27 years - job licked

Posted by Manukau Courier on 15 December 2011 | 0 Comments

Tags: icecream cones, Jasu Gomai, Goodman-Fielder in East Tamaki

Most people can't imagine what 27 million icecream cones look like – Jasu Gomai doesn't have to.

Ten hours a day, four days a week for the past 27 years she's been packing icecream cones at a rate of about a million a year at Goodman-Fielder in East Tamaki but she's about to call it quits.

It was almost a career that wasn't. When she first started she didn't feel like staying, she says.

"The work was very hard. Then one week went by, then one month – now it's 27 years later."

Ms Gomai says it was the people who kept her there, making friends she enjoyed seeing day in and day out.

"I like keeping busy," she says. "Mixing with people and talking to others keeps me happy."

But eventually the work has taken its toll. After so many years standing in the same spot for hours a day her 63-year-old legs can no longer cope and she's decided to retire from cones.

Finally realising it's time to move on, Ms Gomai is now look for a "sitting job" or she might even spend some time tending to her garden. And if she isn't too sick of them, she might even enjoy an