PAINTING AT LEICESTER CITY FOOTBALL CLUB

There was a six week gap between leaving school and starting the career choice work placements, my plan was to do nothing of course but dad arranged with uncle Mark. (Dads sisters first husband) who worked at Leicester city football club as stadium services manager to get me a few weeks work as a painter.

This was my first official employment as in paying tax/national insurance. I was advised not to tell anyone that Mark was my uncle while there for my own good (they only found out on the last few days).

It was at the old ground on Filbert street (1981 - 2002), the first job I was given was to paint the east stand wall black. Given the size of the stadium it was a case of do the task then go back to the management in 3-4 days time for further instructions.

I was left to work on my own for large chunks of the day, with little supervision and nobody monitoring how much work I actually did or the amount of time I spent on dinner breaks I took a predictably sloppy attitude to the job.

At the time I was more focused on the career choice work placements that I had arranged to do through school and treated that job as an afterthought as I was only going to be there 5 weeks anyway. I had no idea at all how much money I was going to be paid, and for 2 weeks I was having to pay bus fare when uncle Mark went on holiday and couldn’t give me a lift which was a lot of money to shell out at the time.

By the second week I was sometimes having double dinner breaks, I’d have my usual hour in the canteen then having another outside with the car park attendant. I seen one of the players Julian Joachim during this time drive past. When I finished the East stand wall I went on to do some of the more hidden parts of the stadium like the turnstyles. I often got headaches due to working with paint in a confined space.

I would often take unauthorised breaks by leaving out the back of the stadium via a fire door which I would leave very slightly propped open. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I was working on the milk from 3:30 AM until 6:30 AM so I would go to work a bit sleep deprived. On a couple of occasions I found a out of the way part of the stadium and got half an hours sleep. Obviously if the management had found out about any of this I would have been instantly sent home never to return!!!!!

 

I had my first workplace conflict during this time, strangely enough it was over things that I wasn’t guilty of. Pete O Riley supervised a group of schoolkids who the stadium employed as cleaners. Described as being a solid hard worker but having no brains. He dressed up as the club mascot Filbert the fox on match days.

Despite not being in charge of me in any form he started giving me a hard time over things I obviously wasn’t guilty of. If someone had left muddy footprints on a floor he had cleaned he would blame me even if I had spent the entire day working on the opposite side of the stadium.

The most bizarre was when he told me that I had left open a tin of black paint near the east stand wall. Someone had walked round as it was getting dark and knocked the tin of paint over. This was impossible as we had ran out of black paint 2 weeks earlier and had to move onto the blue areas while some more was on order. I quizzed the other painters about this and they looked completely baffled. I had a few issues with some of the idiots who worked with him and was almost glad when the 5 weeks and the daily commute all the way to Leicester were over.

The day after I finished I got my first ever pay slip 488 pounds (after tax and national insurance). Most people at the time would have considered it a poor return for 5 weeks work. However with my only income previously being my milk round and my paper round I had earned in 5 weeks what would previously taken 5 months. On top of that I had also previously been given access to my life savings when I turned 18 a month earlier (a couple of hundred extra) so from my perspective I finally had money.

Unfortunately had I known then what I knew 6 months later I would have stayed in that job as long as I could and not bothered going on career choice. I hardly earned that sort of money again for the next 2 years!!!!!!!!!!

Mark gave me a glowing reference which was a great help in future job interviews, far more than any of the so called qualifications I got from school.

“Mister Stanford worked for six weeks during the football closed season at the Filbert street stadium. During this time he undertook his duties in a very satisfactory manner. He displayed the ability to interpret and understand instruction and adapt to change”. His time keeping, work manner and attitude was first class and his amiable nature ensured he quickly became part of the team.

I would be pleased to add to this reference at any time in the near future.”