A career for life – Red’s 36 year love affair with Wagga Wagga Linen
Date published: 29 Jun 2021
Author: Elizabeth Williams
Usually Robyn (also affectionately known as ‘Red’) would arrive an hour early to work to have a coffee, watch a bit of 'telly' and chat with her colleagues in the tea room.
But now, Robyn has to have her coffee at home before clocking on at 6am to hit the linen floor.
“My husband makes me a coffee now!” Robyn said.
“He says I’m always cranky when I’m on holidays or long service leave because I want to go back to work. I’ve got good friends here. It’s good company. We all get along together.”
It was July 1985 when Robyn saw the job advertisement in the Wagga paper.
“I was stoking the fire at home. I wasn’t looking but just saw the ad for the linen service at Wagga Base Hospital. My son was getting a bit older and I wanted a job so I went for it,” she said.
Robyn has never looked back.
When you ask her to reminisce about laundering through the decades her cheeky grin erupts. “It’s not as hard as it used to be,” Robyn said with a smile.
“At the old site we used to have six on the ironer, two feeding the sheets, two handing out and two folding. Now we have machines that do all that and pickers that flip the sheets for us.”
“I used to be able to fold the theatre greens with my eyes shut! There’s not much of that now though, a lot of them are disposable one-time use now. I don’t think there is anything here now that was around when I started.”
Known as ‘Red’ by her team because of her naturally auburn hair, Robyn’s manager Joanne Thomas said ‘Red’s’ wicked sense of humour and delicious slices are the cherry on top for this loyal team player.
“She has a fantastic attendance record. Never sick, she’s old iron sides,” said Joanne.
“She has this giggle too and always takes part in the social occasions we celebrate. Everyone respects her here. She can stay forever.”
While Robyn would like to stay forever, she did hint at retirement and her love for travel may be calling.
“I had never been overseas and won a holiday a few years ago to Thailand,” Robyn said.
“Since then I’ve dragged my husband to Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, South Korea and New Zealand.”
Robyn may be thinking about cutting back at work when travel restrictions ease, but she doesn’t think she would be able to leave all together.
“When people ask me if I’m still working, I say ‘yes, of course I love it,’” she said.
“My advice is just keep working as long as you can, while you can.”
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