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MAGDALENE SAMUEL
As a Singapore traffic policewoman, Magdalene used to hand out speeding tickets to motorists. Now her fast-paced city has almost ground to a halt and Petrofac’s Singapore Office Manager is having to adapt personally to a slower pace of life too.


What’s the most positive thing that has come out of your lockdown experience: for you personally, for your local community, for your working life?
My pet dog looks up at me very confused, as if to say, ‘What are you doing home?’ But he’s very happy having me about all day. I hope my family are too! I have two kids, both older: my daughter is 27 and son 18. Making more time for them has been a big positive. Singapore didn’t have a total lockdown, we can go out but we have to wear masks.

People are more caring in the community now. We give way to each other when we take the lift in our block, and there’s a focus on essential services. I never used to see the guys who come and clean, to sweep and cut the grass. They’d come very early and leave, they were invisible. But there’s a new appreciation for what they’ve been doing all this while. Now I do see them, I stop and chat, how are you, how’s the family? It makes you feel good.

At work, we speak every day now, not always about work. It’s made me explore deeper into people’s lives. We’ve become stronger as a team, closer to each other, more like family I would say.

Is there anything you unexpectedly miss from pre-lockdown life? And anything you thought you’d miss but actually don’t at all?
I love to talk. I’m the one who’s always laughing loud, very happy-go-lucky. I miss that, the social interaction that you can’t get on WhatsApp. I also love to eat out, when a new restaurant opens, my friends and I go and check it out, but that’s one thing that I surprisingly don’t miss as much as I thought. Instead people are sharing what they eat online, sharing recipes, even people who couldn’t cook an egg before are now in the kitchen. I love that.

What one lesson/change will you take from this experience that will change you as a person – and change the way you think about and do your work?
I’ve learned to appreciate the little things. Life in Singapore is very fast, we rush through the day and get home exhausted. We don’t take the time to look out of the window, watch the sunrise or sunset. I’ve learned to take each day as it comes and be thankful. Treat every day as if it’s your last as you don’t know what tomorrow will bring. At work I’ll slow down, focus, think through my processes.

Have you felt supported by your colleagues and by your local community? How have you supported others?
My role is HR. I have to make sure everyone is okay. Singapore had a sudden surge in workers affected, foreign workers. My focus is on what I can do for them. I’m involved in the church community service and help coordinate food for foreign and Muslim workers who are fasting.

What personal qualities have you found most helpful in getting through these times – and helping others do the same? How will you use those qualities more in your job from now on?
I’m a trained counsellor from my police days, dealing with suicides and people who are depressed. I just listen, I don’t offer solutions but ask them what they think. I use that training in my personal and professional life, and I intend to put these lessons that I have learnt to good use, to help my colleagues and the people who surround me in my daily dealings.

What’s inspired you most over the last few weeks – one piece of music, one book or film, or one person perhaps?
It’s music for me. When people in Italy were quarantined and sang songs from their balconies, it brought tears to my eyes. You sing when you’re happy and sing when you’re sad, don’t you? And there was that wonderful solo Easter concert in an empty Milan cathedral, it was so beautiful, so rich – it was music for hope. The fact that the singer was visually impaired made it even more moving somehow. It’s rare you experience these sorts of things, and I feel so happy when I do.

“I’ve learned to take each day as it comes and be thankful. Treat every day as if it’s your last as you don’t know what tomorrow will bring.”

WORDS RICHARD LOMAX

PUBLISHED MAY 2020

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