Meet the Belfast mum with 'absolutely no plans to retire' from the job she loves so much

A Belfast mum-of-two, who has worked as a cleaning supervisor for more than half her life, has said she has “absolutely no plans to retire” because she loves her job so much.

Sharon Hill, from Ballysillan in the north of the city, has worked on the Northern Ireland Water site for her whole career, and says there’s no job she would rather do.

In fact, the 58-year-old supervisor revealed that her place of employment is just across the road from the childhood home in which she was born and bred.

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The popular Mount Charles Group employee is so well respected by bosses and peers alike that she was recently awarded The Shine Award for Excellence and a £100 voucher from the facilities management support services provider.

“I was delighted to have been recognised by Mount Charles for my hard work. The area manager nominated me and I was over the moon when I won. It means a lot. I was also treated to a free meal on the day I went on holiday so it was very special,” she said.

Sharon, who heads up a team of five other cleaning operatives, told how she recently hired two young girls with learning difficulties, who are now thriving in their roles.

“There was only one job available at the time but after interviewing both girls I really didn’t want to have to pick between them,” she said.

“I persuaded my manager to let me employ them both on a job share and fortunately she agreed. One of the girls has learning difficulties and the other has autism and they told me they’d had bad experiences at previous jobs.

“Since they started here five months ago, I’ve taken them under my wing and they’ve been doing superb. They’re great at the job and they’ve even started doing more hours recently.”

The grandmother-of-four spent 12 years as an area manager in charge of 70 sites at one point during her career, but she said she prefers being based where she is now, at Old Westland Road, on a full-time basis.

She also revealed that the secret to a successful and fulfilling job was “working alongside good people who respect one another and enjoy what they do”.

“When I’m at home the bosses know they can just call me if they need anything and I’ll be there,” she said.

“I love what I do, I believe in always going the extra mile, and I can’t ever see a time in the future when I won’t be cleaning.”

Sharon added: “I’m not sure I’ll even retire when I get to the age that you’re supposed to stop working at. Maybe I’ll go part-time...sure, what else would I do?”

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