GRANDMUM’S the word
MATTHEW Martin is 34, married and has a daughter, but less than nine years ago he admits he didn’t have a clue.
Now he’s rapidly climbing the ladder at Dubbo’s largest private company, Fletcher International.
“Before I worked here I didn’t have a job, I was just on the dole bumming around and it was actually my grandmother that put in the application for me. So I got the phone call and I didn’t even know that I’d applied for the job and, yeah, here I am today, eight and a half years later,” Mr Martin said.
“I started out as a labourer down the back, I moved on to boning, went from boning to using the bandsaw, and went from there to being in Quality Assurance (QA), and from QA to training officer.
“It’s good that you can come out here as a labourer and keep learning skills to go up the rungs. It’s really good, specially for me,” he said.
He has the simplest but most loving of messages for his grandmother Barbara Martin: “Thank you very much for turning me into a mature man.”
Fletchers is constantly on the lookout for new workers to train up for literally hundreds of different jobs, and Mr Martin says it’s vitally important that for anyone who’s reading this story who has a daughter, grandson, nephew, or a kid’s mate who’s at a loose end, to just give them a bit of a kick along.
“(It’s been great) for someone like me that didn’t have any ambition, and didn’t have any drive. Then Fletchers gave me the opportunity and from there, I’ve just progressed, matured, and grown up,” Mr Martin told
asked Mr Martin if he had his eye on the top job. “I’m looking to stay here and keep going up the ladder. Right now I’m happy in the position that I’m in, maybe down the track I’ll move into the white hat and a supervisor job,” he replied.
“When I started out on the floor I wasn’t thinking about anything like this, I just thought this’ll only be temporary out here, then I realised it was more permanent, but I still just thought I was going to be out there packing, until one day I was approached to move up.
“It was great, it makes you feel like you’re appreciated and that you’re doing a good job,” he said.
So many of the workers at the plant say that the mateship of people on the job is the best thing about the place, and Mr Martin is no exception to that rule.
“The people are the main part that I like about working out here, there’s a lot of good people out here that I work with,” he said.
“I met my wife out here, she’s from Taiwan, she came over here on a Visa and six months later married – we just had a daughter about 10 months ago, Felicity.
“If Fletchers wasn’t here in Dubbo, the town would be a lot smaller and quieter and I’d have no idea where I’d be,” he said.
Once again this is all back to his grandmother Barbara.
“A big thanks to Nan, I wouldn’t be where I am today without you,” Matthew said.