Despite reaching pensionable age, Janet Simmonds has no intention of retiring and switching the washing machines off at Manor Croft for the last time just yet!
Janet is now in her 26th year at the home, easily making her our longest-serving member of staff.
She initially started as a Domestic but moved to become a Laundry Assistant a few years later and has been there ever since, ensuring our residents’ clothes, bedding and anything else that goes through the wash are spotlessly clean and hygienic.
Janet says she can often wash 60 sheets in an average day so if you multiply that by the 21 years she has worked in laundry, that’s an awful lot of clean sheets.
She enjoys her job but there is one thing that she simply doesn’t like.
“Fluffy socks, they are the bane of my life,” jokes Janet.
“For some reason these tend to be the items of clothing which go missing the most, but I always end up reuniting them with their owners in the end!”
As well as laundry, Janet and her fellow Laundry Assistant Sheli also ironing all the clothes and bedding after they go through the machine and the dryers.
“The washing machines are on 24-7,” explains Janet.
“That’s because the bedding is washed at least every day, if not more, and we have always got the residents’ clothes to wash, dry, iron and return too.
“We even deliver the washing back to the residents, which I enjoy because I like the interaction and banter with them.”
Janet is now eligible for her pension, but she is not planning to retire anytime soon.
She adds: “I am happy here and would rather be here doing something useful than being stuck at home.
“It’s nice environment in which to work and it’s literally across the road from my own home so it’s always been ideal for me.
“I certainly have never been able to call to say I can’t make it to work because I have been snowed in!”
In her spare time, mum-of-two Janet enjoys seeing her two grandchildren and watching soap operas and crime dramas on TV.
