Background information of Hush@Workplace

Hush@Workplace aims to promote mindfulness in work culture and integrate employee wellness with community empowerment. This is founded on the belief that a healthy workplace with healthy employees culminates in more strategic and thoughtful choices, better relationships, and better performance.

I was assigned to work with HushTeabar, which is a social movement that champions social inclusion and mental wellness. Led by the Deaf and people recovering from mental health illnesses, this silent Teabar hopes to bring self-care and inclusion to every workplace and community. This they do by building an empathetic, resilient and inclusive society, one cup of tea at a time. Specifically, I was assigned to work on the "Hush@Workplace" aspect of the Hush movement which targets the working community as workplace stress and mental health issues are becoming more prevalent in society today. My job scope encompassed personally undergoing Hush@Workplace experience by bringing a refreshing session of experiential empathy and mental wellness to the workplace. These sessions aim to impact the growth and development of staff to build a healthier, happier and more inclusive workplace.

tasks And deliverables

My Hush@Workplace group and I were mainly focusing on the outreach and marketing aspects of the company. We had several tasks to do in order to enhance the the company's partnership strategies. When we arrived, they wanted us to modify their mood board with photos and content from their events, update their testimonials and update their marketing slides.

Additionally, our mentors wanted us to come up with more creative methods of branching out. Hence, we brainstormed together for new outreach and marketing ideas, and managed to decide on making a new poster and three marketing videos to upload onto the company's Facebook. We worked in pairs. Trenice and I focussed on the 3 marketing videos to be made, the new poster and the revamping of marketing slides. Chee Hong and Alvin, were tasked with editing and posting pictures for their Facebook page, updating their testimonials and creating the mood board. Our mentors said the pairings weren’t a strict rule, and encouraged us to work together and help one another when necessary. It took constant communication as we needed to check in with each other to ensure that we worked consistently even up until minute details like checking that the font we used was consistent. Despite it being seemingly trivial, we learnt that such details contribute to maintaining the company's image and branding throughout all the different marketing media platforms

We had met up regularly with our mentors to discuss the main message of the company we wanted to project to the public, the rationale behind each of the tasks we had, and each step we took. Our mentor showed us the importance of maintaining the image and branding of the company, as she always questioned every single one of us and our work to understand our intentions and to push us to see if there was a better way to do things. She explained to us the importance of how we needed to be consistent, in order to attract and work with more partners, and maintain good relationships with the public and existing partners. The slightest inconsistency in branding or messaging would spoil the essence of Hush and could be detrimental to Hush's branding.

3 skills/ content knowledge learnt

Mindfulness, not just for my own mental wellbeing, but being mindful and sensitive towards how others feel as well. While filming, we were informed by one of our mentors that when working with the one of the deaf Tearistas, he felt a little left out and sad. She assured us not to be too worried or take things personally, but try to be make him feel more welcome by signing even simple things (from our limited knowledge of sign language), or talk less among ourselves. It made me realise how I need to be more mindful and sensitive around others. It was quite a challenge especially because it is so easy to overlook when I do not often deal with differently-abled people in my everyday life. However, this is not an excuse to not put in that extra bit of effort to be more mindful and aware of my own actions and ensure feel included.

After that, we did filming for the next two videos. When communicating with our deaf ambassadors, we tried to be more aware of our actions and speech, and this time we typed in a word document to make our intentions for directing the video and acting cues clear to everyone

I also learnt about the importance of discipline. It is something expounded on by parents and teachers since young, but I think I truly experienced it here working at Hush. In a short span of one month, we were expected to produce all of our deliverables on our own, with a mostly “free and easy”, self-directed schedule. We were left on our own to meet up at our own discretion, work together or work separately on the various projects, and call up on our mentors for guidance whenever we needed. Our mentors told us they weren’t that strict or fussy about what we did, as long as two things were delivered: punctuality and work that is up to standard and consistent with the brand.

Communication is also very important, and especially more so in this place where we work with the Deaf. Different channels and modes of communication are necessary and we have to be extra understanding and patient when accommodating one another and the way we communicate. To avoid breakdowns on either end, we checked in with our mentors consistently on the work we did to ensure it is up to standard and in line with what they are looking for. This helped us to be detail-oriented and consistent about branding - something key in running a company.

2 interesting aspects

It was interesting learning more about Deaf culture. The most heartwarming and encouraging part was when about slightly more than a week into working at the company, we were given sign names by one of the Deaf Tearistas. Sign names are a part of deaf culture and are unique, endearing names assigned to fellow Deaf people or hearing people who work with the Deaf.

When the Tearista mentioned sign names, we were a little surprised. I felt a bit undeserving of this, since sign names are not trivial things and are a special part of Deaf culture; this move made me feel included even though I, a hearing person, had only worked with them for a very short time. This naming process was a fun time of bonding and getting to know one another better.

The flexible work schedule and work culture at Hush was interesting. They work based on a lot of trust and discipline as the work is very self-directed. No one chased us to meet a deadline; we were just expected to do so. This took some time to adjust to, and we had to schedule our work load evenly to ensure we did not rush it at the last minute. Hence, I learnt that having a strong work ethic for oneself is very important and this inludes values like self-discipline, responsibility, leadership and empathy.

1 takeaway for life

The unique Hush experience is something I cannot gain easily anywhere else. It is in two parts. Firstly, I was exposed to working with differently-abled people in a warm and friendly work environment. The genuine connections I made along the way were truly precious and rewarding. Secondly, doing things out of my comfort zone and things I had never done before such as filming and directing a video taught me many things about the process (like being meticulous and detail oriented) and many things about myself (like how I should not be afraid to try new things and always stay curious). My month at Hush was time spent well meeting new people and gaining new experiences along the way.