TO WORK AND
BE HAPPY
Alexandra Coca Costa is a 25 year old girl from Mallorca. Almost 2 years ago she decided to leave her life in Palma to achieve her dream: to live and work in Sweden.
After months of looking for a job she began work at Rebtel, a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) company as part of the customer service team.
Every morning Alexandra arrives at the office early. The company have no rules about the outfits the employees must wear. She can wear any kind of clothes she wants at work.
On Mondays in the common living room, the company offers a complete breakfast for all Rebtel workers. There are lots of different kinds of foods and drinks to help the employees to start the week with energy. All employees are equal; even they have different positions or roles within the company. All of them share the space while they talk and enjoy their breakfast together.
The work space in Rebtel is completely open. The boss doesn’t have an office separate from the other employees. The official language at Rebtel is English, and all of the employees talk to each other in that language. There are a lot of people from different countries within the company. For example; the customer service team where Alexandra works has people from Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Spain, México, Perú and Uganda. Every one of these people have their own and unique experiences that have led them to Sweden.
A selection of the Rebtel customer service team. From left to right: Wallid, Maribel, Fernando, Ver贸nica, Alexandra, Alejandra and Carolina.
The customer service department replies to any questions or problems customers have with Rebtel services and applications via email. The employees have information screens and boards where they can see and write the different issues that need to be attended to.
There are two types of customer service workers. First line agents, who answer easy and fast questions and second line agents, who give solutions to more complicated problems
Alexandra and all of her colleagues give solutions to first line issues, but she also deals with second line issues, fraud and Facebook. She also translates the applications to different languages and helps new colleagues from her customer service team to get used to their new work and Rebtel workflow. A lot of times they discuss issues related with work, regardless of their positions in the company.
At the Rebtel office, the employees have different places where they can rest if they want to. They have videogames, ping pong, a terrace, table games and many more locations. The common living room is where employees can have a tea, a coffee or whatever else they want. Rebtel as a company thinks the employee’s satisfaction is very important. They want them to feel at home in their work space so they can work comfortably and be more productive.
This is the relax room for Rebtel workers. Here is a picture of colleagues playing videogames. There is no specific time to take a break; all individuals can choose when to have it.
Different spaces for employees at the Rebtel office in Nacka.
Ver贸nica is the customer service manager. She will often bring together all her team for a brainstorm meeting. In this kind of meeting they all cooperate to improve the customer service workflow. It is an egalitarian discussion which helps to build better communication between employees.
This is a picture of an annual meeting where all the activities in the previous year are reviewed.
When customer service needs to hire a new employee, Verónica leads her team to the common living room where they interview new candidates for the job while having drinks. It isn’t just the professional skills of the applicant that are important, but also how well they integrate into the team. The questions avoid being of an uncomfortable nature. They are usually just details about their lives, such as why they went to live in Sweden (in the case they are not swedes), where they live, where they are from and what hobbies they have. Alexandra had an interview like this when she was trying to get the job at Rebtel, but she didn’t feel uncomfortable. She said it was a nice experience to get to know her new possible work colleagues.
Alexandra has a good relationship with all of her fellow workers. They talk about work and the company amongst other things. Alexandra’s work is a work of great responsibility. Depending on the speed of her and her colleague’s responses, the customer’s overall satisfaction could completely change. But despite this, and the huge amount of work they sometimes have, the work environment is really good.
Sometimes Rebtel workers organise “after-works�, which are parties after work where they all get together to have some food and drinks while they talk and have fun. All of Rebtel employees, including the managers and seniors come to these events to have a nice time with all of their fellow workers. These after-works are not always in the Rebtel office, sometimes they organise parties in other places in Stockholm.
Rebtel is a young and dynamic company that’s constantly growing, so they decided to film an advert to hire more employees. Alexandra was one of the main characters in the advert, so they went to a studio in the centre of Stockholm to record it. The photo of her was selected as the main photograph of the Rebtel job advertisement, and has been included in one of the most important newspapers in Sweden. The time spent recording the advert has been paid for by PR department of Rebtel. It’s important to note that for the recording of this advert, no one told Alexandra how she should look. They just told her to be herself and to show who she really is.
The PR department usually takes photographs of funny moments at after-works, or for example in the recording of the advert. In the upper right photograph, Sacha, a member of the PR department takes a photo of Alexandra as the “one day main actress� while they are joking. At Rebtel, Alexandra found a place where she can work in the country she always wanted to be in. A place where she feels happy with her job and can be without fear of speaking her mind, or saying what she wants all whilst staying true to who she really is. She has found a company that takes care of her and looks out for her happiness. A company that always wants to know what she feels the company can improve on to make everything easier and better. It is possible to work and be happy. Alexandra is living proof.
Cintia Mars 2014 www.cintiamars.net