Insider Insights: Shyla Germain

We caught up with Shyla Germain, who works in Shareholder Relations in Juneau, for our first edition of the Insider Insights podcast. Shyla is a frontline customer-service representative for helping shareholders with all kinds of requests (not just stock transfers, as her official title suggests). Click here to listen to the podcast, or read the transcript below: 

Corp Comms: So can you please tell me your name, your title, the department that you work in and where you are physically located?  

Shyla Germain: Yes, my name is Shayla Germain. I work for shareholder relations. My title is stock transfer specialist. And I’m located in the Juneau headquarters.  

CC: Can you describe your home office environment? 

SG: Yes, so I have an island in the center of my kitchen in my condo. And I have a laser printer so we can print off our stock certificates. I have a label printer so that I can label all my mail that I mail out. And then I have my computer with a side screen attached to my laptop, and a detachable keyboard and a mouse.  

CC: How’s that going? (laughing) 

SG: So there’s been days where it’s been better than others. Some days, I have both of my boys with me, a 10 year old and a three year old. And on the days when the three year old’s here, it’s a little bit more challenging just to be in the open area. Because he needs constant attention, you know, constant care. So it also works to my benefit to turn on Netflix behind me while I sit here and work away. Or whatever, you know, Play Dough or whatever he wants to do for the day, for that hour, and then it’s time to eat again. So then it’s get up and make food. So yeah, it’s just it’s been different but at the same time building closeness with you know, my boys so all in all, I think that it’s a good thing. But I’m ready for change. (laughs) 

CC: How are you keeping your spirits up and staying energized during this time when you are not able to interact with as many people as normal? 

SG: This summer, I can most definitely say that it was easier. I actually, because we weren’t on the road constantly, which we would have been during the summertime, I went and purchased a boat. And so I spent many days on the water fishing. And that really kept my sanity in check for being stuck in a place like Juneau where you can’t drive out you can’t, you can’t escape. And so being on the water and being in the in the boat was definitely my escape. And now that winter has come it’s been a little bit more challenging. Just because getting out is a little bit different. You know, it’s going on walks, it’s going on hikes, it’s just breathing that cold, crisp air, but it’s not as enjoyable as catching a big fish.  

CC: What part of the work from home experience do you think will stay with you when you return to the office? 

SG: I think it was pretty easy for me to adapt to the working from home. And I think that mostly stems from us being able to travel and work on the road. You know, when I first started four years ago, we weren’t going anywhere on the road doing any sort of outreach. And that rapidly changed over the years to the point where we were spending most of our summers out in different communities, connecting with our people, helping them get things done. And so, with our IT team, we’ve been able to adapt so that when we are on the road, we can do pretty much anything that we could do at our desk. And so just moving that to my kitchen was that much easier to do.  

And so I think, what I take from it is just, I think everybody took for granted what our past was like – you know, the fact that when you watch movies now and you see people in the grocery store and none of them are wearing masks, you kind of go, ‘Whoa,’ you’re taken aback by it. Taking that sort of thing for granted where you can travel and be with family and friends and experience those happy moments, taking those for granted more so and just realizing that, moving forward, to just try to remain happy and look forward to those moments that we are able to gain back those times. And then to not take those for granted. And I’m excited to go back to a new office. Our office is getting renovated. So it’ll be it’ll be nice to go back to a new a new area, a new place. I’m super excited about that.