NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Female employees at The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC ) Limited paused last Friday to combine their girl power and rallied to Chaka Khan’s ‘I’m Every Woman,’ to celebrate International Women’s Day under the global theme, ‘Balance for Better.’
According to BTC’s human resources manager, Nikia Forbes, though the spirit of the day is something the nation should be trying to live every day, women are still fighting the good fight.
“Equality is important in the job place and here at BTC we have women that are technicians, engineers, and it is important that we all feel a part of building the company and continuing the success of the company,” Forbes said.
“In human resources, we would have gotten reports sometimes of discrimination – whether it’s your status or ethnicity – so we want to encourage the attitude of inclusion because our diversity helps to define us, so we’re hoping that this initiative along with other training will bring awareness to our employees.”
Forbes also said that women still experience challenges in the workforce, but there has been an increase in representation within management.
“Right now in BTC we have more male employees, but we have a few women who are at the executive and senior leadership levels in the company who are contributing and are at the table helping to make decisions to move the company forward,” she said.
Also on Friday, there were a panel of guest speakers present that discussed some of the daily struggles that women encounter.
Sales and Marketing Manager at Rubis, Latia Duncombe, told Eyewitness News Online that counterbalance is of utmost importance.
“When we look at counterbalance, we try often times to do it all at the same time. Yes, there are different segments of our life that are very important but we have to understand that everything cannot be done at the same time.”
“There are times when you may have to push hard and push hard for a period of time, which should be the exception and not the norm. You don’t want to move at the warped speed all day every day. It’s just suicidal. You need the downtime, you need the family time. You need to rest. You need to know what’s important and when to get things done,” Duncombe said.
In the event that you may be wondering how you can achieve this counterbalance and manage your life appropriately, Chief Executive Officer of the Training Authority, Keishel Davis, shared a few words of advice.
“You have to set your priorities and your boundaries. Knowing what you want and where you want to go and what is priority and what’s most important, and then create boundaries around that,” Davis said.
“I encourage women to ask for help. Women are so used to doing it all because we are expected to do so many things and we think that we can do it all but there are times when our plate get full.”
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This article was written by Matthew Moxey – Eyewitness News Online Intern
