VN023 Kathy Smith, Hotpoint, Llandudno

Kathy worked in the personnel dept. at Hotpoint from its beginnings in 1947 and, apart from a 15 year break when she looked after her family or worked on ships, including the Queen Elizabeth, she stayed until her voluntary redundancy in 1991, at the age of 62. She enjoyed working in the factory, knew everyone, and describes it as almost a family. She says it was a 'tremendous' place to work, although she admits she didn't have the monotony of the assembly line. In her job, there was something different every day and it was exciting. She never knew what she would be faced with next as people used to come to her with all sorts of problems. She did a variety of tasks under the role of personnel officer, including some time on the assembly line to try and understand how the workers could do such a repetive job day in day out.