Handling disruption & change within work

Importance of a story

A story is the account of past events in someone’s life or in the development of something. It is through stories that we entertain, provide knowledge and are also able to reflect. This process of stories can be seen specifically through the stories within the history of work and how it is continuing to progress due to the future of work being so dynamic. It is for this reason I will also be providing a brief account of the experience I have had within work, where I have had to respond to disruption or change. It is through this self narrative I am hopeful that I will be able to showcase my personal values and then be able to foresee where they will fit into the current future of work.

Own experience

My disruption and change within the work was brought due to a change within my physical location as a sporting opportunity required me to move from Sydney, NSW to the Gold Coast, QLD. This physical change caused disruption as I had to find a new work place and part ways with my previous situation in Sydney where I was able to land a customer service role with a surfer company. When working you need to combine skills, resources & time, unfortunately with little experience in any prior customer service roles my disruption was caused by the skills element of my new working environment.

The role and skills within customer service require persuasive speaking skills, empathy, patience, ability too prioritise and to know and have a clear understanding of the companies terms and conditions alongside any advertising events. This role specifically also required me to respond to emails, chats and phone calls from customers and handle their concerns.

In this new role, specifically within the timeframe of my first month in the job I struggled to retain the terms and conditions of the company, the required processes to deal with customer complaints and share this knowledge in real time actions with consumers via the mediums of live chat and phones. It is during this starting month, I continue to grasp the positions key principles, when sharing this concerns to another peer I realised I was absent but implicit. This meaning the process of discovering a value that is important to you when discouraged, frustrated or hurt, my case I was able to find this value due to being discouraged by my lack of skills when starting the role. It is through sharing this conversation with that co -worker that I realised I needed to apply the value of open communication with my manager and let them know that I was struggling with the position and felt discouraged in the process. By using this value they ensured me I was doing well for my first month and understood that it would take time to learn the role and become more comfortable within it. After this conversation I was able to ask them more regularly and easily and resulted in the overall improved performance of my work for the company.

As mentioned above that through the principle of story telling I was able to highlight a value that was of importance to myself and help overcome the disruption I was experiencing within the workplace. Thankfully due to my first realisation in the value of open communication, it lead to more communications with my peers in my first month in the role and how I was finding finding the position and environment. It was again, that the method of talking and regularly communicating to co-workers that I had adopted another value at work due to my contribution in outsider witnessing. This process entails noticing what you pick up in the stories of others that to recognise your values and theirs. In these conversations during the early weeks of starting work, these talks with co-workers had common theme in which they used to adjust to the change of starting the same role with the company, this being note talking and organisation. It is from the sharing of these stories and values that I found myself starting to adopt their advice and implement it towards more own work. For example I started note taking on customer complaint steps in which I was having difficulties completing and also started to organise which task where most important for me to complete on the given day.

It is from this self narration practise of my experience in the workplace, that I found it to be a great source of reflection and understand that my experience in this environment was largely influenced by the relationships that I shared within that environment that helped me adjust to this disruption and better shape my future of work.

Reference:

• Carey, M, Russell, S & Walther S 2009, ‘The Absent but Implicit: A Map to Support Therapeutic Enquiry’, Family Process, vol. 48, pp.319-331. (Accessed 22nd of August 2022)
• Dulwich Centre Publications 2020c, ‘What is narrative therapy’, The Dulwich Centre (Accessed 22nd of August 2022)
• White, M 2000, ‘Re-engaging with history: The absent but implicit’, Reflections on Narrative Practice: Essays and interviews, Dulwich Centre Publications, Adelaide, pp (Accessed 22nd of August 2022)