TEAM EXPERIENCE
A team is an official or non-official group of people organized to work in partnership to achieve a mutual goal. In a workplace, a team is a group of workers who works together in a short term contract or as permanent workers aiming to accomplish shared objectives. A team, therefore, can successful or a bad team that is not successful.
In my experience as an employee in a bakery, I was in a team that worked very hard towards the bakery’s success as the wages were associated with the bakery’s achievements. Our team in the bakery had a common goal that was as a result of a positive reinforcement, which was to give our best in the baking activity to get the best from the vast profit made. The team also had a good flow of communication from the employer to the employees and among the employees. Orders were followed to the latter, and every worker was open to being corrected even by the fellow workers. The team was divided into subgroups such that every subset was entitled to a particular responsibility. For instance, if the team was to bake queen cakes, each step had a group of people to handle. Again, the team was excellent at managing time where everyone was punctual in arriving at work and made sure that baking time took not more than the stipulated time.
Additionally, the customers’ orders and requests were attended within the shortest time possible. Lastly, I’ve never forgotten how the team used to settle the differences and solve problems if there was a disagreement among the workers. The manager had no chance to know it because involved people with the help of one of us talked about it came up with the solution.
On the other hand, the team had one noticeable flaw. Almost everyone in the bakery tended to wear unofficial clothes while at work. I found myself unable to be different from others to put on official attires. It would have made one a topic of the day as the colleagues joked calling the person in official, “a new manager.” The bakery had a place where people could sit and get served while others wait for their order to be processed. Both the bakers and chefs wore jeans, t-shirts, miniskirts, sneakers, and decorated as well as ragged clothes before putting on aprons and toque Blanche. To my perception, that kind of dressing chased away some customers without our knowledge. The team’s problem was the youthful influence and the mindset that young people working in the bakery should wear casually.
This kind of behavior could have been curbed by first explaining to the workers the importance of being in official clothing working in a public bakery as it builds self-confidence, increases productivity, and makes one earn respect. People believe one is good at his/her work. Secondly, it is vital to put on clothes that cover the whole body adequately, especially when working in a place where fire and hot substances are the tools of work.
In conclusion, teamwork is not only characterized by hard work and productivity but also discipline and self-respect. All this, when incorporated with handwork towards the achievement of a common goal, efficiency and much productivity is achieved hence greater success in the workplace.