Wearing Many Hats

By Danielle Oliveira, RGS Human Resources Specialist

Take a minute to think about how many hats you wear. As a newbie to the public sector, I was surprised at the many roles which I would need to perform. Countless employees wear many hats without even realizing it. Each hat that an individual wears has an important role to play. In this article we will review the many hats worn in a career position that does not manage or lead others.

The first time I really thought about this statement “wearing many hats” is when I attended one of our RGS Supervisor/Manager training academies. One topic of the academy covered the different hats of a supervisor or manager. What I learned is that supervisors are teachers, mentors, team developers, directors, providers, problem solvers and disciplinarians. I am not a manager or supervisor, but realizing that I also wear many hats was an important part in figuring out how I fit into the agency.

One of the main hats I wear is a coordinator hat. I coordinate RGS training academies from start to finish: from registrations to certificates of completion. In this role I have to be very organized and detailed oriented to keep everything flowing smoothly. More importantly, what I do makes the process easier for our trainers. I know my role is behind the scenes, but it plays a huge part in putting on a successful academy. I am learning that running a training event definitely requires a team effort! Who knows, one day my hat might be that of the actual trainer.

In my position, each day of the week may require a different role, or hat. In addition to my training duties, some days I help with recruitments or I might onboard new employees. This means that on any particular day I may be wearing a recruitment hat, the next day a human resources professional hat, the next day the training coordinator hat, and so on. As a “newbie” to this profession, I want to learn and I have made myself available to my RGS coworkers if they need any assistance with projects which inevitably requires me to wear new hats. With each task I gain more knowledge and learn about the various roles performed in human resources. It is fun being a part of so many different teams and wearing so many different hats. The different roles all provide me with different perspectives on our public agency. While the hats are simply a metaphor, they really do help me visualize what role I am expected to play on any given day.