Celebrating 100 years: Caterina’s Story

In a pre-COVID world, birthdays at work tended to follow a simple formula – a cake, maybe a card or presents, possibly even a lunch. But one of Caterina Garreffa’s milestone birthday celebrations rewrote the rule book when her then manager surprised her with a Harley Davidson ride from the office.

“I had most of Com Super watch me go off on that Harley Davidson,” she recalls with a smile.

Stories such as these epitomise the friendship and comradery that has characterised Caterina’s 26 years at the business. Having started in a team called ‘Transitional RBL’ she has since traversed every operational area and is currently a Customer Engagement Team Leader.

Caterina remembers the days before staff laptops, and many hours spent at the printers in Fyshwick. The alignment and layout of member statements were checked time and time again, and information was fed via telephone back to a colleague, who was making changes from her desktop in the Belconnen Office.

“One particular time we had gone from about 10 in the morning, and didn’t leave until about two the next morning. Our colleague was in the office by herself in the dark, and we were at Fyshwick at the printers doing tests, and we just had issue after issue,” she says.

“Between in each batch of statements which got printed, we had to amuse ourselves.”

While the manual nature of the work may seem tedious by today’s standards, the friendships and connections developed at the time were irreplaceable. Caterina holds memories of Melbourne Cup days, the Social Club, and monthly happy hours. The Belconnen office, while much beloved, also had its creepy side.

“We used to take turns going into the file room, because we were scared, we didn’t want to go by ourselves,” she says.

“We would go with our trolleys to get files and go in pairs, because it was dark and dingy, and we were scared someone would come into the aisles.”

In a journey that has encompassed many wonderful relationships, Caterina has picked up countless leadership lessons along the way, which she works to distil among her current team. People are her passion, and in embodying the CSC value of ‘customer driven’ she says customers are ‘her heart.’

She recalls a customer calling one Christmas Eve, asking for $10,000 to be released because he was in dire financial straits.

“He said, ‘Caterina, I have got no money, and I am getting evicted from my home, I have got two kids, I will be living in my car for Christmas.’ On the other end I was crying, my heart just broke.

“I then escalated it to a Colleague, and he actually transferred the gentleman $500 so he could have money for his kids at Christmas.

“That’s how special people are. I just loved the people I worked with, and to this day, they are my forever friends.”