6 minute read
GETTING YOUR PROMOTION
Climbing the corporate ladder while working remotely
Since the Covid-19 pandemic took over our lives the term working remotely has become common in our daily lexicon. Almost every country in the world has had some level of lockdown in the effort to flatten the curve of the pandemic. South Africa has been one of the hardest hit countries and started 2021 on level 3 lockdown – amended yes but still a level 3, which is just two levels from a complete shutdown. This has been necessitated by the second wave of the pandemic in our country. While this is a reality, the corporate world still beckons. This begs the question; how does one set themselves apart and even get a promotion while working remotely. Are employers even looking at promoting workers? Ofcourse. This is the time to set yourself apart from the rest especially because companies are retrenching. You do not want to be first in line because you are always late for a Zoom meeting.
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Keep these in mind as you navigate the home office and be accountable always.
Check-in with your team or friends in the morning. Don't mistake this for a daily stand-up; this is more like saying hi when you're getting coffee.
Keep people posted if you are leaving early or unavailable. It helps build trust.
Invest in a headset if you will be doing a lot of calls. If there is more than one person in your household that is working remotely, they will thank you for this. It is no fun listening to somebody else's conference call.
Turn on your video when on a video call to help you feel connected and stay engaged. When your video is disabled, it is easy to wander off and get distracted.
Set up a weekly, casual remote chat. This is important to keep staff connected. It also helps employees talk home with colleagues as much as they talk shop with family. This can be on a Friday morning and topics can range from parenting challenges, to home schooling. 19
Innovator The chemist
with a flair for business
By Kamogelo Seekoei
For someone who never imagined a career as a chemist, let alone becoming a thriving business woman, Nomandla Ngcoya, from Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, has done pretty well for herself.
The University of Kwazulu-Natal BSc Chemistry and Chemical Technology graduate ventured into producing cleaning detergents after graduation and her decision is paying off.
“To be honest God led me to this field. Before going to university I didn’t know that one can actually study to be a chemist. ” Nomandla actually wanted to go into medicine but was one point short for entry. So she decided to have a remark on her matric exams.
While waiting life had to go on and she also had to be in class so she took some modules to get her through the first semester of university. This is where she encountered chemistry and fell absolutely in love with the course. “I didn’t know what I was doing half the time but I was always looking forward to lab day, I think that was the innovative side of me popping out. I told my mom that I was going to finish this degree and do medicine afterwards and she allowed me. When I completed the degree I decided to do my honours, ” she reveals.
She completed her Honours in chemistry, her Masters in medicinal chemistry and is currently doing her PhD in medicinal and natural product chemistry.
Innovating
Shortly after completing her internship at UKZN, Nomandla was admitted for eight days for depression. The internship had not gone as she had hoped as most of her experiments did not work.
“We have also attracted investors from the private sector. These investors will help us with the equipment needed for expansions” .
“Sometimes a reaction in the lab can run for 48 hours which means there is no need for you to be on campus unless you want to monitor the reaction which is something you can do twice a day. So I had to report to work even when I had nothing to do, ” she recalls.
She admits that she had an awesome supervisor and great colleagues but repeating the same thing daily ate her up inside. “It was even worse in the first 3 months because the reactions I was doing were not working so it was all in vain, ” Nomandla concedes.
The end of her internship called for drastic action. For her the solution was entrepreneurship. “I registered my first company and I have never relapsed and I am at my happiest, ” she says. Today her start-up, D Chem Group, produces household detergents which include dish washing liquid, hard surface cleaner, tile cleaner, liquid floor polish, thickened bleach, window cleaner and oven cleaner. There are also industrial detergents like pine gel, pine disinfectant, black dip, degreaser and floor stripper.
Production also includes automotive products like car wash and wax, tyre polish and dashboard cleaner as well as laundry products like fabric softener and laundry bleach.
They also have perfumes and body butters. “When you are content about certain things you feel like certain things are right. Even when you are in a relationship, when you are content you feel like you are loved right.
The same goes for entrepreneurship, if you are content about where you are going it feels like you have taken the right route even when you have a negative bank balance, ” Nomandla admits.
She says this level of contentment has ensured that she does not relapse into depression or even have thoughts of finding a job.
Milestones and flourishing in a male dominated industry
It will be a full five years in May since Nomandla established her start-up. In 2020 I made it into the Top 5 in the KZN Ithala Bank inkunzi isematholeni youth in business competition.
She was the first woman to make it into the top five in the past five years. The winners of the competition are yet to be announced. Not only that, but her products are also incrementally making their way into retail. “We have made it into two local Spars. I am hoping to make it into Clicks as well since they announced last year that they will be buying locally soon, if they haven’t already started, ” she says. If this is not slaying the male dominated industry, then we do not know what is. This is particularly personal for her when she recollects that in their honours class there were only four females and 10 males who often reminded them which chemicals not to inhale as it would affect your reproductive system –“as if woman’s only purpose in life is to have kids” .
They do not even ask us if we want to have kids, they just assume as if God said he is not going to welcome us into heaven if we don’t have kids. Now if you are black, a female, chemist and an entrepreneur you are a rare breed, ” she says.
