To celebrate International Women’s Day, which takes place on March 8th, Altice Labs organized a discussion on women’s work with four employees as special guests: Gabriela Moura (Human Resources), Suzete Simões (Network and Platform Services), Daniela Rei (Innovation Strategy and Digital) and Catarina Mónica (Operations Support Systems). The debate was moderated by Ana Margarida Almeida (Innovation Strategy and Digital), who began by recalling the importance of Carolina Beatriz Ângelo in the context of women’s work, as she was the first woman surgeon and the first woman to vote in Portugal, during the Constituent Assembly elections in 1911.
For about an hour, the panel of speakers addressed, in a relaxed and inspiring way, several issues involving women in the workplace, mentioning experiences they have gone through and are still going through in their professional careers.
“For more than 30 years, Altice Labs has had a male-dominated population,” but this reflects “the whole reality of our surroundings, as technology companies are very engineering-oriented and the courses that have these skills are mostly for men,” said Gabriela Moura, from the Human Resources department. However, it should be noted that, although there are still a few women, “we have women in the global management of Altice Labs” and “there is still room for improvement”.
On this note, Daniela Rei, from Product Design, User Experience and Digital, said that her team “is the opposite of the Altice Labs scenario”, as it is made up mostly of women. The development teams she works with are mostly men, but this isn’t a “difficulty” because her team has always had “strong-willed” women, a characteristic she considers important for women to overcome and achieve their goals.
The importance of betting on heterogeneous teams at work was one of the subjects addressed. “If we all share the same point of view, it’s harder to move forward and have disruptive and different ideas,” said Margarida Almeida, from the Product Design, User Experiences, Digital, Product Promotion and Communication department. As for Catarina Mónica, who works with Provisioning Solutions in the Operations Support Systems department, she pointed out that being a woman gives her a more refined ability to listen and talk to her interlocutors. “Women’s sensitivity is a little different from that of men. And that brings people closer,” she said.
During the talk, some caricature stories that happen in foreign countries were shared. “When you visit certain countries, you need to understand how the culture works. For example, in Morocco, you can’t just arrive and greet the gentleman with a kiss on each cheek,” said Suzete Simões, who works with external clients.
This initiative was held at the Altice Labs showroom in Aveiro and was broadcast via Microsoft Teams to approximately 200 employees. A group of 30 women had the opportunity to attend the meeting in person and enjoy a comforting breakfast.
This event ended with a moment reserved for questions and for sharing experiences.