Life in furlough, and staying in touch with my work 'family'

Author

Crystal Parker, Group Kitchen Process Manager

​"Gloucester Services is an incredible place to work, where no two days are the same, and over the past five years my team have become my family. I’m proud of everything we achieve together on a daily basis to give our customers the best possible food experience we can to break their journeys on the motorway.
 
Unfortunately due to Covid-19 a lot has changed over the past few weeks that is out of our control. Whilst still trading in the Farmshops, Kitchens and Quick Kitchens, we made many adaptations to our working practices in order to stay safe and proactive for our customers safety; including introducing social distancing stickers on the floors, screens at the tills and encouraged contactless self service at the tills. We were able to offer so much help in the community, from baking fresh bread and delivering it locally when people were unable to get it themselves to donating Easter eggs to NHS families, as well as multiple donations within the community whilst we were closing down.

Like many people in the hospitality industry I have been furloughed, meaning no work to go to for a while. This is an alien concept to me, I’ve always worked, I don’t even take more than 10 days off for a holiday as I miss the rhythm and routine too much!

It has taken a lot for me to adapt to a new Lockdown way of life, without my work family to get up and go to everyday, without the buzz of a busy Friday lunchtime to look forward to, it’s definitely a challenge to remember what day of the week it is. However, I’m extremely proud of the way everyone took the news of furlough leave in their strides, knowing it’s the right thing for the business and ourselves during this time, working together to clean down and close up the kitchens and quick kitchens with care and precision to ensure we have a great place to return to when we are able. The hardest thing for me was seeing our usually buzzing kitchens with no colleagues or customers, just dark and quiet once we’d closed them.
 
Everyone is keeping in touch still, using our internal Facebook groups, it’s great to see what everyone’s getting up to whilst not working, learning new skills and sharing food ideas together! We had a virtual baking competition over Easter which really got everyone’s creative juices flowing, just a shame we couldn’t all taste the winning cakes!

Colleagues at Gloucester Services were baking loaves for the community before the temporary closure of the kitchens

Winners of the Easter baking competition for Gloucester Services colleagues - all baked at home, and judged by Crystal over Facebook

Some of the Easter eggs that were donated from Gloucester Services to the NHS staff for them and their families

I’m already getting excited for the next phase, which will be our reopening plan. Imagine, we get to open sites up once again, just like I did back in 2015, but this time we will be bigger, better and stronger as we have so much more experience! I’m personally trying to focus on the positives, relish the break from the norm as best as I can, and ensure that I’m ready to hit the ground running as soon as we’re able to reopen. I can’t wait to see all my work family again soon.  Stay safe."