Just as I was about to publish my first blog piece about how amazing my past 3 days interning at Tronox has been, we were hit with the news….
The Perth and Peel Region has been catapulted into a snap four day lockdown in response to a community-spread case of COVID-19. I knew straight away that this would mean everything I had learnt and experienced so far at Tronox was about to change. And everything I had written, about how excited I was for our upcoming events, was now going to be irrelevant.
I was offered an internship at Tronox which would combine both of my majors, Public Relations and Event Management. The company was planning on holding a few large events within the coming months, including activities and celebrations for their employees during NAIDOC Week, and a 30 year anniversary for their Kwinana Plant, where I would be interning, and most significantly, a large open day for friends and family of Tronox Kwinana’s employees that will be held in October. The West Australian operations branch of Tronox have not held any large events in roughly 10 years, and never to the extent in which they had envisioned for their open day. So far, in the three days I had spent on site I had been involved in meetings with an app developer to discuss the possibility of digitalising the open day, I had sit in on company budget meetings, edited and helped film a video for Kwinana’s 30 year celebrations, created posters and infographics for employees regarding NAIDOC Week celebrations and importance as well as for the 30 year Kwinana anniversary, and helped to set up for an employee luncheon celebrating Kwinana Plant’s history.
I had already seen and been a part of a lot of planning and organising in my short amount of time with Tronox, with the 30 year anniversary celebrations taking place last week, but now, thanks to the lockdown, I didn’t know what was about to happen. I was stuck at home with no access to the company files or information, because I’m not technically an employee, and had no clue what my “work day” was going to look like. The only thing I did know, was that my home was about to turn in to my office.
I answer mainly to two Tronox employees who make up the communications team, the Community And Stakeholder Relations Officer and the Senior Communications Specialist, as well as two of the administration staff who are the main organisers of Tronox Kwinana’s Open Day. Without the use of a company laptop, I didn’t have access to Microsoft Teams, the platform that I know Tronox employees use to communicate and share files, so I had to hope that these four ladies would discuss with each other what they wanted me to do at home today, and then somehow fill me in.
At 8am this morning, I received a group email with a list of things that I would be able to complete over the next two days (my internship days are Tuesdays and Wednesdays each week). I had a phone call with one of the administrators to clarify some details I needed and what files I would need to be sent, but after that I was pretty much left to my own devices. I was told to reach out if I had any questions or needed anything, and aside from one reply to an email I sent, I didn’t hear anything from anyone for the rest of the day.
This felt so weird for me. Being left alone, completely, to follow through with the tasks I was assigned and not having anyone email to see the work that I was doing or check that I was actually on my device during my work hours. Of course I did my assigned tasks, in fact I think I actually worked longer and completed more than when I have been in the office previously. I think maybe this is because at home I could just focus on my tasks, and I didn’t have any distractions, no one asking if I wanted a coffee, or getting pulled in to conversations and impromptu meetings that weren’t necessarily relevant or of high importance. Today I was emailing potential vendors for quotes, and finding local companies who could provide particular services that we are looking to hire for our Open Day. Tronox has really given me a lot of responsibility so far in my internship, but I really appreciate how confident they are in my abilities.
If I’m being honest, I was really nervous at the thought of “interning from home”. I found during our last lockdown that online uni was not for me, as I had no self-motivation to listen to my lectures and teach myself a lot of the material, however I feel that today went really well for me. I think that part of the reason why I got a lot of work done today, but don’t normally do a lot of uni from home, is because this time what I do, or don’t do, affects a whole team of people. If I spend all day doing nothing, or even just the bare minimum, not only does it look bad for myself, but it lets down a lot of other people who are counting on my work to come through in order to move on to the next stage of this event.
I’m interested to see how tomorrow goes, another day of “interning from home” for me, however I am also grateful for the internship that I have something to do and focus on all day instead of being stuck at home with nothing to do for four straight days. I am also hoping that this snap lockdown squashes the current wave of Coronavirus in WA so that the event I am working on can actually take place in October!!
Keep your fingers crossed for me guys!
(Originally posted Tuesday 29th June, 2021)