Margarita Dickson is the Northern Division Director of commercial kitchen cleaning and maintenance business, Two Services, responsible for sales and operations of the Leeds office.
Dickson’s job primarily involves visiting clients, from Nottingham and Leicester, up to the Scottish borders. We caught up with her to find out more about her day at work and her background.
How do you start your day?
Depending on how far I need to drive that day, I usually get up about 7.30am. I have a small dog, so we go for a short walk (she only has little legs) before I get home for a coffee. I check my emails and then catch up with my teams to see if there is anything they need. It’s then a final check on the traffic before I head off to my first appointment.
What’s the first job of the day?
When I arrive at my first client appointment, I check that nothing urgent has come in while I’ve been driving.
I really enjoy problem solving that arises with many ductwork cleans. Questions around how ductwork is going to be accessed and cleaned are all part of the job. Then from there, it’s on to the next appointment. I usually see up to three clients a day, however if there is a group of urgent quotation appointments, I try to accommodate as many as possible. I think once it was seven! I actually quite like driving, so being in the car a lot doesn’t worry me.
I get to meet lots of interesting people at some fantastic locations.
Do you eat lunch on the go?
I usually find somewhere to stop and will eat lunch in my car. I don’t often eat breakfast, so finding time to grab lunch is important. I have to have coffee in the morning though. That’s a definite!
What does the afternoon look like?
More client appointments in the afternoon. I have a fantastic team working with me and throughout the pandemic, they have been so flexible. We’ve supported our clients in the ways we know how, offering sterile fogging and additional cleaning services.
When I finish one appointment, I’ll check my emails again and make any quick calls I need to. Recently, a client unfortunately suffered a fire at their premises and I go to take a look. Often, our specialist cleans enable clients to get their premises back open and functioning again without too much delay.
When does your working day finish?
Once I get home, I try to avoid doing any paperwork. I always like to have that done before I walk in the front door. I get help from our head office when it comes to an admin support and for that I’m so grateful.
My crew is very hard working and we all take our jobs seriously. If we get fantastic feedback, I want my teams to know that before the end of the day. And on the occasions, we miss something, we look at why and the quickest way to rectify it.
My day job finishes in the evening, but I’m always on call as my teams work throughout the night in some locations. If they run into a problem at a deep clean for example, they know they can always call me. I’m fortunate that those incidences are few and far between, but they do happen. I think it’s important they know I’m there at the end of the phone.
What do you do in your spare time?
I graduated as a pianist and trained singer, music brings me joy and lets me relax. I used to have a band and perform regularly, but now singing and music is purely a hobby.
I still perform at our local pub sometimes and I just love it. I’m so glad my parents encouraged me to play the piano, because having that skill enabled me to travel and live in some fabulous countries. I think the travel inspired me to learn languages too. I speak four, and that’s something people may not know about me.
