Paul Henry

Said the following about Marie Addison:

“Where do I start with Marie? I first met her 5 years ago when I joined Northern, she was working as a team leader in Sunderland travel centre. I would have a lot of contact with her in my early days as Marie along with another team leader used to look after the rosters for my staff so her knowledge of the area was vital for me.

Moving onto today Marie now holds the position of Area Team Leader a relativity new role that Marie has really made her own.

Within this role Marie has helped so many people in quite a short space of time. She has had to learn a lot of new skills and has approached each and every new challenge with her own unique but extremely professional way. Her main duties are to assist myself in the running of the stations in the north east and Cumbria and to help staff with whatever they may need help with. She steps in and covers shifts if there are shortages and doesn't hesitate to offer her help. Marie goes about her role to a very high standard and is well respected by staff and management alike.

It is Marie's 'never say no' attitude that really makes her special along with a bubbly personality and infectious positivity you cannot help but raise a mile no matter what your mood. In her role she comes across all sort of issues but is always there to listen to any moans and groans, including my own, and never turns anyone away, being a good listener and showing empathy for people is a something that has earned Marie the respect she has gained from the team.

She has this year got involved and helped so many different people outside of her day to day remit. She thinks nothing of jumping in a car and driving 2 and a half hours to Whitehaven to carry out asset counts or travelling to Bradford to assist a station manager present a staff conference. She has on several occasions helped out the roster team by taking on elements of their work to cover holidays etc. More recently Marie has stepped up and agreed to cover an on call role as the roster was short, this made a real difference to the rest of the roster as they would have had to cover it themselves, again Marie's commitment was shown when she didn't hesitate in agreeing to give up her time to help out colleagues.

I think to sum up Marie has shown on many many occasions that she is willing to go that extra mile to help whether that be a colleague or a customer. She truly is a superstar of the railway!“