After the first two weeks of my placement with the Working Travel Group, the task was quite repetitive and therefore there is not much for me to discuss in detail.
Initially the placement was only supposed to be 105 hours, and once each intern had reached this time, we were told that we could either leave the placement or asked if we would continue until our workload was complete.
Throughout the placement with the Working Travel Group, there were numerous instances of poor conflict management surrounding communication between the interns and our supervisors. Communication is one of the key assets in ensuring good workplace management, and both verbal and non-verbal communication are important (Wall and Callister, 1995). Even though we were on a live Google Meet for the majority of the time, there still seemed to be an ineffectiveness in the communication between the supervisors themselves, and then between the supervisors and the interns.
I often felt blindsided when asked to complete a task differently, as it had not been previously discussed and it was disheartening to learn that I was doing certain tasks wrong. However, instead of being told what to do differently, myself and the other interns almost had to guess as to what was expected from us.
At the end of the placement, the supervisors asked whether they could have done anything to support us further. All the interns brought up the issue of communication, and how we felt as though we had been set up for failure when completing certain tasks.
After this discussion, our supervisors reassured us that they would improve their communication surrounding the completion of certain tasks, when they hire more interns. Although this was a difficult conversation to have with senior members of the Working Travel Group, I felt that this was necessary for the development of communication within the company.
Hints and Tips: Try not to be afraid when discussing important issues with senior members of a company, it helps the business develop for the better.
Megan Curbishley.
Reference List:
Wall, J. and Callister, R., 1995. Conflict and Its Management. Journal of Management, 21(3), pp.515-558.
