Meet Orange Planet #4 Ashley
In our Meet Orange Planet section, we introduce the faces behind Orange Planet to you. Today we get to know our cheerful and brand new mother Ashley, Secretary & Commercial employee.
Hi Ashley, nice that you are participating! Tell us a little bit more about yourself. Who are you, what is your life like?
Okay, well I am Ashley, 27 years old, born and raised in Oosterhout. I have lived here for almost 3 years with my boyfriend Martijn and on December 30th, 2020 our daughter Lynn was born.
Little baby Lynn, how is she?
She’s doing really well. She is a cheerful girl who smiles happily a lot. And she is also quite easy and quickly satisfied. She slept well from week 6, so we are very spoiled with that. If she comes at night, it is disappointing.
Has Lynn’s birth changed your life?
Well, that has certainly changed. The biggest change is that you have to take care of a mini person and that you have to take this into account continuously. Now Lynn is quite easy and we can take her everywhere with us, but planning things ahead or going out of the door to do an quick errand is no longer possible.
Well, that will take some getting used to. What do you actually like to do in your spare time?
Yes, but that’s okay, it is part of the game. In my spare time I usually do fun things with my girlfriends, friends and family. Usually lunch, going to the cinema, shopping, just socializing.
What does ‘doing fun things’ mean to you?
That can be different, now in corona time you can not go to the pub, so I also think it is best to just chill on the couch with friends. A snack and a drink and then just have a nice chat. But I also really enjoy going to the pub together and having fun there. So yes, as long as I am with friends and with people I care about and love then I soon find it all fine.
That sounds great! By the way, do you have any specific hobbies?
No, not really. I’m boring in that respect. I just like to be busy. So now, when I have time again, I want to do a little more with my SLR camera. I now only take pictures in automatic mode and I would like to learn more about that.
Oh that’s nice! What do you like to photograph the most? People, or rather nature?
Well that doesn’t really matter to me that much. I have had it for two years and I mainly use it on vacation in automatic mode. But when I am really working with it, I think I will find out what I like to photograph most. But it would also be very nice if I could also take nice pictures of Lynn later.
And which study did you follow?
First VMBO Theoretical Learning Path and afterwards I started the study Executive Secretary. I did that here in Oosterhout at Flash. At the time, it was part of the Florijn College and was more based on self-study.
Here you could organize your own time. You had certain times when you just had a subject, but further around that you could work on your homework and if you had questions you could just ask them. That training actually took 3.5 years, but I accelerated it in two years.
Oh that’s fast! But then you were very young when you started working?
Yes that’s right, I was 18 years old when I finished. At the time, I did indeed doubt whether I wanted to do a further education, but then I really ended up in the management section, which was not really a good choice at the time, because there were many redundancies there. Then I applied for a job as a secretary, but I was young and had zero work experience. That made it difficult for me to find a job. Fortunately, I worked at HEMA on weekends and I was able to work there more often. In the end I did that for two years. And after that I ended up as executive secretary at Lidl in Etten-Leur.
Was that your first real secretary job?
Yes that was my first real job as a secretary. I eventually worked there for 3.5 years.
Fun! And how did you actually end up at Orange Planet? And what is your role exactly?
I actually ended up at Orange Planet through a vacancy on Indeed. I clicked through to the website and saw the vacancy text there too. After reading the vacancy I looked at the website and looked at the people who worked there. And then I thought, well I think it is a nice and young team.
I was looking for a new job, because in my previous jobs the work of the secretary work changed more and more. Management started to do more and more itself and I noticed that I no longer suited the position that way. When I read the position of secretary 2.0 it seemed more versatile and different from a standard secretary. I thought that would be fun, so I thought I’d just apply and see where the ship stranded. So yes, here we are. To this day I have not regretted it, because I still think it’s great work.
And what exactly does your role entail?
My role is therefore secretary 2.0, the same as Sanne does. In fact, we arrange everything in the field of front office in terms of orders, purchasing, entry, etc.
What makes working for us slightly different?
It is true that we are a small team. This gives us more contact with each other so that you can switch faster. It’s also just not that formal. It’s nice and informal and we can really just say all the things to each other. That’s nice, because I don’t think it is the case with large companies.
Are there other things about working at Orange Planet that you really enjoy?
Yes, just the fun with colleagues and the work that I just really enjoy. For real! In the beginning I thought: how am I going to do this? How do I get this into my head? But I have been working there for almost 1.5 years and I have seen that I am just completely involved. Moreover, communication between me and Sanne runs smoothly, even when working from home. We are well attuned to each other. And that also makes working more fun.
And since a few weeks you got back from your leave, how is it?
Yes, I am now in my 4th week and that is nice again. Probably also, because I could not do much during my leave because of the corona. So by working I get a rhythm again and that’s nice. After 1 day I was used to it again. Although I must say that I am also happy when I see Lynn again after a day of work. I will miss her anyway.
Ah yes I get that! Well as you know we have a very large range of products and if you can choose just one product, what would you pick?
Well, then I would choose the pregnancy yoga DVDs. Before I was pregnant, I started exercising regularly and I had thought about doing Yoga during my pregnancy, to keep myself moving a bit. So I did one lesson, and it took some getting used to. But the breathing techniques were very good. Maybe I’ll pick it up again soon.
Well Ashley, thank you for getting to know you better today!
One last question, what can we wake you up for?
Ooh… food! Cookies and chips, and also vacation. Yes, when we go on vacation you can always wake me up. Doesn’t matter where but preferably to a warm country, no winter sports or something.