Polina Ismailova
Label Specialist, Belarus
I started working at ConvaTec in November 2017. I have a degree in linguistics and I never thought I would be working in a company that provides medical products and services, saving lives every day. I had a three-month probation period that I recently passed with flying colors. I found it quite easy to settle, as all my colleagues helped me with any possible questions I had. My managers also have taught me a lot in such a short period and I am sure there is even more to learn! I work in the Quality Assurance Department and the quality of our products and services is our main goal. We support and inspire each other to achieve that goal. I am excited to work for ConvaTec and I am happily sharing with you my day in the life story.
My day begins at 6:35 am. After a quick morning exercise and a protein shake, my husband treats me to a big, lovely cup of coffee. He is a professional barista so he knows how to make good coffee! While enjoying my coffee I consume a bowl of warm porridge with sesame seeds and peanut butter. Porridge provides energy to fuel my active lifestyle. As we all know: “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day”!
8:00 am - I board the bus that takes us from the city to work. Our site is situated 22 kilometers outside Minsk. We get a bus ride to and from work every day. Usually while on the bus, I listen to music. Music helps me to wake up and gives me extra energy to begin the day.
8:30 am - I arrive at work. I make a double espresso, give myself a few minutes to settle and the work begins. First, I check my emails. I always make a note of what goes first in order to have everything organized. Today's emails show me that my task for the day will be updating labels and preparing certificates of conformity. I write that down in my diary. At the end of the day, I like to put a tick beside every fulfilled task. In the diary, I also see that I have a meeting scheduled for today at 13:00.
9:00 am - Certificates of conformity are prepared, signed and sent to the recipient.
9:10 am - Time for labels. Being a label specialist is a very interesting and responsible job. It is not just sticking labels on boxes, it’s a lot more complicated than that. It requires a person to be attentive to details. I start by checking the labels in our electronic document system, making sure all symbols and codes are correct. If something should be changed, I make a note. Today’s work is especially difficult as I have 125 labels to check and correct.
9:45 am- Labeling preparing is in progress. Fifty-three labels done and many more to go!
12:15 pm - Lunch time. My lunch as my breakfast is very important and today consists of whole-wheat pasta, cheese, boiled egg and green salad leaves. It may not look or sound like a lot of food, but it is an ideal amount of food to keep me going until my next snack.
I usually spend 15 minutes on lunch, which leaves me with another 15 minutes for a walk outside. I enjoy my walks.
12:45 pm – I am back to preparing my arts. After everything is made in the computer system, I need to print out the labels. Some of them I can do with the help of labeling printers which are situated at my desk. Some of the labels, I can print only with the help of the operator. It is quite a challenging process. I have a program on my computer which is connected with production machine. I call an operator via phone, he tells me that everything is set for print and I send labels one by one, gradually to the print. After our print-via-phone challenge is done, I go to the production area and receive the results of our teamwork.The results are satisfying!
12:50 pm I get a notification that my scheduled meeting is soon to start, in ten minutes to be exact.
13:00-13:30pm – My colleagues and I discuss changes that need to be implemented as part of our new packaging configuration and material change project.
13:40 pm - After receiving my printed labels I need to cut out every single one of them and scan them in order to later put them into Microsoft word files. That is how the system works. I cut out every label, I scan it and copy it to a document. Everything is done with the help of scissors, ruler and my PC. The process is long and takes quite some time, but in ConvaTec we strive to deliver best-in-class services and it is time consuming.
Sometimes it happens that whilst printing draft labels, I spot an error or a misprint. In that case I call our Electronic devices and equipment Maintenance Engineer and he corrects everything in the computer, after which I can see the change and can continue to work.
15:45 pm – Sending labels to my colleagues in Slovakia site for a revision. I work closely with the labeling team in Slovakia. Regarding any labeling questions, I can always email them or Skype. We communicate in English and although it is not our native language, we understand each other quite well.
Before sending labels for a review, I go through them once again. Labels contain symbols that are very important for our customers to know. It’s my job as a label specialist to remember about every symbol and its presence or absence on this or that label (depends on the product). Personal well-being of our customers is our number 1 priority.
16:50 pm – Wow! Ten minutes left. Where did the time go? I give myself five minutes to clean the desk using 5s lean system. And a few minutes to prepare my every day mood lifting quote. For example, today’s quote is: "The expert at anything was once a beginner".
17:00 pm - All aboard! The bus takes us back to the city. Entering the apartment, I can get the scent of a freshly prepared dinner.
