Work Hard, Play Hard

For 34 years, six-days-a-week, Virginia Gomez has cleaned the offices at 1270 Sixth Avenue in Rockefeller Center. She enjoys her job, and said that after over 30 years, her coworkers have become like family to her.

“I get along with everybody,” she said. While working and cleaning at Rockefeller Center, Gomez greets each passerby with a smile. “I like to be around people all the time and help them,” she added.

She says the best part of her job is helping others. “That’s what I do every day,” she said. “And that makes me proud of myself.”

Gomez said if that if she were to ever leave, she would miss “Everything.”

“When you are at a place for so many years, you are going to miss the people,” she said. “And I love what I do and I have no problems.”

But when vacation time rolls around, she makes the most of it; she loves to travel. In August, Gomez made her way to Istanbul, Mykonos, Santorini, Athens, and London. Just last month she returned from a trip to her home country, the Dominican Republic.

“I like to meet different people and I really like the food,” she said. “It’s similar to here, with a lot of tourists.”

When she’s not jet-setting around the globe, Gomez is spending free time with her granddaughters, or sharpening her travel-skills.

“Right now, in my time off I want to learn a language, like French.”