Speak Your Mind Out

Week 1 of internship has passed by and boy does time flies! Work was pretty hectic but not so much that I couldn't adjust to working life. I am sick now for like the second time since I came to Shell, I'm pretty sure it's my body's way of welcoming the new environment.

With UTPians on our first official day as Shell trainees

But there are moments in which I was very grateful to have experienced. Like for instance, staying late at the office till 8.30 PM (my first 12 hours there) only to know the meeting I was waiting for was postponed to the next day. It gave me a trial run for my patience, but either way I enjoyed the experience because I did learn a lot of what my other staffs were currently working on. And it made me appreciate and respect their work more. They have a more hectic life than me, and I'm always amazed at their commitment to work late and get the job done. 

There was this one incident where I was called over to meet the head of our department for an event I was required to assist with. The event was next week and I was given the task to finalize the slides and material used for facilitation. I felt intimidated at first but my boss is a pretty laid back guy who encouraged me to speak out my thoughts and always asks questions. He was attentive, relaxed, didn't pressure me for ideas, and trusted me as an employee and not a trainee who can't contribute anything.

And it reminded me of what one of the employee said to me: 

"Here, we don't intimidate people because communication is key to make sure people tell us their problems that needs to be addressed."

Image from Google

Which is such a welcoming and inviting atmosphere for me. Back in UTP, the norm of the culture for me when I was a junior, is usually anger, or intimidation. Being scared of seniors who would scold you for making a mistake, thinking you're never good enough for the job and being a girl sometimes led people to believe you're not tough enough for anything. Of course this doesn't apply to every event/club I joined in UTP, but there were lots of moments like these.

Being in an environment where the boss actually wants to listen to what you have to say, was pretty refreshing. And I realized that once someone actually wanted to listen to me, I had plenty to suggest or propose to improve the event. I was more eloquent, didn't stammer and didn't feel inferior. 

Which led me to a new resolution: 

To always be approachable and easily communicable, not in discussing ideas, but also to be corrected of my mistakes.

I know that if I open up, people are more willing to correct me of my mistakes as a trainee, and I'll be more responsible of my actions. 

Communication is really important in the engineering world, especially in safety. You can't implement an inferior environment, otherwise you can't help those in need of it.