An ethical decision where I had to make was the time when I witnessed a bus driver having a conflict with a passenger who had accessibility issues.
The passenger told the bus driver that he had eye surgery and therefore could not read the bus number and asked the bus driver for help.
The bus driver was unhelpful and then gaslit the passenger by not believing that he had surgery.
The conversation between the passenger and driver continued longer than it needed to, with unkind words said and I noticed that the passenger was getting angry.
The passenger ended up on the bus, not because the bus driver told him but he managed to figure it out.
At the time of witnessing this, I did not step in as I had hoped that the bus driver would help him - the answer to his question was so easy. I left the situation feeling shocked, frustrated and uncomfortable.
When I arrived home, I emailed Auckland Transport complaining about how unnecessary the situation was and the lack of humanity from their staff.
Seeing someone with accessibility needs not get the bare minimum customer service made me really motivated me to do something about the situation.
The values involved in that decision were manaakitanga, community and courage.
As the situation did not directly impact me, it felt even more important that I email them of the bus driver’s impact.
As a result, Auckland Transport emailed to say that they took the feedback seriously and let me know that the bus driver will be receiving training in customer sensitivity.
Growing up in Aotearoa means that I am a third culture kid. I am a Chinese - Malaysian born in Auckland. This means that my values and identity capture my duality of this, I put importance on community but also value autonomy.
In terms of learning and career development, my strengths are taking initiative, organisation and direct communication.
My limitations include being unrealistic, perfectionism and getting lost in the finer details.
These strengths will help me in my learning journey as they allow me to become proactive in my journey.
If I come across an obstacle, my direct communication allows me to clear things up quickly when dealing with people, or trying to understand a concept.
A time when I was trying to work productively with others was when I had to deal with an unhappy customer. The customer emailed and wanted to return a $1000 perfume because it didn’t smell like the one they tested out and wanted to take the display tester instead.
I quickly emailed back to let them know that due to our return policy, that the company was unable to accept the return and I was unable to authorise them taking the display tester.
They were very unhappy with my reply and still demanded that I accept the return.
There was some back and forth communication between us as they were not going to let it go.
Given the lack of progression on the situation, I asked my boss for advice on how to handle the situation.
She ended up approving the return and she also asked the supplier for a credit if the item was faulty.
I then relayed this to the customer, who then was happy with the result.
My strategy at the time was to calm down the person but also to be direct with the policy.
At the time I was not open in finding a compromise. By reaching out to my boss, I felt it was the best thing to do as the customer would not have let it go.
My strategy reached a conclusion which all parties were okay with, but probably not in the most time efficient manner.
If I had to do it again, I would take a step back to think about the best way to approach the situation before rushing into it. As the email was fueled with such negative energy, I felt like I had to match the assertiveness in order to reach a conclusion.