169. Why We Love Peterson: An Interview with Glen Whelan
If you want to understand what Peterson’s all about, what Peterson’ been all about, then you need to learn a bit about its essential Irishness. And there’s no better way to do that than to spend an hour or two with one of Peterson (and Ireland’s) great ambassadors, Glen Whelan, Sales Director at Peterson. Affable and engaging, he can effortlessly make your day go just a little better and in doing so begin to understand just why it is that you’ve always loved Peterson. When did you first enter service at Peterson? Officially, I began working in the store part-time, Saturday and Sunday doing retail and serving customers in 2003. Before that, when I was thirteen or fourteen I would come to the factory maybe ever other Saturday with my father Tony, Jr. [now retired, former factory manager] to sweep the floor and dust down the machines. Tony Whelan, Jr., Glen's Dad, now semi-retired, was formerly factory manager and now helps out several days a week. My dad would just be doing his regular day-to-day stuff. He used to joke that could get more done on a Saturday morning than he would in the whole week, because there were no disturbances. And he’d have a couple of other people in with him, people who are versatile and can bounce between stations, like Jonathan Fields [current factory manager]. But I would just be tidying up. It wasn’t about getting paid so much as getting out of the house and spending some time with my dad. Back then, it was a trek for us to get out. Monday through Friday there was a bus just for Peterson employees that would pick them up in the city center. But on Saturday, we’d have to take a regular Dublin bus to get in and to get out. And that bus didn’t just come straight here—it went on a regular Dublin sight-seeing tour and took forever. So I’d dread going home at the end of the day! My brother Allen used to work here as well—for about eight years. He was in BTA—bowl turning and assembly. Peterson is ingrained so much in my family that I think we’ve become institutionalized by now. I always joke with my father that I had the hard job—he just made the pipes, but I had to sell them! It doesn’t feel like seventeen years. How old were you when you started work here? Fifteen when I started in the shop. I turned sixteen in 2003. It was initially just going to be a pocket money job while I finished school. I’d work at the week end and all my school holidays I’d work through, but an opening became available full time. I originally wanted to be a pilot when I was in school, with military as back-up to achieve that goal. But I failed the higher-level physics exam, which you had to be able to do and I was about five per cent off passing, so I had to…