Communicating Around the Globe

REGINA’S PERSPECTIVE

Regina Farmer regina.farmer@chem-man.com

Recently I was having a conversation with our lead developer Cassie, and I said, “Did you ever think that our careers would be in chemical applications development?” She smiled and said, “Never in a million years”. We both are alike in that we really love what we do, and we agreed that we will always be updating our software to meet the requests and ever-changing technology.

One of the fascinating things that I’ve found about this industry is that no matter what region you’re from (including other countries), the accents or languages may be different, but everyone seems to feel that “connection” and that we’re doing something special to feed the world, get the job done and make it home safely.

I have recently been chatting on the translator app “Whatsapp” with a young pilot from Brazil. They fly 12 planes and are fighting the awful fires in Brazil. They also do chemical applications with ground rigs. It was fascinating doing a demo on our computers and seeing Chem-Man displayed in Portuguese (The software is translated by the language on his computer). At the same time, we’re using the app to communicate. For a sixty-year-old woman, I found this challenging but very exciting at the same time.

We also did another webinar with a couple from Australia, and it was so fun to hear their accents. Of course, I always get teased about my southern accent and I have fun with it. Through technology, our world has become a smaller place and easier to communicate.

Our company is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary next year! Communication was a bit harder in 1992 when we got started. With no cell phones, I was always having to forward my calls. The support was harder because you couldn’t log in to help the customer. I was always asking “Can you mail me a backup?” (Many times, the disks went bad after going through the mail).

Sometimes people ask me “When are you planning on retiring?” I always laugh and say “I love what I do! Why would I want to retire?” My dad retired in his eighties, and I don’t plan on retiring any time soon. Can’t wait to see what the next 30 years bring! Y’all stay safe.

Brazilian firefighters.