All I know is that if my next 8 years are as good as my last 8 years then I’ll be a happy chap.
