Stories - experiences around people living with disability
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EMPLOYMENT STORIES
Store Manager, New World St Martins, Christchurch
At this store we currently have four disabled people working for us, generally doing two or three days a week. Some disabled employees have lasted a long time: we had one who had been here for 15 years! He really enjoyed it: he used to turn up when he wasn't scheduled to work. He was a real people person and enjoyed helping people. He's been gone about a year I guess – his family situation changed and he moved to Australia – but people still ask after him and when he was over here on holiday at Christmas he came in to see us.
We employ people with an intellectual disability. They don’t always work out but from my experience 90% are very loyal, and they really enjoy it. It gets them out of their homes and routines, it gives them independence and an opportunity to experience life as a functioning member of society: they catch a bus; they come to work and clock in like everyone else.
But it's not just good for them, it's good for us to have someone who is loyal and committed and enjoys doing a job that someone else might only want to do for a couple of months. So, we are not always having to recruit new people. And we get excellent feedback from the public about it as well.
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Garry Chubb
Store Manager