18 Jul Impressions of My First Visit to (Uniteam) Asia
Working in this industry where communication is so efficient and easy through all these modern means like emails and online calls, life became easier. Challenges can be handled instantly with care and assistance from a “faceless” email responder on the other side of the world without the need for a deeper acquaintance between the sender and receiver.
Working in a similar environment and having so many different email correspondences with so many colleagues around the world, I was always curious about who these “faceless” people behind the screen are in person. It is funny to realise that we all work for the same purpose but have no idea who we are actually working with.
Having so many colleagues from various parts of the world, with different lifestyles, culture and time differences between us, makes our work so surprisingly impressive in regards to coordination and progression.
The outcome of every challenging or successful working day brings us all together in an indirect way and creates a bond that builds an interest in meeting the other person that you shared that experience with. Having this similar curiosity, I was always hoping for the opportunity of someday meeting these people that we correspond with daily, encounter challenges and overcome them, and share a face-to-face conversation. Getting to know them and interact with them, without the screen in between. Thankfully, a response to my request for an opportunity was closer than I thought, as the company gave me the chance to travel to our offices in Singapore and Myanmar.
Considering myself an individual who enjoys travelling and loves discovering different cultures, I have never been to Asia before. So that was an experience I was really looking forward to. Moreover, with my first destination being Singapore, I was very much impressed by the artificial beauty and multicultural diversity of the country. However, even more impressive to me was the friendly welcoming from our colleagues at Uniteam Marine in Singapore. Even though it was my first time visiting them, they made sure I felt comfortable. Since I was very interested in learning about their work practices as port agents, they ensured I was familiarised with most of their procedures. In addition, as I am currently studying academically about port agencies, I had many questions that they were more than happy to discuss with absolute interest and patience, despite their busy schedule.
As good as the visit was, we had to leave the office in Singapore and continue with our journey to Myanmar. Upon arriving in Myanmar, I could feel from first sight that this would be a different kind of experience compared to the one in Singapore. However, similar to Singapore, I received the warmest welcome that I could ever have, from people that we only knew through screens. All in all, with positive energy and smiles everyone welcomed me to their beautiful office and we had the chance to share most of our work-related strengths and challenges faced daily.
I could not be more thankful for their amazing hospitality and willingness to show me around the office and the Training Centre near the Uniteam Building. Despite their busy schedules and personal obligations outside of work, they managed to show us around, in and out of the office, making our experience full of memories that I will always treasure. Through these visits to both offices, I have met so many kind and wonderful people, who I am very grateful to be working together with.
Summing everything together, this experience cannot be expressed in such a short text and I would like to thank everyone that contributed into making these office visits possible and most importantly a massive thank you to all my colleagues from Singapore and Myanmar who shared their time with me. Regardless of the differences and daily challenges we encounter as a company, I realised that “Success through Teamwork” is not just a slogan for the company, but a principle.
Andreas Costi, Crewing Operator