Post Office manager marks 50 years since first serving

Julie is a font of knowledge about Post Office products and services due to serving      customers in the Worcester area for so long.

For the past 35 years, Julie has worked at Fernhill Heath Post Office and has been the manager for nearly nine years. Postmaster Alan Kasch is full of admiration for the way that Julie runs the branch, helps train colleagues and assists other postmasters too.

To mark Julie’s impressive career, which began in May 1974, Alan is organising a night out with Julie and his team to celebrate. Post Office Area Manager, Mat Wilkes, presented a bouquet of flowers to Julie in appreciation of her excellent Post Office knowledge and customer service.

As a child Julie, nee Godfrey, had always wanted to work a Post Office as her best friend’s Mum was postmistress for Ombersley Post Office, the village where she grew up.

However, Julie’s first job after leaving school was in a bank, but she still yearned to work in a Post Office, with lots of face-to-face interaction with customers.  Now with so many bank branch closures, Fernhill Heath Post Office and other Post Offices, do lots of personal and business banking on behalf of all the high street banks.

Julie’s first role was at Worcester Crown Office and she has done relief work at Droitwich Crown Office, outreach work at village halls, and been a Post Office auditor and trainer.

After having three children and a break to raise them, she returned to work at her local branch – Fernhill Heath in 1989 with Postmistress, Linda Jeffrey. This was on a part-time basis, which allowed her to juggle her work and home life and to provide extra cover for the busiest times of the day.

Originally the branch was across the road until Fernhill Post Office moved to its current location inside the Costcutter convenience store, run by Alan Kasch, in 2015. He became Fernhill Heath postmaster and Julie is Post Office manager.

Julie, 67, still works work part-time as she helps look after her six grandchildren and was caring for her elderly mother who sadly died in 2020.

Julie said: “I have no plans to retire yet as I love my job serving people. When I help to train new people I do it so that I don’t overload them information all at once, but I explain simply and build on that. I always say to my team, any problems when I’m not working, just give me a call as I can quickly advise them over the phone.”

Postmaster, Alan Kasch, said: “Julie is a real gem. She really does go above and beyond. Julie’s such a lovely person, she’s thorough and knowledgeable, and really likes to help people.

“Julie does genuinely want colleagues to call her if they have a question. She’ll be beside a football pitch, watching a grandson play or helping with one of her granddaughters and talking through what to do. Once she was at home cooking and a member of the team had a concern about a customer and she said ‘keep him talking, I will head right over’ and she rushed over and stopped a scam.

“We managed to keep the Post Office and shop fully throughout the pandemic. Julie, who had an elderly Mother, was the first to say that she would carry on working. She led by example as she didn’t want to let the community down. Customers still needed their vital Post Office services and groceries and people wanted to stay local.

“Julie is very organised. We deal with seven different couriers and Julie and her team have segregated all of these and separated out incoming and outgoing mail, so it doesn’t get confused and quicker to serve a customer collecting an item. I really appreciate everything Julie does.”

Post Office Area Manager, Mat Wilkes, said: “I want to sincerely thank Julie for her amazing work serving Post Office customers in Worcestershire spanning five decades. She really cares about her community. She is very supportive to colleagues and trains people well, sharing her great knowledge.”