MY WORK LIFE
At the end of 1972 I began working for Fiji Government in the Forestry Department Flagstaff as a typist and continued working there until December 1980, when I was transferred to Post and Telecommunication Department.
During these working stints my two children were born. Dhanajaiya Krishna my elder child (son) was born on 1st February 1973 and Jaya Lakshmi, my daughter, was born on 9th August, 1974. Life seemed to move on well and I began serving various people with added interest and dedication. My family remained my central focus because I wanted my children to get the best foundation to develop their own future.
Having worked in various departments of the Government of Fiji, in September 1986 I began working at Fiji School of Medicine at Hoodless House Brown Street Suva as a secretary and was later promoted as Personal Assistant to the Dean of the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences of the Fiji National University. I worked there from 1986 to 2016 a total of just over three decades and developed a cadre of skilled colleagues and professional managers and medical practitioners to guide, to advice and to keep improving my work practices.
Now is the opportune time for me to narrate my work experiences and interactions with the efficient managerial as well as dedicated professional personnel involved in producing and presenting various medically qualified professionals for the people of Fiji and the Pacific Island countries. My work involved meeting, greeting and dealing with a lot of professional people as well as the general public because I was always the first point of contact and action for the academic and administrative staff, new and old students and all the visitors either local, national or international.
The more interest I took in my work the greater became my responsibility and enthusiasm to better my customer and staff services. Every day was a new day for me and I had to meet the demands of the innovation and increasing complexities of the system. Self-education became my objective and the internet and my enthusiasm to seek and ye shall find became my mantra. Google search engine became my saviour for getting additional and more relevant information to meet the increasing challenges of the modern workplace that was being further revolutionized with the time.
I kept making myself ready for the evolving system and all the current and generative practices. My life at home, at work and my association with friends and colleagues enabled me to cope well with the revolution in the medical sciences. I became happy practitioner myself through proper practice and dedication to work ethics.
All my work mates and the managers I worked for granted me opportunities to celebrate festivals learn from their interactions and earn well. When my husband passed away in 2008, I was able to make a few trips overseas with friends and colleagues. When my children graduated and started working I was fortunate to get their support as well to keep me happy in life.
College Staff at Diwali Function
This has been my work life that gave me the stability and a great measure of success and I am always thankful to all the family, friends and colleagues. My workplace was a great place to work and gave me freedom to perform my work to the best of my capacity. The professional people I worked with were very supportive and provided me with excellent opportunity to work, play and learn. Our team from the College played bowling regularly at the Suva Bowls Club. While the games were great entertainment they gave us time to relax as well.
