FAME 2013 Journal - Myra

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January 2014

FAME programme allows me to participate in some arts administration areas that I never tried before.

Property Department – every morning three hours walk

When I first receive the roster from Property Department, I am a bit worried – three consecutive days of morning shift from 7am to 4:30pm with three-hour property walk, can I handle it? Property walk usually starts at around 7:30am. It includes checking everything from loosen toilet door handle to outdoor plaza landscape, from scratch on theatre seats to weekly grease interceptor cleaning. After a few days of routine pattern, I realized that morning shift is actually not too bad. It allows me to exercise three hours in the morning everyday. Before 9am, which is a usual time when office people start working, I have been walking under the sun and exercised already. Property walk requires us to pay attention to various types of defects. Many of my colleagues said that checking defects becomes their default mood – whenever they are walking in a shopping mall or restaurant, they would easily spot out any defects of that property.

Top priority – Health and Safety

Health and safety are top priority for Esplanade. All new staff will have an orientation lasts for two and a half day. Apart from general introduction of each department, there is a 2.5 hours session about fire prevention. Apart from powerpoint presentation, all new staff members are brought to outdoor area and have to physically extinguish a fire – from how to take off the plastic strap on the cap, to where should we point the fire extinguisher to such that fire can be put away effectively. Meanwhile, regular fire evacuation practice is taken seriously. We do have to break the small “glass box” at the corridor and open the emergency doors. Management would also put out fake smoke or block out a corridor with objects to test the immediate reaction of the staff.

Meanwhile, all security officers and customer service officers are first-aid certified, even all 700 part-time ushers received one day of first aid training. Whenever there is injuries or even a fall, first aid will be applied. They would also collect injured patron’s contacts and follow up on the next day.

During this three-month fellowship, I had chance to chat with CEO, directors, managers, or even security officers who work on the ground. There are just too many can be shared.