#24 Too humble is half proud
Welcoming long weekend as Indonesia celebrate 75th of Independence next Monday! What are you planning to do? Don’t forget to wear your mask and keep 1,5m distance in public places!
On our last newsletter, we had #SalMonday inviting one of best friends from college, Aries. He asked what is healthy relationship with our ex like? Click here in case you missed it!
Do not miss our publication by clicking the button below to subscribe! We hope you enjoy.
Meiska
Last week I had the most unforgettable business trip in my life! For seven days, my colleagues and I visited three cities for venue inspections in preparing FIFA World Cup U-20 2021 next year.
We visited Solo and Surabaya from Jakarta by car to avoid visiting airports frequently. It took around 7-hour trip from Jakarta to Solo, and 4-hour long to Surabaya from Solo.
And then, we headed straight to Bali from Surabaya with the earliest flight, and afternoon flight from Bali to Jakarta.
To be honest, it’s a challenging trip as the number of positive Covid 19 cases has not decreased in Indonesia. We visited three airports and most of the times we had to dine in, except once we finished our agenda, my roommate and I preferred to order food deliveries at the hotel.
Funny thing is, my boyfriend and I shared each other locations on Google Maps! (Well I asked him to haha) I was wondering, though, is it fine for us to share such privacy? Because it was a road trip, I think it’s a good excuse to try out the feature to share him my current location haha. Not only it could share locations with detailed address, but also battery status!
Two days after we arrived from Bali, all of us took SWAB test —all of us are negative from Covid-19! I actually felt guilty though because I live in a same room with my sister. However, I do not have any symptoms, and once I arrived I put all the used clothes to laundry service immediately, spray air disinfectant to all my bags, and took a shower! Until today, I am still finishing my inspection reports because other than visiting 3 main venues, I did inspect 19 hotels! Haha wish me luck!
Elsa
I guess Meiska and I are having the same state of happiness: we are having an unforgettable moment at our workplace!
Yesterday was my last day of summer internship in Innoscentia, a Swedish company working on a smart packaging to detect shelf life of meat real time. They aim to help consumers to reduce food waste, because sometimes people can just easily throw the meat away if it passes the best before date, whereas it is still edible.
If you remember, in Salmon Mentai newsletter #8 (you can read it back here) I was really stressed up at my first days of working. I was the only one who worked remotely from Dublin, while the other five interns were working offline at the Innoscentia office at Stockholm. I put pressure on myself and expected myself to deliver my best and not to disappoint anyone there. Turns out, I was just thinking too much. When I was arrived at Stockholm in early August, I met them face to face and worked together, they have been really nice to me!
Working in Swedish start-up for three months has given me a grasp sense of what was good there. Three things I love from working in Sweden are:
Work-life balance
We usually use Slack for all the conversations, not a WhatsApp group. The chat notifications are quite moderate, just less than 20 chats per day. We are not overwhelmed by tons of work to do, we set our own pace. If you see the Instagram account of Innoscentia Internship (that has been taken over by all the interns in a scheduled timeline), all the interns were really proud of showing they were working after having a yoga, or playing golf with the stakeholders.
Everyone is the same, there is no hierarchy
I am really happy with the progressive thinking of Nordic countries that pose all people in the same level. Take an example when I was living in Paris for six months, the culture there was more hierarchical than in Stockholm. One thing I remember the most was the way the CEO helping me to move from Dublin to Stockholm, and gave me the technical information about all the transportation I should take to go to my accommodation. It was not a ‘CEO with secretary’ style, but the CEO who helped his team.
Openness
It was a first time for me being ‘forced’ to be outspoken about myself (and to hear others’ opinion about myself) and it was super intense. At the first day I needed to give a presentation about myself (family background, hobby, etc). At the second day, I presented my life phase (from I was born until now, the ups and downs, a reflection on difficult situation). There was a moment that someone shared about his divorced parents, or how someone has dealt with anxiety. It was not only the interns who presented themselves, but also the CEO was sharing his hard times. I was amazed with this openness culture that they were working heart to heart even in the first two days of settling in. Although I felt it was an awkward moment for me to have a personality feedback from my colleague, but then it was interesting to find it out!
What is your recent unforgettable moment? Share it by clicking the button below!
Making small things unforgettable is a baby step to see the beauty of the world.
