FROM THE INDUSTRY
running down the corridor at 7am on the Tuesday morning and literally the customer service team flattened me saying, we’ve got the bid, we’ve got the bid! For me it was the realisation that they believed they could do it. You only get a government contract because it’s too bloody hard for anyone else to have done it otherwise. So we’ve got to be really good at what we do and with being in Cornwall and knowing the people who work for me, it makes me realise we can do this. I feel incredibly humbled by the strength of the people I work with, are prepared to go to make sure this is successful. And it’s not just the people who work for me. It’s Cornwall. So for me, what I’m proud of is that we’ve managed to take something which everybody thought was a joke and actually make it work. What does the future of women in the workplace look like in 10 years’ time? In 10 years’ time I think we will have won the battle and it will be over and done with and I tell you why - what I love is the women coming through now. I love their sense of challenge! They just won’t accept it and I just think that that confidence is just such a gift. As a result, I really believe that diversity is the best thing for any board. You need depth and strength. I mean in age, ethnicity, orientation, gender. The one thing I absolutely hope we see beyond anything else is equity in pay and recognition, because it’s still not there. The only thing I’d say to any young woman is make sure you’re paid what you’re worth, do not be afraid to ask what the peer sitting next to you is being paid and ask them to justify it. How can you expect to be confident in an environment where people won’t recognise your talent and treat you equally? In 10 years’ time, we’ll have better working conditions for everybody. We’ll have better boards. We’ll have better systems, better workforces and I think our companies will go a lot further as a result of it. Where we see you in five years’ time? Wildanet is still very much the focus at the moment. What I’m doing right now is really important. It’s personal for me, having come from the South West. If I can do this for the South West then I’m quite happy with that as an outcome.
What are the main challenges for women in this industry? This is an industry where experience matters. Women are entering the sector but it’s going to take a little bit of time because you need that experience and there isn’t any way really to fast track that. It’s tricky to get women into engineering and the network side still. We take as many apprentices as we can, and we’ve got our own training academy and pole field down here because we’re so far from anywhere else. We’ve got female engineers coming on board, they are so good and you know, I have seen them scuttling up the poles, and they’re absolutely great at it. They also make good advocates. If we can get girls interested from 11 to 14, we’ve got a chance of training them up as employees. People are nervous about going off to university. Engineering within apprenticeship is a better way to get into the workforce if you are worried about the debt; actually, you could probably take this path and achieve the same thing as you would have a university degree. Why wouldn’t you do that? What are you most proud of in your work? That was when we won the two Type A Project Gigabit bids last January. Collectively worth £36m, these bids will deliver a significant step forward to rural Cornwall communities in accessing gigabit-capable broadband. It was a great moment for all of us. I was standing in our Head office at 7:00am as the news went out and I could hear everyone running towards me so excited as we had won the bids – it was a gamechanger and we all knew that in the company. Our HQ is an old stately home that we have renovated for our purposes and the corridors really echo, we are also dog friendly so the noise was quite something – its one of my best work memories as it was so Wildanet in its expression, and it was such an important moment for us all and we knew it! It was 7:00 o’clock in the morning on the January morning when we heard the announcement.
What advice would you give a new female entrant to the industry?
I would say be brave. Think about what you’re doing. Think about what you need. Go and find people to help you, so get a range of people around you to help you, so make sure you’ve got buddies, mentors, people you can talk to. If you don’t have the support network, that’s OK. Create it for yourself. Don’t think you will be judged on that. You don’t need a silver spoon in your mouth to be successful. I am not privately educated, right? If I can do it so can you; be confident and ask for help and have a plan. Have a plan about what are you doing now. What are you trying to do? Is this gonna take you on the right course? One big advice I give anybody, female or male: if it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it. Increasingly, I have realised my gut is equally important to me. Trust your instincts. If something doesn’t smell right, it probably isn’t right. If you think that you can’t do something with the moral framework you’ve been given, don’t go there; know that in the long term, 20 minutes of agony of saying I’m not prepared to do this, will keep you in good stead for the rest of your career; don’t compromise. It is difficult when you’re thinking, ‘I’ve got a mortage to pay. I’ve got people to look after. I’ve got to have this tough conversation.’ Tough conversations are worth every nice conversation because it just puts you in the right place and your confidence grows with finding the right language. Ultimately tackling a situation, however difficult, there and then makes it nicer for you in the long term, especially as you get more practiced at it. In 10 years’ time I think we will have won the battle and it will be over and done with because
what I love is the women coming through now.
I’d known for a few days and said nothing, and I suddenly heard everyone
MARCH 2024 Volume 46 No.1
45
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