At some point today, Eddie, Southern Rail’s 15-year-old work experience kid with a taste for a light-hearted Twitter replies, will re-take the reins of the social media accounts for @SouthernRailUK.
He instantly endeared himself to Tweeters and company’s customers, changing the tone of online discussions. Southern Rail usually receives a torrent of anger for their much-publicised service faults.
Announcing his arrival with a: “Hi, Eddie here! Here on Work Experience and ready to answer your questions! :)”, he was an instant hit with passengers and improved the company’s public image – if only momentarily.
Perhaps accidentally, Southern Rail has shown that work experience staff can only get the best out of being in a professional environment if they’re trusted with actual tasks.
Earlier this year, Pret A Manger admitted that their work experience teenagers would only be shadowing other team members.
This came after accusations arose that the popular sandwich chain planned to pay work experience staff in sandwiches.
Pret’s CEO, Clive Schee, said: "Pret's work experience week is not about making sandwiches for free. We set it up so that 16-18-year-olds can shadow our teams and get a flavour of what working at Pret is like.”
Meanwhile, staff at HR Grapevine can’t wait for the return of Eddie, the nimble-fingered tweeter.
To allay our pain until he next appears, we’ve collated a list of his best tweets from Monday.
Click next to see more.
