Warren Coe

“The course was brilliant and it made me better in the quarry – it makes me think twice.”

Warren Coe
Quarry Team Leader

Getting started

I’m a supervisor and my main ambition at work is to get these guys to work and home every night without any injuries.

Ours is one of the most dangerous jobs – it was actually classed number 2 (behind forestry) with explosives.

That’s the biggest learning curve in quarrying. I’ve seen many accidents and it can be because of the most minor little thing you do wrong. So safety is huge. It’s really important that we think about what we are doing and communicate clearly. That’s why I went on the course.

I loved it. Personally, I think there wasn’t one person who didn’t learn how to do something better. The course was brilliant and it made me better in the quarry – it makes me think twice.

My story

My education just didn’t really happen. I went to 26 schools and I never stayed at any longer than 6 months. I have no education whatsoever – I just never got an education.

Currently, all staff at the quarry are doing the National Certificate in Quarrying – the company is putting us through. It means I’ll have a National Certificate, something I’ve never had before.

Impact of training

Stepping Up Together helped me learn a lot about myself and I was able to share that with the people I went on the course with.

The whole thing, I think, is about communication and understanding people and where they are coming from.

A few years ago I had a difficult time at work. There was just so much work on I just couldn’t keep up with it. But, from doing the course, I began to understand how I might manage these kinds of problems better.

We did exercises on working with other teams. We put ourselves in someone else’s shoes by going through the problem-solving process and attacking the problem from a different group’s perspective.

Since doing the course, I actually communicate better. Nowadays, when there’s a problem, I’ll solve it with a team-building exercise. We’ll sit, brainstorm and settle on the best idea.

Stepping Up Together has definitely helped me get through my National Certificate study.

The National Certificate is focused on what you do in the workplace, such as complying with safety standards and filling out the right paperwork.

Stepping Up Together is about improving the way you work with people.

It taught me to admit my mistakes and work on getting things right. It’s a good outlook to have at work. It allows you to learn and do things better every day.

David Haslip

“The course gave me some tools to use at work and in life but it also sparked something a bit bigger. I’m actually surprised what it has done for me.”

David (Stamp) Haslip
Truck Driver

Getting started

This course has been brilliant for me. You can learn a lot in 5 days. I did. This is the first course like it that I have ever done. I hope they do more. I’ll definitely put my hand up.

I’m a driver and the biggest thing with us is traffic. Driving in the traffic in Auckland is a real stress. Before this course I used to get real wound up. I’ve always been a bit angry. Hold on to things a little bit long, take a while to get over them.

Since this course, that’s all gone.

I learned to just listen to other people. I learned how to learn from them and how they deal with situations. Learning just to accept people for what they are, that’s important too.

My story

I’m with the concrete division as truck driver, delivering concrete. We’re in Gavin Street, Penrose. I’ve worked here about 3 years.

I did primary school in Penrose and Beachlands. Then I came back into South Auckland. I did most of my intermediate and high school at Papatoetoe. I left school too early unfortunately. The day I turned 15 I was gone, but I wasn’t at school a lot before that anyway.

I went straight out to work, started off in construction, labouring, building sites, laying concrete, that sort of thing and then got involved in driving sort of later on.

I started off driving a delivery vehicle and then got into the heavy transport side of it. I’ve been doing this probably 30 years.

I’ve got all my licences except taxi and bus now. I’ve gone through and got the whole lot. I’ve got rubber tyres, tracks, special heavy, fork, hoist – you name it. I can drive front-end loaders, bulldozers, diggers, truck and trailers. Touch wood I haven’t had too many accidents.

Impact of training

For me this course was a big learning curve – learning how to read people. They taught us how to do that.

I learned there are things you can change, things you can’t change. You just have to learn to accept what you can’t change and not get all wound up. I used to get real angry about stuff I couldn’t change, like traffic on the road. All those things that pop up in everyday life.

Like there’s this guy at work – him and me, we never got on. I hadn’t spoken to him for about 8 months. He works on the job with me and now I just accept him for who he is. I can’t change the guy. He’s not going to change, he’s been like that all his life, I suppose. I just listen to what I want to listen to and the rest of it I don’t take too much notice of.

But there are things you can change, things to make your job easier. You can change the way you approach your job, the way you approach people and customers, your attitude towards them. You can change all that. There are so many things you can change. I never looked at it that way before. It’s amazing really.

I’ve learned how to handle all these situations. It’s been a big thing for me. Huge. It makes my day at work better. I function better. I do my job better.

It’s made me actually stand back and look at myself a bit, you know. It helps me manage other issues such as alcohol and drugs as well.

I’ve learned every day I will get another hurdle put in front of me. I just have to accept it and climb over it and carry on.

I use what I’ve learned on the course everyday at work and at home and with the grandchildren.

Heaps of people have noticed a change in me – management, my brother, my family. People have noticed big changes in me.

I never had much to do with my family over the years because of past boozing and drugs and whatnot. But on Sunday I just turned up at my family’s place and they were: ‘Oh, wow,’ and I spent all day with them.

The course gave me some tools to use at work and in life, but it also sparked something a bit bigger. It helped me think differently, I’m much more self-aware, and it helped me respond differently to situations. I’m much calmer now. I’m actually surprised what it has done for me.

I’d like see everybody in the company do it. I think everybody would benefit from it.

William Astle

“ We’ve changed our attitudes. We’ve learned a lot about team-building and understanding what sort of person you are, what sort of person your workmate is.”

William Astle (Waikato, Tainui, Ngāpuhi)
Quarry Machine Operator

Getting started

I’m a machine operator. I mainly drive loaders and dump trucks.

I work in a team of 30. It’s quite a big team of machine operators and crusher plant operators.

There is heaps of teamwork and lots of communication across the team. When you’re driving big motors, you need to communicate clearly. You need to know what’s coming. Our work is dangerous – safety is big.

My manager came and told me about the training. He told me to go on this course because it would help me communicate better.

My story

I’ve been in my job about 5 years. I grew up around the machines when I was living in Mercer and Pukekohe. But I grew up mainly around trucks.

I went to Wesley College until fifth form. Then I went to Huntly College for a year. I only went to college to play league and left without any qualifications.

I’ve always had it in my head from my grandfather that I should go to work and put food on the table, but I never liked school. I was more hands on and I didn’t like paperwork.

This course has been a bit of catch up. Stepping Up Together has helped a lot with maths.

Impact of training

I didn’t really know what the course would be like but I soon found that I didn’t communicate properly.

On the course I learned about choosing the right language, about looking people in the eye, about being clear about what I say. I learned to step back a bit and just give people a bit of room.

Before I used to just fire up, let it all out, didn’t give a toss. But it’s different now. Now I’ll think before I say something. I’m not as fiery.

When I first started, me and my team leader used to argue a lot. But he’s been on the course too and we’ve both learned how to communicate a lot better.

We’ve changed our attitudes. We’ve learned a lot about team-building and understanding what sort of person you are, what sort of person your workmate is.

We learned about a lot about people. There are sensitive people. Some people are shy. Some are angry.

I think that was the biggest advantage because you can actually stand back and see people and think how they’re going to do the job. When you know these things you work differently with them.

Before I’d just get in there and do the job. I didn’t worry about anything else.

That’s when you get overconfident. Then you go faster and faster and make stupid mistakes. It happens to everybody, doesn’t matter who you are, how good you are.

You get so good and you think: ‘I’m so brilliant I can do what I want.’ That’s when things get dangerous. We work with a lot of heavy machinery and that’s risky.

But this course makes you stop and think about what you’re doing. It makes you think twice, makes you pay attention to what you are doing. And that’s good because it’s your safety and the safety of your mates that’s at stake.

Mathew Loncar

“I’ve learned you can’t just assume everyone thinks like you do. Now I think about how someone I’m working with might want information presented. I may have to show him more drawings or write it down for him. ”

Mathew Loncar
Apprentice Engineer

Getting started

I work in the fitting shop. I strip the machinery. If I find any problems I have to go to another team for help. I work with a lot of other teams, using face-to-face communication. That’s why I thought this course might suit me.

My story

I left high school with bursary, I finished bursary. I started my apprenticeship here.

Impact of training

Probably one of the biggest things I got out of the course was just meeting people from other areas, because it is such a big company.

You don’t know these other people exist until you have to work with them on a particular job or problem.

It was great to get an understanding of what they do. We also learned a lot about communication styles and that was very helpful.

I’ve learned to deal with different types of people – from quiet types who keep to themselves to people who are more confident.

It means I can work better with them. The course teaches you to approach people differently because obviously people take instructions different ways.

For example, there’s the talker. They like lots of facts, they like lots of info. They want to discuss and ask questions and write down information and get all the facts down.

Then you have the doer, who is more like, they just don’t care, they just want to do it. Just let them at it. I know the differences and how you approach them now.

Knowing this is useful on jobs because not everyone sees things from the same point of view. If you are not on the same page, it can be horrendously hard.

Either they don’t get it or they will do it differently and get it wrong. So, it’s very important that you are both on the same level.

It makes you more aware of how some people may get frustrated with you. I might have little bit of friction there with some guy. But now at least I can look at him and think, hey, people are different.

I’ve learned you can’t just assume everyone thinks like you do. Now I think about how someone I’m working with might want information presented. I may have to show him more drawings or write it down for him.

I learned about feedback too. I’m not saying I’m bad with people, but sometimes I don’t tell people when I know they’ve done a really good job. I just assumed it wasn’t important.

But now I find it makes a huge difference when I actually go back to them and say: ‘Thanks, that was awesome work delivered on time and I appreciate it.’