What Does It Mean to Be Professional at Work - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1194 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2019/04/12 Category Career Essay Level High school Topics: Professionalism Essay Did you like this example? Professionalism can easily be defined by how one carries and conducts him or herself in the workplace. A huge goal, specifically in the healthcare workplace, is to maintain a proper level of professionalism, especially when working in patient care. It is a skill that is developed with practice, experience and a lot of patience. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "What Does It Mean to Be Professional at Work?" essay for you Create order In order to maintain such a level, one must carry certain characteristics within himself or herself. Professionalism is extremely important and something that people, specifically supervisors and patients, really look for in their employees and the people that are taking care of them. Below are some characteristics described in further detailed descriptions. A professionals attire says a lot about them. It is important to dress up the jobs standards, whether that be a suit and tie or just a normal pair of work scrubs. A work uniform should always be pressed or ironed. Ripped clothing of any kind is never appropriate. No matter how long someone has been at their job, he or she should always dress to impress. One should always make sure that they look clean and appropriate as well. Personal hygiene is key as well. A shower is very important and so is brushing ones teeth and hair. These are things that are not at all hard but that some people lack and need help with. No appearance is complete without a good, friendly smile. Without a smile to greet colleagues, patients, or bosses, a person looks angry or unapproachable. A nice smile really completes a good look and says a lot about a good appearance. (Fuller, 2013) Reliability is a big part of being professional, especially in the workplace. Reliability simply means that someone can count on someone else for any particular thing, whether it be for being to work on time, or doing something correctly every time. Always show up to work everyday. And, always show up to work on time. Try to show up early if one is able to because it looks better. In healthcare, there are going to be a lot of emergency situations, so being a person that someone else can can rely on, will be a really big deal. If one can be relied on, that usually means that he or she can be trusted. Its always good to be trusted, especially in the workplace setting. Patients really want someone taking care of them that they can trust with their life and that they can really rely on; try to always be that person. Phone etiquette, such as talking over the phone, or netiquette (network etiquette) is a characteristic that is growing to be more of a big deal now-a-days with the growth of technology. People rely heavy on the use of technology now. Email is the main way people communicate with each other within the workplace now. It is very easy to misinterpret how someone means something over the phone or over a text message and/ or email because we cannot see faces. An email is a legal document and should always be treated as such. Flaming, which is typing in all capital letters, is never ever an appropriate thing to do. When using email, never use abbreviations. Always spell out full words and try to avoid using conjunctions. Always try to use shorter sentences and get straight to the point, avoid long sentences. (Fuller, 2013) Accountability is a term that means taking responsibility for ones actions, even in a professional sense. Accountability is extremely important in a professional workplace. Showing accountability when one makes a mistake or does something wrong will show a supervisor or manager will speak volumes. It will show the supervisor that one is serious and really cares about the job at stake. Delegation is when someone puts his or her task or job duties onto someone else. The accountability lies still with the delegator and the person being delegated. An accountable person is a person that someone wants to work with, no one will have to worry about that person making a mistake and putting the blame on anyone else. They will automatically take the blame themselves. (Half, 2014) Communication is probably one of the most important characteristics of professionalism that there is. Communication can be broken into two categories- verbal and nonverbal. Verbal communication can either be written or spoken. Verbal communication is critical in patient care. Patients want to know that they are being listened to and being well taken care of. They really want to know what is going on with them so being able to speak clearly and understandably is important. When speaking, the tone of voice is very important. That can give away how one really feels at the moment; whether or not the person is really engaged in that conversation or just does not care. (Fuller, 2013) Non verbal communication would be best described as body language. Body language can be gestures, ones posture or ones facial expressions. Someones body language can be a dead giveaway for how they really feel about what is going on around them. No matter what is being thought about inside ones head, the body language will tell the receiver how that person really feels. For example, if someone rolls his or her eyes, that usually means that they are irritated or bored with what is going on around them and would rather be doing something else at the moment. Being a competent person is being a person that is able to do most things efficiently and successfully. Efficiency is huge in the workplace, especially in healthcare. Healthcare is a very fast pace setting and things need to get done at a rapid pace. So, efficiency is key. Those that are the least competent tend to hang lower on the totem pole and get pushed to the side. Supervisors look for competency within their employees. Competent people usually get promoted and hang on to higher positions. (CareerBliss, 2011) With professionalism, sometimes comes people that are unprofessional. Unprofessionalism can definitely alter the workplace. Someone being unprofessional can affect the people around them at work and just make work flat out miserable. If everyone at work acts appropriately, dresses appropriately, communicates appropriately, takes accountability for their actions, is reliable and is just an all around great team player, then that would be a great and smooth professional workplace to be in. It really helps when certain rules and regulations are set in stone at work for the employees to follow, that way no one is under any wrong impressions of what to do and nothing is up in the air. The way one should act should always be kind of a given. Professionalism makes the workplace run smoothly and when one person ruins that, it kind of ruins the entire workplace. It throws everything off balance. Be reliable, be accountable, be on time, be punctual, but most importantly, no matter what, alway s remain professional. Bibliography CareerBliss. (2011, December 13). Business Insider. Retrieved from Businessinsider.com: https://www.businessinsider.com/be-perceived-as-competent-in-the-workplace-2011-12 Fuller, J. K. (2013). Surgical Technology Principles and Practice 6th ed. Macon, Georgia: Elsevier. Half, R. (2014, June 6). Professionalism: An essential career skill. Retrieved from Careerbuilder.com: https://www.careerbuilder.com/advice/professionalism-an-essential-career-skill

Essay Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - 847 Words

Afraid New World Aldous Huxley’s â€Å"Brave New World† highlights the theme of society and individualism. Huxley uses the future world and its inhabitants to represents conflict of how the replacement of stability in place of individualism produces adverse side effects. Each society has individuals ranging from various jobs and occupations and diverse personalities and thoughts. Every member contributes to society in his or her own way. However, when people’s individuality is repressed, the whole concept of humanity is destroyed. In Huxley’s â€Å"Brave New World†, the concept of individualism is lost through hyperbolized physical and physiological training, the artificial birth and caste system, and the censorship of religion and literature by a†¦show more content†¦The drug creates a false dichotomy of being happy, therefore nobody deviates from taking it and nobody is encouraged to. Despite the physiological alterations, there are also many physical modifications made. The citizens appear young and remain energetic their whole lives. There is a set of physical specifications that nobody’s appearance fluctuates beyond, restricting each individual’s personal style and personality. Women are also issued a â€Å"pregnancy substitute† to regulate bodily hormones if needed. Citizens are essentially powerless and have no control over their own bodies and minds, making it impossible to oppose the government or the idea of conformity. Huxley paints a future world in which biochemical technology has advanced to the possibility of artificial human birth—ninety-six per batch. Each individual is set into a group of the caste system that prevents integration of different levels of the caste. They are separated into five castes: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Alpha, being the upper echelon governmental workers of society and each decreasing in status. Citizens placed in lower castes are assem bled in large batches. The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning explains, â€Å"Bokanovsky’s Process (mass production of twins) is one of the major instruments of social stability†(18). Members of each caste are designated a color, and are required to wear the respective color, even the high class Alphas.Show MoreRelatedA Brave New World by Aldous Huxley668 Words   |  3 PagesIn Brave New World, there are similarities that have a deeper meaning that we can understand. There are personal effects in Aldous Huxley life that contribute to what he has written in the book. Aldous Huxley throughout his life have seen, done, and events have happened to him, just like all of us, but he has expressed it in his book. So when Aldous wrote the he had so many ideas. I have read the book; it’s notRead MoreBrave New World by Aldous Huxley811 Words   |  3 Pages Brave New World is based around characters who gave up the right of freedom for happiness; characters who ignored the truth so that they could live in a utopian civilization. The deceiving happiness was a constant reminder throughout the book. Almost every character in Brave New World did whatever they could to avoid facing the truth about their own situations. In this society, happiness is not compatible with the truth because the World State believes that happiness was at the expense of theRead MoreBrave New World By Aldous Huxley1525 Words   |  7 PagesA Brave New Feminist The novel Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley in 1932 is known for its social satire, utopian values, and unusual standpoints on stereotypical gender roles. In this time where futuristic technology has completely taken over, and men and women are given the same opportunities for everything, â€Å"the genders appear equal within the social order; both men and women work at the same jobs, have equal choice in sexual partners, and participate in the same leisure pursuits† (MarchRead MoreA Brave New World by Aldous Huxley664 Words   |  3 Pagesfor the fact being in the future and in the past time has changed and many differences were made. In his Dystopian Society Huxley portrays masses of niches where the government produces clones for specific reasons. Huxley decides throughout Brave New World that cloning humans is unethical. He then becomes in contact with the society’s most powerful Alphas and Betas clones. Huxley suggest in BNW that lower class groups in clo ning humans to act like servants to terrorize them into working hard conditionsRead MoreA Brave New World by Aldous Huxley1189 Words   |  5 Pages In the world of sex, drugs, and baby cloning you are going to be in many situations where you feel like the world we live in should be different. In the story Brave New World, they had sex with multiple partners along with a very bad use of drugs. It is weird that Aldous Huxley wrote this book in 1931 about the world he was living in during that time and how it is similar to the world we live in today. Nowadays, drugs are still being used and people are still engaging in sexual encounters withRead MoreBrave New World By Aldous Huxley968 Words   |  4 PagesAldous Huxley’s utopia in Brave New World foreshadowed and illuminated the complications within modern day society. Upon its release, the narrative became widely banned all over the United States due to the unorthodox thoughts and actions of multiple characters in it. Early readers, as well as modern day audiences, feared and rejected the ideals that Huxley incorporated into his perfect society; however, our society today is heading towards the dark paths the older generations desired to avoid. Read MoreA Brave New World by Aldous Huxley895 Words   |  4 Pagesthe novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley tells of a society where everyone is the same but, compared to t oday’s society, everything is different. Huxley tells of a world where everything that happens or takes place is because of one’s own desire and nothing more. The hero in the novel, a â€Å"savage† named John, is Huxley’s main focal point. It is through his eyes and mind that the reader sees what’s going on. Now when I read this novel, I began to think, â€Å"Could this perfect, conformed world actuallyRead MoreA Brave New World by Aldous Huxley1684 Words   |  7 Pagesimperfect world and is usually only a hopeful dream. These types of worlds can greatly be described in detail through the world of science fiction. Aldous Huxley was an English writer who lived during a time when war and chaos were engulfing the world. His works reflect his view and thoughts on a dystopia, which is a false utopia, and describes what could occur in possible governments of the world. The ability to understand and dive into the thoughts of the author is what make s world literatureRead MoreA Brave New World by Aldous Huxley614 Words   |  2 Pagesthem truly happy. What if someone were to tell you that what you thought was true happiness was all an illusion. In a Brave New World by Aldous Huxley people in the world state are conditioned and drugged up by soma to not experience true happiness. In a world that is perfect, human beings do not have to depend on drugs to keep our world in balance. In a Brave New World by Aldous Huxley there is always a perfect drug called soma that keeps everyone happy, which they have based their society on. ThisRead MoreA Brave New World by Aldous Huxley948 Words   |  4 PagesWelcome to a world were â€Å"Brave† is not just a word; It has a true meaning. This is a story were everything as you know it, doesn’t seem to be right and will completely change your way of thinking. When this story was written, life was very harsh for many people†¦.Mostly for the author who wrote â€Å"Brave New World† During this time (1930s) they didn’t have much sexual content Living The Future Of The Past In The Present†¦.. In the air; But Aldous made a future full of sex for them and we are the

C-Direct Insurance Company Free Essays

201KM GROUP PROJECT CASE STUDY 3 Case Study 3 The C-Direct- Insurance Company Developed by Peter Race, Henley Management College Call centres have fast become one of the most important channels for organizations and their customers to interact. There are around 4,000 call centres in the UK today,employing over 400,000 people. The direct sell insurance industry is increasingly using call centres to access and service its market. We will write a custom essay sample on C-Direct Insurance Company or any similar topic only for you Order Now The C-Direct -Insurance Company has its call centre in Newcastle, England. The company itself is just 6 years old and specialises in selling automobile insurance policies direct to customers. The process Advertising and promotion initiatives attract customers’ interest and generate enquiries to the CD Call Centre. These lead to the provision of quotations for personal car insurance. In order to provide the quotation, CD operators need to collect the customer’s personal and vehicle related data (in total 17 items) and input them to the computer. The process is as follows: Customers call the CDCall Centre (the focus of this case) by a freephone telephone number and submit the required information. This is entered directly into a computer terminal during the call, their questions answered, and quotation provided within 12 minutes. Customers can pay by credit card and receive immediate insurance cover. Customers receive their personal insurance offer confirmed in writing by mail, about 23 days after initial contact. Mr Small, the Operations Manager, is responsible for all operations in the Call Centre. The Call Centre employs 105 people in three shifts over a core day between the hours of 0800 and 2000. The resources for the Call Centre are:  · its facilities – for example the buildings and the staff’s workspace/workstations  · the equipment – for example, computers/systems the People who use them. Car insurance is compulsory in the UK, so customers are price sensitive and tend to shop around to compare the company’s offer with those of competitors. Only about 17% of CD’s offers are converted into policies. The operations management strategies of scheduling, capacity and quality management were reactive rather than proactive; for example, poor forecasting of demand resulte d in excess manpower being under utilised. Staffs were inflexible and showed little sympathy or understanding to frustrated and angry customers. The interfaces with support functions such as Marketing or Information Systems Department tended to be confrontational rather than supportive. Fortunately, in the early days, competition was not very tough and Mr Small had no special performance targets or formal control mechanisms – he was literally his own boss. The policy change After five years of high growth, over the last twelve months sales have only grown by 3% and the company is beginning to struggle with diminishing profits. The main reasons for the slowdown have been identified:  · New Entrants: 15 companies in the last 2 years, producing a wave of ‘direct insurance startups’. These companies have targeted the same customer segment as CD, the market for which has remained stagnant.  · Customers are more price sensitive and new entrants offer extremely low prices.  · Substitute Products are unchanged – customers still require car insurance. The new situation has forced management to review business policy options to provide a competitive advantage. Research has shown that for direct selling insurance products, the key market drivers are to:  · Offer a wider range of insurance products, so minimising the need for customers to deal with many suppliers. Offer low prices  · Provide excellent service. A recent internal report showed that the CD Call Centre still had potential to improve service levels and cost efficiency. The decision was therefore taken to extend the product range and improve service by addressing: Product flexibility CD will respond to customer’s demand by launching a new product – household insurance – and deliver it via the Call Centre, alongside car insurance. Household insurance is often requested by customers and they have been in the past disappointed not to source it from CD. Furthermore, the product margin for household insurance is high, thanks to low average claims. Since only a few competitors currently offer household insurance, management believed they could generate an above average profit margin in the first year after launch. Responsiveness In order to make the new product successful, it will also be necessary to fulfill customer expectations for ‘time’ response. Consequently, operations management will need to ensure quick access to the Cal Centre and efficient treatment of customers for both products. Quality Improve customer service – at least to match competitors’ standards. Internal analysis has shown that the auto insurance ‘lapse rate’ (customers not renewing their policies) – which is an indicator of customer satisfaction – was above the market average. To avoid this trap with the new product, significant improvements in service delivery of all CD’s activities is needed (including settlement of claims, which is not part of the Call Centre’s responsibilities). Cost Ensure price decrease of insurance premiums by reducing internal costs. All possibilities for further cost reduction must be exploited to permit a price level lower than the top five price leaders. By launching this policy change, senior management believe a successful implementation will lead to higher customer satisfaction and consequently to profitable growth. Influences on the operations The change in business policy will have an impact on M. Small’s current operations strategies. The policy change has been developed at corporate level but the benefits will have to be delivered by Mr Small, the Operations Manager, in the future. Therefore, Mr Small will need to address the changes to operating systems structures and operations management objectives. The determination of the tradeoff between customer service and resource utilisation will be a key factor for sustainable operation, especially in this competitive environment. The new business policy decision will affect Mr Small’s current practice in two ways. First, he will have to interface with the project setup to manage the launch of the new product and modifications to the delivery processes. Second, Small will have to establish operations management strategies to allow the business to meet the objectives of the policy change. The Project phase Workforce The existing staff will be responsible for the new product, alongside the existing offering. Therefore an intensive training programme on Information Technology (IT); enhancements and new product features will be required. To improve the overall quality and service provision, customer acquisition techniques and friendly handling of difficult customers will be covered during the training. Mr Small will work with the training department to develop a training plan which will take at least four days per group to deliver (each group has about 10 employees). Therefore, he will have to schedule the training so that the normal business will not be hampered by too few staff in the Call Centre. The new training approach will also have a long term influence, because training updates for employees will be held at least once a year. One of the aims of the training is to reshape corporate culture so as to engender a commitment to high efficiency and excellent ervice. This will demand empowering the workforce to focus on customer service, together with better collaboration between staff, by using more teamwork, to raise the overall efficiency levels of the operation. Mr Small will also have to install a feedback process to evaluate the satisfaction level of the staff, to help identify continuous improvement areas. Better motivation will be achieved by introducing a new incentive sy stem, using positive customer feedback as a measure for rewards. Facilities equipment The current workspace/workstation for a Call Centre staff member is a small, open ‘boxlike’ area (less than one square metre), containing a terminal, keyboard and telephone. The boxes are very close together and do not have a proper noise protection. Staff complains about the workstations, because with the background noise of five or more colleagues, concentration is difficult, and the number of data input errors are high. Staff have little space to write notes, so for example, noting down a telephone number to return a call to a customer is very difficult. After looking at the staff’s workspace, Small realised they would have to modify the building in order to create more space and provide noise protection. He thought that only by providing a convenient and ergonomic workspace would he be able to ensure his staff’s full commitment to performance improvements. A careful forecast of future demand will be necessary in order to install the right number of new workstations and avoid under/over utilisation of resources. Technology A new terminal mask (template or standard screen) for the Call Centre needs to be developed by the Information Systems Department (ISD). This mask must contain all questions that need to be answered by the customer. To ensure service quality, ISD would have to create a flexible IT system, which would enable the Call Centre staff to quickly switch from one screen to another, according to customer’s demand. The competitor benchmark for ‘time to switch’ screens is less than 3 seconds. Furthermore, high IT reliability is vital, because breakdowns in the past have stopped all activities of the Call Centre, (since they depend on online access to the mainframe) and customers could not be served during that time. Mr. Small wonders if an ISD/Call Centre staff taskforce should be setup to explore the main historical problems for poor reliability, define development areas and try to find the best possible solution. Organisation Experience in the past has shown that the first few months after a product launch to be critical. Therefore, a new role of a ‘first alert support person’ needs to be established. The ‘first alert’ person will help improve service by patrolling the Call Centre and helping the staff during busy times, in cases of difficult customer questions or with technical problems. Furthermore, they would have a coaching role for new employees and also support staff training. The Human Resource Department (HRD) will need to develop the job description, provide a career plan for that role, manage the necessary recruiting and training process and determine how this new position fits into the organisation. Questions 1. Prepare the Project Definition Report for implementation of the policy change. This report should cover: vision; purpose (including a stakeholder analysis); objectives; scope; strategy; project phases; and project organisation. 2. What are the risks for the project and how should they be managed? How to cite C-Direct Insurance Company, Essay examples

The Effects of British Colonisation on Indigenous Australians free essay sample

There are many effects of British colonisation on Indigenous Australians. One of the worst impacts was the loss of land. The land is the sole provider of food, medicine and other basic needs to Indigenous Australians. It is also the main part of their spiritual and cultural beliefs. The Indigenous Australians lived ‘nomadic’ lifestyles. They lived in tribes that moved around, using only what they needed, recycling what they could, and moved on when they felt that the resources at the site had been exhausted. This gave the site time to recover and recuperate, and so, their resources never ran out. To the Europeans, land stated how wealthy the owner was, and they linked land ownership with power. The more fertile land you owned, the wealthier and more powerful you were considered to be. This, of course, did not apply to all Europeans who came to Australia, as most were convicts who were given land to farm and provide food for their community. We will write a custom essay sample on The Effects of British Colonisation on Indigenous Australians or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page When the Europeans came to Australia, their main aim was to build another colony, as well as find another place to situate their convicts. There were many reasons for the British to build extra colonies. These reasons include politics, religion and economics. Politics plays a very important part in colonialism. Extra colonies provided status, power and influence over the settlers, for the colonizer. This power enabled other effects of colonisation to take place, e. g. the spreading of religion Religion was a vital part of everyday life for the British. They felt that they had been ‘burdened’ with the task of having to spread their faith – Christianity. When the British had come into contact with the Aboriginals, they tried to ‘save’ them by introducing them to their religion, however, the Aboriginals had their own religion – the dreamtime. Building extra colonies also provided access to more natural resources, goods for trade and opened new markets for trading around the world. This provided even more wealth, and increased the economic status of many countries. When the British had ‘invaded’, many indigenous communities were forced off their land, which they considered sacred. In the early 19th century, many settlers took vital parts of the Aboriginal land, such as waterholes and soaks. By the 1870’s, all fertile land had been distributed. Many communities were reduced to living on the borders of British owned land, or on lands that were infertile, and considered unsuitable for settlement. As a result of the loss of land, the number of Aboriginal communities and the number of Aboriginals were greatly reduced. Consequently, they lost essential resources such as food and water, as there was less land to move around in, and less time for the land to recuperate. There are many effects of British colonisation on Indigenous Australians. Some of these were good, some others were bad, but the loss of land was one of the worst.