A day in the life of Jet Operations Manager, Jade Rock

It’s all about relationships

Building relationships with people is vital for success in this industry, for Jet’s 350mm and half metre Operations Manager, Jade Rock, her passion comes from seeing the results of her conversations both internally and externally. Speaking to Jade her passion for people is obvious, as is her personal determination to deliver the best results.

Jade outlines that her role involves an equal mix of liaison with current customers and speaking to the Jet team out on the roads. “I’ve become quite perceptive over time,” she explains. “I can usually tell from just a chat if something is bothering one of our team and equally with the customers I know well. We build long-term relationships, so you end up noticing subtle differences. I can then react as I need to. It’s all about relationships really.”

“I probably spend about 60% of my day on the phone in the office, however I do enjoy getting out and about as well meeting customers and visiting our teams on site when I can. I was reflecting on a recent visit to site and it’s actually really nice to see the work in progress after we’ve helped to organise the logistics. The team on site work very hard.”

“I’m an Operations Manager now, but I think it really helped that I started out with Jet nine years ago as an Operations Assistant, I’ve retained a lot of those personal relationships and now as a Manager my role has changed, but many contacts remain the same. I’ve got some great support from my Assistant, Joe, and we just work as a team tackling every day.”

Jade has been around at Jet long enough to know that planning out her day doesn’t necessarily work. The nature of her role means that she has to be agile and a 9am phone call on any given day can change everything.

“Our time is precious,” Jade continues. “Jet is extremely focused on the correct process, which means we have a lot of important paperwork, but for the right reasons. Naturally, I end up in a lot of meetings and I speak to customers, suppliers and operators. We make bookings, deal with any issues on site and become problem solvers.

On the recent high profile M4 project that Jet completed, Jade’s 350mm planer was operating alongside the larger two metre planers, demonstrating the joined up approach that comes as part of the role.

“We do quite a lot of those type of collaborative works actually, we cut joints on bridges and work alongside the other members of the Jet team.”

Planning ahead for projects is always the aim, but Jade is quick to point out that it’s not always possible.

“We’ve just had a job drop in today for tomorrow, because I manage the smaller planing machines and a lot of our jobs have still been going ahead, despite the recent bad weather, we can still get those jobs over the line.”

Having a supportive culture and experienced people around the business is one of the key things Jet prides itself on and Jade mentions one colleague in particular.

“It’s great working with the likes of Tina Greenhill, our Health and Safety and Sustainability Director, she’s very supportive and helpful. There’s a whole mix of different people at Jet and I enjoy working with them all, but Tina in particular. It’s important to also mention the team on the ground, they work so hard and really do deliver for the company.”

Picking just one project across nine years that stands out is no easy task, but Jade highlights a recently completed eight-month project on the M6 Bescott.

“That’s the one that sticks in the mind, just because there was so much that went into it to ensure it was a successful project, everyone, including the client was really happy with the result. We had two half metres and a backup planer on site for a long period of time, but it couldn’t have gone any better. In fact, we are just about to start the next phase this month.”

Jade is unassuming, hardworking and dedicated to her job, with a busy homelife also to juggle, but she does enjoy being a football mum and watching the football when she gets time to unwind – although she adds it’s not very unwinding being a Man Utd supporter at the moment!

“Jet certainly keeps me busy and I enjoy my job, but it’s also nice to switch off, spend time with the family and relax outside of work,” Jade concludes.