Personal Work Environment

Personal Work Environment

In today's society, businesses and organizations will essentially have two types of working environments for employees. Working individuals will either be in a virtual or traditional work environment. In either environment, having the skills of communication is necessary. The virtual worker will have less communication and interaction, while the traditional office worker will engage in communication and interaction with others on a daily basis. The traditional office worker will have more access to finding out first-hand information; while the virtual worker will have to receive communication through other means.

In the workplace, there are various ways to communicate, various types of communication, and various ways of giving and receiving communication. Communication can be effective if the information is transferred properly. Dependent upon the environment, communication can be effective or ineffective to the receiver. The environment can set the tone for how communication is delivered and received and can take place in an office, at home, or wherever individuals decide to gather. For example, in a training room there might be flip charts, a white board, markers, tables, and chairs. Having those items in the room let's the participants know that they are going to be in a learning environment and that communication will be delivered and received.

In my work environment, everyone is involved in some type of communication forum daily. The amount of communication received can be great or small depending on what is going on at that moment. There are vast amounts of information that is delivered daily because a piece of equipment or operation always needs to be either updated or fixed at the plant. The communication environment in my work place is a wastewater water plant. During the day, I am communicating with onsite employees through electronic mail or by two-way radio regarding plant or personnel issues. The plant is open 24/7, so communication is constantly ongoing. For offsite employees, vendors, and visitors, I communicate with them through electronic mail, by telephone, fax, or face-to-face.

At the wastewater plant, the various options for the staff to communicate effectively include conducting staff meetings, training sessions, using two-way radios, telephones, conference calls, and electronic mail. For onsite staff, it is easier and more convenient for the staff to communicate with the two-way radios. Just in case the network is unavailable, the staff will still be able to communicate and remain in the same environment. For information that needs to be disseminated among all of the staff, a staff meeting is held. Information at the plant is also communicated by posting the in-formation on the bulletin board.

The speed of communication that is received at the plant varies. Some days it is slow and some