Every Office Needs a Steph
Steph Gagen is the Office Manager at TLM’s Head Office in Bromsgrove.
She’s the one who makes us tick. One of the main reasons why our engineers turn up when you need them, products get delivered on time, problems get sorted.
Every successful business needs a Steph. Someone who’s there in the background, just making sure the operation runs smoothly and people stay happy doing their job.
Apprentice beginnings
Steph joined TLM in May 2014 as an administrative apprentice. She says she loves her job despite the fact that her colleagues know exactly how to “wind her up and stress her out.”
“It’s like working with a bunch of annoying (in a fond manner!) dads and big brothers,” she says.
Wind ups apart, the TLM people play a big part in Steph’s enjoyment of her job. “I love it here because we all get along,” says Steph.
As with all TLM staff, training is an important element of Steph’s career with us. She has NVQs in Business Administration, AAT accounting qualifications and is currently in the middle of gaining her CIMA qualifications.
A Yorkshire lass
You can take the lass out of Yorkshire, but you can’t take Yorkshire out of the lass.” Steph grew up in a small village called Golcar on the outskirts of Huddersfield. With a valley of woodland as a playground, it’s here she developed her love of the countryside.
Despite leaving the county when relatively young, Steph says she’s a Yorkshire lass through and through. “I’m stereotypically to the point and honest – but definitely not tight!”
The Outdoor Life
Today’s Steph professes to being quite sporty and outdoorsy. She loves a walk in the countryside. In fact, with Snowdon and Ben Nevis under her belt and Scafell Pike planned for this year until Covid struck, it seems she’s more of a hiker than a walker.
Sports include tennis in the summer and indoor rock climbing all year. Away from serving aces and the giddying heights, life outside TLM revolves around friends and family in the company of her long-term boyfriend Tom.
The pre-TLM days
Prior to joining TLM, Steph worked as a photographer, taking mainly family and child portraits. She loves photography as a hobby but as a professional, giving people what they wanted rather than adding her own creative vision did somewhat drain the fun out of it.
Steph has self-confessed to a limited technical knowledge of the laser industry. No matter because photography’s loss has turned out to be very much TLM’s gain. Long may she continue to be that all-important, not so invisible person who makes it all happen.
Steph Gagen is one of our team of laser product providers, technicians, engineers and maintenance people that are ready to meet your laser requirements from systems to service, spare parts to laser safety products.
Whatever your specific needs, please visit sales@tlm-laser.com