International Women’s Day – Meet Shauna

In addition to a number of events celebrating women across our sites yesterday; today on International Women’s Day, we introduce Shauna Hallett, the newest member of our Timber Sales Team and on-call Fire Fighter, we think you’ll agree; she’s some woman for one woman…

I joined the timber sales team about 8 months ago coming from customer care role in BT, I had no background in timber, so it was quite a change of pace and challenge with a lot to learn but thankfully I joined a great bunch of people who really helped & supported me while I learnt the role. I am really enjoying being a part of the timber sales team.

About 2 years ago I was at a point in my life were I wanted to give back and I had the opportunity to do so with my son being a young adult and less dependent on me, so I decided to join Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service and I have enjoyed every minute of it since taking on the challenges of training and learning so much and feel privileged to be in the position to help other people and my community when they need it. I am on call Fire Fighter and commit to giving 100 hrs per week outside of my Balcas working hours with an awesome crew of fire fighters in Enniskillen station.

How do you switch gears from a busy day in timber sales to being on call as a firefighter—do you have a secret “mode switch” ritual?

No ritual really, I just make sure my alerter is on my waistband come 5pm and I tend to just carry on as normal until it goes off, I do always be hoping on the drive home I get home and have dinner in me before I am needed to respond.

What’s the most unexpected or amusing moment you’ve experienced juggling family/firefighting/full time sales role.

I guess the phantom alert that quite a few of us have experienced and all you can do is laugh, it’s when you have been so sound asleep and dreamt you have heard the alerter go off and woken convinced it has and rush to the station in the middle of the night to arrive and it’s in complete darkness and realise there was no alert and you have left your warm cosy bed for nothing.

When people hear you work in two very different yet traditionally male dominated fields, what’s the funniest misconception they have?

Possibly that I don’t enjoy or have the same interests most girls do, but I love my spa days, getting my nails and & hair done etc.

Do you ever find that your firefighting skills come in handy during a sales call?

A big part of my role that I find is handy is the ability to start and keep a conversation going, when we arrive at an incident we are turning up on someone’s worst day and having the ability to be calming presence by finding it easy to start a conversation talking them through what is going on and chatting them easily about everyday life distracting them from the situation they are in. In this role it really helps being able to chat and build relationships with your customers makes them easier to deal with and makes them a little more understanding if the there is a long lead time on the items they want.

How do you unwind after a day that might include both office challenges and on-call emergencies?

No different really from everyone else at the end of a workday joggers on junk food and a good box set/ movie to watch or just an early night.

If you had to describe your work life as a movie, which genre would it be and why? Leave us with a film title!

I asked a friend on this one and they suggested Calamity Jane lol

I’m not actually sure I’d agree myself. I think it would for sure be a comedy as I really enjoy having the craic and banter and think it’s good not to take life too seriously and should be able to have a laugh.

#InternationaWomensDay2025 #AccelerateAction