by Dan Suto

When asked why I work for UXC Connect it would be easy to respond with words like enabled, supported and involved but that would be half the story. I think working for any organisation comes down to people and how they support one another.

Each day I’m inspired to travel 1.5 hours each way because I make a conscious choice to make a difference, in my own way, on my own terms, no matter how large or small. What you wouldn’t expect is to find a team of like-minded people doing the same. They come at varying levels in their careers, experience, knowledge, age, gender and race. The following is a snapshot of what my average day looks like.

My day starts at the front door where I find the Director of “first impressions”. The smiley face that gives you confidence that you’ll get through the day, regardless of what challenges you may face that day. It follows to the mail room star who knows every nook and cranny in the building as well as what makes the company tick. Often you’ll find him pottering around and out of the blue come up and say “hey I thought about you the other day and thought you might like this”.

As I arrive for my 9am meeting I’m greeted by the young woman who I have been mentoring for 3 years. We challenge each other in a trusting and respectful way, with the goal of improving our little patch of the world. The intended result is to improve the outcome for our clients, our staff and for us as professionals.  We constantly strive for win-win. Although many years my junior she brings an unwavering commitment and belief in herself and inspires you with her tenacity, and confidence that she can change the world. I’m excited about the prospects of my day.

We are interrupted by one of my department heads who tells me that he has worked all-night ensuring that his customer network was back up and running, he has sent his senior technician to Melbourne, didn’t seek approval or fill in forms, but made his own call and informed me of the outcome. He didn’t ask my permission because he evaluated the situation, determined the best course of action for his client and acted upon it.

What he doesn’t tell me is that his final exam is tomorrow and that he might need some time off to prepare. What! I have to kick him out of my office, tell him to get some sleep and concentrate on nailing the exam .... accountability, this guy wrote the book!

Next we sit back and decide how to reward Baz who recently arrived from leave, spent 5 minutes with his wife, before working all weekend on solving a critical business issue for his main customer. We thought we better make it a decent one because it later turned out he spent the rest of the week in Melbourne and Brisbane. Was this his role? No. However, his integrity to himself, his profession and his company leaves me feeling average.

By now my other department head walks in and tells me that the analysis he did for the CEO was complete and in my inbox. This is the type of guy where you start a sentence and he’ll finish the book. Someone who works diligently and simply makes your life easier, never complains, but always willing to assist. I reflect on how fortunate I have been to see him develop to a position where he now commands respect from all those around him.

I walk out of my office and see a new Analyst gingerly walking up to me and asking me whether he can have a 5-minute chat about some things on his mind. We later spent 1.5 hours mapping out his career path and giving him pointers about how to go about achieving his goals. Did I have the time, no. However looking at this individual, his hunger and determination I could only be excited that he invited me into his world and allowed me to assist him in navigating his career. Wow!

I later realise that I have an urgent job for the marketing lady who is forever swamped but always manages to take my poorly cobbled drafts and turn them into works of art, or communiqués to change the world.

I hop on a conference call to an internal consultant in Canberra who has just been on a 3 week tender marathon yet still has the time to prepare a report on how he thinks my server team could perform better. His feedback is fair and based on years of experience that he has accumulated for the benefit of the company and not just himself.

The interesting thing here is that while I can only see my part of the world, I know that throughout the organisation a million similar examples could be found where support, respect and common purpose all play a factor in how we go about our work. So if I can be fortunate enough to come to a workplace such as this, then I’ll look forward to what tomorrow holds. Who knows what interesting challenges I’ll come across?

This is our culture. This is UXC Connect.