21 January 2024

An Ethical Decision

When I was saving to make sure I was financially safe with good emergency savings and lifestyle savings to come to DevAcademy I was had to make the decision between buying my partner an expensive Christmas gift (their own car) that I would have loved to give them or being more finanically realistic and sacrificing a lot of my freetime outside of work for a different gift that I think they would enjoy as much (completing a meaningful piece of woodworking). In the short term buying the car was a big financial expense close to starting this course and it would have made me nervous and unsettled and also introduce a new financial risk when I was about to be foregoing my income. On the other hand the woodworking project was costly on my time and meant that I had to sacrifice social time with friends and some time I had planned to have set for preparation for this course which could risk my effectiveness to get out the gate heading back into study as my best self. In the long term I believe both gifts would have had similar impact emotionally, the car would have been theirs but it was a purchase for us and the woodworking was something that could be cherished by both of us as a representation of my love for them at this point in my life. Also financially the car introduced risk and some negative emotions attached to my feeling of financial security and the woodworking presented no financial cost. In the end I decided to sacrifice my time rather than my finances, I knew that having to sacrifice time away from my friends and family in the lead up to Christmas would be difficult but there would still be some time between then and the start of this course to savour, similarly I knew that I could refactor my time plan to prepare for this course and adjust it within the break to play a little bit of catch up and reduce the risk of starting slow. I'm very happy with the decision I made, knowing that we can still commit to purchasing a new car after this course and that they adored the gift was a win. It also made the moments I spent with them, my family and friends over the break even more important and cherished.

Culture, Values and Identity

I am from a large family, 2 sisters, 3 brothers, 2 mums, 1 dad and an absolute cohort of family that's not blood related attached to all of that. It has made me a caring, kind and settled person who is sure of myself and loyal to a fault with those I hold dear.

My key strengths:

  • Intelligent: Both Logically and Emotionally, I have a good aptitude for understanding what I'm learning and the personal skills to explain and work well with others.
  • Problem Solving: I've been taught to think critically my whole life, sometimes to a fault of overthinking but it has served me well to be an effective problem solver.
  • Detail Oriented: I have a keen eye for detail and often forsee mistakes before they happen and am good at reviewing my work and checking it as I go.
  • Work Horse: I enjoy working and being put to work, I always have multiple things on the go at a time and enjoy life most when it's busy. This will keep me up to date and ahead of the workload while learning.

My main limitations

  • Forward-Thinking: I often become preoccupied with the future, this comes at the expense of what's happenning right now and can cause frustration in group settings as I have a habit of expecting others to forsee problems the same way I do.
  • Overly Accomodating: I can be quite passive when working on a solution, while I work well with others I often end up a 2IC rather than a leader and often avoid conflict at all costs even if it means taking more time or working through sub-optimal solutions.
  • Easily Distracted: I am easily distracted as I often have multiple things on the go, I do have a lot of boundaries/plans in place to been me focused and prioritise things but am only human and can be swayed outside of my guides depending.

Overcomming Team Tension: Strategies and Reflections

When I was training my replacement in my previous job the person taking over my role was significantly older and more experienced than me. While I help my quality of work in high esteem and while training him tried to convey how much I had iterated and developed my working process to be highly effecient he preferred a different approach to the responsibilities of the job. This caused a bit of resistence, especially culturally as my role interacted with every other area of the business and had influence on my colleagues ability to do their jobs well. To counter this tension, I took my replacement for a coffee and we had a discussion about how we can adjust the training and I spent time explaining why I worked the way I worked, he shared his experience and what he was confident in and not confident in and we adjusted the plan so that we weren't wasting time on teaching him basics he already understood and instead of focused on the workflow and how we get to solutions. If I were to be in a similar situation in the future I would do the plan collaboratively from the beginning instead of thinking of a plan ahead of time and applying it directly to them, this would have prevented the frustrations and set my replacement up for success with the rest of the team rather than starting them on the back foot and asking them to treat him with grace while he figured out the job.