Perfect. So welcome everyone. Welcome to my session on how to thrive in the workplace as a woman in tech and in diaspora. My name is Donna Kunzler. So we'll start first with an introduction about myself and a bit of background.So who am I as a woman in tech? Currently, I'm the head of Procurement Process Excellence and Digital Transformation for A B BS Robotics and discrete automation business. Um I have almost 25 years of professional experience, 60% of which I spent in it, audit and consulting, specializing in SAP systems and 40% in finance program management and business process leadership. And you can see apart from a BB, the on the right hand side, the companies that I have worked for before. Um in terms of qualifications, I'm a certified public accountant. I actually studied accountancy as my bachelor's degree and I'm a certified Information Systems auditor and an MSP certified program manager. I also have a postgraduate degree in strategy and innovation from S Business School um University of Oxford now who am I as a woman in diaspora.

So I'm originally from the Philippines and I've been based for overseas for more than 20 years now and have lived in Singapore US, UK and Switzerland. Um, travel, traveling for work is a, a little bit different. So I've traveled for more than in about 30 countries. And, um, back in 2020 as a passion project, I actually self published a book. Um, you can see there the, the cover of my book, uh, the title is The Overseas Fabulous Pinay, a Modern Filipinos handbook on How To drive abroad. And this is really a self-help book to help women plan their move abroad and to successfully um integrate. Um It has reached Amazon best seller and it has also won a couple of awards which includes the best independent book award or the Biba Award for nonfiction, travel, living abroad category. And presently, I'm driving in Switzerland for 12 years now as a wife to a start up founder and a mom to an almost three year old daughter. So looking for um waiting for the good times ahead, the, the end of the terrible twos. OK. So most of what I will cover in my talk are actually um also in my book. OK.

So most of it, so one of the key things that I covered in my book is the Five Rules of work that has helped me thrive as a woman in tech and in diaspora for, for more than 20 years now. OK. So let's get down to it. Rule number one, do your job Right. This seems very basic, right? Basic but very important. If you're a foreigner, you're an expat. And let's say you're new to a country or city or new to the workplace, then it's very important that you actually can do what you signed up for, especially if you don't have a network yet. And because this will establish your credibility and remember if you're a foreigner, you will stand out, you will stand out in the workplace and people would tend to have higher expectations from you because you know, they know that the company invested in you to bring you to bring you in.

So they're they're expecting um there are higher expectations and even if you turn out to be mis congeniality or you have a very good personality, those are, those are fine but it will not, it will not be enough if you cannot fulfill the basics of your job. Mhm Rule number two, stay professional at all times. I could not stress this enough. Ok. So there are many cases which may render one unprofessional in the workplace, but I will cover three examples. So first is on dealing with conflicts and you know, misunderstandings. So it's a fact, right? We cannot always agree on everything. You cannot please everyone and there will always be people who will not like you even if you're not doing anything. So what do you do? Right. So stay civil. Um Yeah, so stay cool, keep your cool because once you've crossed the line, it's really hard to go back. So remember that and, you know, as much as possible, if you've done your best in trying to fix the situation and you still can't fix it, then escalate. That's what escalation is for escalate to your line manager. And if it happens to be that your line manager is the one that going head to head against, then escalate to your line manager's manager to your manager's um peers or hr eventually. Ok. So there should always be some help available. And the next one that I would cover would be on communications, communications here. What we should remember is whatever you write in your emails, in your chat, messaging services at work, even in meetings, meetings, nowadays, they can be recorded.

So don't forget that whatever you put out there, it can be shared later on, it can also be used against you. So, so keep the basic etiquette intact, right? So always bear in mind, you know how you write your emails, your tone, how you articulate things because um as we said, if they are recorded of in, in the the emails, emails and chat messages that's owned by the company, people can also screenshot them even if you can't forward them.

So be careful and then lastly is on how you conduct yourself in the workplace. So are you following your employee handbook? Are there policies that you have to abide with? Are there also unwritten rules, cultural differences. Are you aware of them? Right. What might be ok in one country may not be for another and may be banded as unprofessional. I'll tell you a story when I was new in Singapore. So, and, um, I like to listen to music when, when, whenever I'm working. So I think most of you can, can, can relate to that. So I was new. This is back in 2001. I was working for a big accounting firm and it was an open plan area. So I wasn't alone in the the work area. There are other people sitting next to me. So I was listening to music with my Princess Leia headphones, right? So, and if that wasn't enough, I was also singing Filipinos. Love to sing. OK? And I was singing in a volume that as if I'm in a karaoke bar during work hours, I cringe now at the thought, you know, whenever I look back, but that really happened. That was me. And this is because in the Philippines, this is fine for, for in most cases, this is OK, this is acceptable. We're a very musical country. People sing a lot.

Uh You know, if there's a latest dance tune, then, you know, it's always, you can hear it everywhere but not in Singapore. Of course, there are certain levels of um conduct that's expected from me. So, and I'm lucky that one of my land managers really sat me down and explained to me, like, look, you can't do that anymore. You know, it's ok to listen to music but don't, don't sing because it, it's, uh, it can distract people. So, so those, you know, those types of, um, instances, maybe you're not even aware of the habits that you make that maybe it's not ok for other people. So just be mindful rule. Number three, break out of negative stereotypes and capitalize on pleasant ones. You can see here in my examples, these are Filipino stereotypes. We have Filipino time meaning we're always late Filipinos are me, meaning we we don't really talk back, we don't, we don't, you know, um speak out. We always say yes to our bosses even though they're not correct, we just say we're very submissive, right? We like to sing. You heard my my story and also Filipinos are hard working. So for this rule, it's very, very important. You have to be aware what are those stereotypes? They could be racial, cultural even gender. Of course, the most common one. And if they are negative stereotypes, just try not to fall under that bucket, right?

Whereas if they are positive, then you try to make the most out of it, you make it work for you. So I have an example again for this is on the Filipinos army part. Um I really hate that actually, I hate that stereotyping that that we are, we are meek uh totally not true. Um So when I was then also new in Switzerland um in Switzerland, I was in the, in the German part of Switzerland. So Zurich. So the business language is um German and I still don't speak German. Um When I joined, I, I didn't know any German and, and actually, even up to now, 12 years after I still cannot speak it. But anyway, so I was again in a big accounting firm and they had no choice but to put me in a, in a one of the top accounts. So it's an insurance, a fortune 500 insurance company. And before I started uh my work uh with that client, the partner warned me, hey, look, we have this one of our important contacts that is making noise because he doesn't really like that you're joining and you do not speak um German, I say really? Well, that's, that's a pity, you know, I mean, like I'm, I'm, I'm uh I know that I'm, I have a good personality, you know, I'm sure he would like me. Right. Let me just introduce myself. Maybe, you know, he will change his mind. Right?

And the partner goes like, yeah, yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, le let, let's, let's just um let's just see what happens. OK, so, and then when it was time for planning the work, so I have to meet this contact, my, my key contacts. So I had a meeting I had a scheduled meeting with this person. We will call him Mister English Phobe and he was quite senior in the company. So I appeared there in um in our meeting, I said, hi, good morning Mr English. F my name is Donna, I'm the new manager for, for the account. And suddenly he gave me this look and he, he made an outburst and said, no, no, no, this cannot be. I want someone who speaks German. I don't like it that you don't speak German. This cannot work. Go tell your boss. So I was mortified and I, I actually could not accept that. You know, how can this person be so unfriendly? I'm, I'm new to the country, I'm new to the account, right? So this is how I responded. So I, I was very calm and with my straight face, I just told him look, Mr English for, I was assigned to this account and you know, I don't really have a choice. I have to do my job and I'm only here to do my job. Now, if you do not want to work with me, that's your call. But if I cannot complete my job because of lack of support from you, then it will just appear in my audit report and I left it at that.

And then the week after we had our audit kickoff meeting, so my whole team was there and then the different contacts and Mr English po was there guess what happened. So there was no mention of our confrontation of the week before and he actually treated us out to lunch and the rest of the audit was history. We had a smooth audit. Ok. So the lesson there as well as you know, if I had been meek, you know, if I, and if I went back to my partner crying and saying no, he told me no, we should change managers, then I would have been assigned to a lesser important account, right? And I lost that opportunity to have that exposure in a big Fortune 500 account. So it's very important as well to stand up for, for yourself. Ok. Now, rule number four, build your network, it's very important to build your network, especially if you're someone who, who, who like me has moved in different countries, you, you'll never know. Right? So your network is your key to opening doors of opportunities. You might not believe me.

But guess what? Most of my jobs, my roles I got through referrals, like 70% of my roles I got through referrals. So here, what can you get out of your network, helpline, information, knowledge, insider information, right? The most up to date info on, on, on whatever the industry company maybe. Um you can find friends and collaborators as well. You can raise your profile through your network. If they know you, they can vouch for your credibility, they know your personality, you know, they know you're a good person. Uh you can have them as references and as I said, referrals, referrals, maybe for a job, maybe for a project, right? And also you can find your mentor also in your network. It doesn't have to be a formal mentor. But you know, someone that you can speak with, you can voice out, you can ask for guidance, it can be, that person can be there. Now, if you're new to a country or city, what do you do? You don't know anyone yet? So use your current network, right? You have your family, your friends, extended customers, suppliers, colleagues, social groups, very powerful. And all it takes is to ask who can connect me?

Who can you connect me with? I'm moving to this country. I'm new to this country. Do you know anyone who lives here or to this city or this company? Anyone you can connect me with? That's all it takes. And you'll be surprised people, there will be people who are, who are really helpful and will connect you. Most of my friends whenever I move are friends of friends. They have become my friends through my friends right now. What if there's really no one to connect with? What do you do? Like even with your existing network? They say like, oh sorry, there's really no one. I don't know anyone there. What do you do? Search for your tribe? OK. How do you search for your tribe. And again, we have the social network. It's so easy to connect. You have the interest groups, you can use this um keywords, right? You know, expats in whatever city you're in or country or your nationality or Germans in or Filipinos in this place or by occupation or your, even your, your status, you know, if you're single or you're a mother or you're a parent, most of the time there will be groups. Yeah, these are just examples of what I put on the right expat organizations as well.

Like Internation has helped me a lot when I moved to Switzerland because it's really the place where I hardly knew every anyone and I made very good connections there who are still my friends, my closest friends were actually coming from, from that platform, embassy websites too, right?

So there are a list of organizations typically in, in the embassy websites and of course, alumni groups don't discount the alumni groups. There may be some that are very active in certain cities. So, yeah, and lastly, we have don't burn bridges unless absolutely necessary. So think again before you burn that bridge, why? Because it's a small world, you'll never know even if you move countries. But you know, same industry, all of a sudden your ex colleagues are also in the same firm that happened to me. Yeah, and everyone has their own network. You do believe in six degrees of separation, right? So maybe you've shut out someone and then in your workplace there's someone who is a relative of that person or a friend of that person. Right. And lastly also, if it might endanger your job, this is specially applicable air, if you're actually in an industry where the network is quite small and, and word of mouth, you know, news travels very fast. So if something bad really happened and you burn bridges in one company, it may happen that, you know, everyone else, all the other companies will know it as well. And you might find yourself having a hard time looking for another job that it might push you to move somewhere else farther, really, to get away from that network. Totally.

So, be careful before you burn that bridge and when must you absolutely burn the bridge if your life was at stake, right? That's very clear. If it's, um, going towards, you know, being you're being forced to do something criminal, something that is bordering that's fraudulent.

So I would say, yeah, burn that bridge and last, if it's a toxic environment for your, for your own mental health, then please burn that ditch. Ok. So that's really my presentation. I mean, I only have 20 minutes, so that's all that I can condense. But I hope that has been very helpful to all of you. And, um, yeah, I'm happy to, to take any questions if, um, if there are any