Manuel Collado: The quiet man

Meet Manuel Collado. More than 37 years in Ecrimesa, currently in the Coating Department and about to start a new chapter of his life.

1. How long have you been working at Ecrimesa Group?
   I started at the company over thirty-seven years ago. Back in 1985 I was in the “warm up lap” and today I am almost in the “honour lap”. It’s dizzy to look back. Real Madrid soccer team only had six Champions League when I joined and now ¡they have 14!
2. What tasks have you performed there?
   I worked in the Inspection Department for a short time and the rest of it, in the ceramic coating department, with occasional works in other departments. I was also part of the Works Council for eight years. 
3. How have you seen the evolution of the company since your incorporation?
   The evolution of the company, for those of us who have known it for so long, has been spectacular. In some departments more than in others. In the ceramic coating, in some steps of the process, the upgrades has been evident. Also in the Wax Section. And the rest of the group companies have been set up, which did not even exist years ago. In the sector we work in, the competition is tough and if you relax, your place will be occupied by another.
4. How do you tell or would you tell your children what you do for a living?
   I remember telling my daughters that in my company we made the pliers used by the dentist and that we manufactured them with a method that the Egyptians already knew four thousand years ago.
5. How do you value your work experience in Ecrimesa?
   My experience is positive, very positive. All my working life has been spent in Ecrimesa; so if it hadn’t been good I don’t think it would be some many years. I have always been very comfortable with colleagues and managers.
6. What recommendation would you give to the new generations who are currently starting to work?
   In my opinion, new generations are much more prepared, but I think they are less involved than ours. My recommendation would be that they feel the company as their own and that it will be part of their life for a long period of time. If your company is doing well, you will be doing well.
7. What company would you like to work for, if only out of curiosity?
   Just for my curiosity I would like to work in the Pentagon or the Vatican. I don’t know in which of the two there will be more secrets buried.
8. If time gates existed, to which era of the past would you like to travel?
   I would like to travel to the future, I know the past more or less; but because I have to chose one in the past, I would go back to the 16th century to Seville, surely.
9. Tell us an amusing anecdote related to your work.
   I have many and very good anecdotes, but I will tell a short one. One day, together with Jesús del Río “el chato” (many people surely remember him) we thought to play a joke on another fellow. We take some cans and a rope and we prepare everything to, at the change of shift, tie it to the car.At the end of the day, Jesús comes out to hang the cans on his colleague and after a while, Paco Gómez, who was going to work, tells me:
   -“Manolo, be careful when you leave because they were hooking something to your car.”
   -I turn to Jesus: ”CHATOOOOO! What car were you hooking the cans onto?”  
   -In a gray one!
   -MINE IS ALSO GRAY….!
   It was mine!! We still remember it today ind we keep laughing.
10. Recommend us a movie, a series, a song and a book.
    I will recommend two of each.
    Films: Dancing with Wolves and Young Frankenstein.
    Series: Gambito de dama and Unorthodox.
    Songs: “Squeeze Life” by Manolo Garcia and “Down to Joy” by Van Morrison
    Books: “La fiesta del Chivo” by Vargas Llosa and the Trajan trilogy, by Santiago Posteguillo.
11. That country or city you can’t wait to visit.
    I would like to travel to Patagonia to fish trouts in its rivers.