“Making sure you’re not stepping on anyone’s toes”

The work at Biocom is separated at the largest level between the PG (the purchasing group) and BI (the Biocom Institute). For time sake,  I will not even try to explain what takes place in the purchasing group. For now, all you need to know is, the PG generates money while the BI raises money. The work within the BI, where I intern, is divided up in six parts– six employees– but we work as a team for the most part on events, initiatives, and fund raising and the smaller tasks of each. One team member works from home in Denver and participates in our weekly team meetings virtually and often sends me helpful emails. In fact, my inbox is constantly filled with helpful emails from the team.  Decisions, for the most part are made as a team as well. When deciding on rather or not there would be a BI champagne toast for sponsors and donors at the next Biocom open house, a few “that’s a no from me” from around the room, along with insight from last year’s event, did the trick. The Executive Director of BI provides the space for our team meetings–her office– and gets them started, but other than that, I would have no idea her position. For the most part, she’s working with the leadership of the PG, right now busy creating a report. Leadership roles are hard for me to recognize so far. Which I don’t think is a bad thing. I only see a team. Being a team player is often just sending helpful emails with previous methods from the past to make sure everyone is being productive as possible. Employees are considerably autonomous and self-directed. Individuals are often working on the “next steps” towards a larger event or initiative. Task are assigned to me virtually through Salesforce, during team meetings, or throughout the day. Often with a “if you don’t finish it today, it’s fine” or a “if you want to take a break and go workout downstairs, that’s fine too”. Brandon, my internship supervisor left work yesterday for a meeting then worked from home. Today, he came in the office after me. My work is autonomous as it gets. Before my arrival, the team wanted to make sure I had adequate space to work, metaphorically and physically. As Karen, the BI Education and Industry Outreach manager, put it, “working in an office for the most part is just making sure you’re not stepping on anyone’s toes”.