Pourquoi je travaille dans l’automobile, mon rôle, mes activités. Des idées pour ma présentation aux stagiaires de 3e.

Tout le monde connaît la voiture : en posséder, la conduire, ou quand elle nous énerve parce qu’elle ne nous a pas laissé la priorité quand on a voulu traverser. Une voiture est presque aussi répandue qu’une machine à laver. Elle doit être aussi simple, intuitive, et c’est encore mieux si elle est compatible avec mon smartphone qui a une durée de vie de 6 mois. Mais elle doit être aussi sûre qu’un avion, alors que l’avion nécessite des années de conception et des pièces disponibles plusieurs dizaines d’années. C’est un énorme paradoxe, et on comprend mieux le défi incroyable qu’on doit relever dans l’automobile.

Et il y a bien plus de défis que ça : je crois aussi que dans l’automobile, on peut contribuer à changer des choses dans la société en imaginant des voitures plus sûres, moins polluantes, et plus intelligentes. Pour relever le défi, en premier lieu, il y a le constructeur automobile. Il dessine les voitures, les produit dans ses usines, et les vend au client. Mais ce qui compose vraiment la voiture, il va le chercher chez des équipementiers. On lui fournit des systèmes comme des commandes de climatisation, des boîtes de vitesses, des moteurs électriques. Tous ces acteurs contribuent donc à imaginer ensemble la voiture de demain.

Comment nous, dans ces bureaux, nous participons à ce changement ? Notre rôle est d’aider les projets à concrétiser leurs idées. Nous travaillons avec des équipes projet. Le chef de projet est quelqu’un qui a plein d’idées. Par exemple, pour rendre la voiture plus intelligente, il se dit : quand le conducteur entre dans sa voiture, il faut que la voiture le reconnaisse et que le siège règle sa position de lui même. À partir de cette idée, l’équipe projet va imaginer un système avec une caméra qui filme le conducteur (pôle vision). Les images sont traitées par des algorithmes de machine learning qui vont déduire la taille et la corpulence (pôle ML). Nous allons écrire le logiciel embarqué permettant de bouger le siège (pôle sw display). Et bien sûr, on va informer le conducteur de ce qui se passe (pôle IHM). On travaille pour rendre la voiture plus intelligente et c’est enthousiasmant. Avouez que si on était venu nous demander de juste faire bouger un siège, ça aurait été beaucoup moins fun.

Pour arriver à déplacer ce siège, et à réaliser tous nos autres projets, mon travail au quotidien est de recueillir le besoin des projets et le formaliser dans des documents pour m’assurer qu’on a bien compris le besoin et partager les informations avec l’équipe. Nous évaluons la quantité de travail, les moyens nécessaires, et le délai. Si on rencontre un problème, on alerte notre team leader qui va nous aider à résoudre le problème ou à organiser les priorités. Mes outils de travail sont des documents texte, tableau, présentations, et un outil spécifique pour suivre les activités de l’équipe et identifier rapidement les problèmes ou les risques.

En plus de ce rôle technique et d’organisation, il y a aussi un rôle humain très important. Dans l’équipe, je suis le relais de mon team leader pour traiter les problèmes au quotidien, comprendre les besoins des personnes de l’équipe et leur motivation, et remonter les informations pertinentes au team leader et aux projets.

Recently, on one usual morning at work, I got a message on the professional chat tool, from a colleague I barely knew, asking if I was fine and offering me to take a coffee together. I did not find it strange because we already talked a few times at coffee break, mostly about training programs at work.

We agreed for a coffee a few days later and it was nice, we talked about several colleagues that had resigned and I explained why I had decided to leave too.

When I came back at my desk, he started to send me smileys and pictures on the professional chat, an HR document on stress I had asked for during coffee break, along with an invitation for lunch and his personal e-mail. I started to feel a bit uncomfortable about this behavior and I started to space my answers and pretend I had too much work.

A few days later, I sent the conversation to my best friends, asking for advice, and they found that I had been way too familiar in my conversation, with personal details about my health and my professional issues.

Browsing again through the chat, I quickly identified every sign showing that the colleague was clearly not in a professional conversation, and I was horrified to discover that in a way, I had encouraged this inappropriate behavior. Needless to say, I would have understood his intentions right away if it was in a bar, or on the Internet, but the fact that it happened at work made it much less obvious.

I thought to myself: but that’s the exact type of things about myself that I had shared with other colleagues before and we became friends, there never was any ambiguity. Where was the f#cking difference this time?

Immediately, the 18 persons in my head started to shout simultaneously. The disturbed one, who always shouted the loudest, required that, first time on Monday morning, I ask my most friendly colleague at work, if he thought that I might have an ambiguous behavior toward him.

The insecure one worried that we shouldn’t bother people with such questions and that we should just stop being friendly with men.

The rational one objected that our friendly behavior had brought us the nicest and dearest friends that we ever had. If we had behaved differently, maybe they would not have become our friends. Maybe our attitude is right. Maybe that’s who we are. Maybe making friends with some people is worth it, and we shouldn’t care if sometimes it means that we have to deal with malevolent or disturbed people.

I’m responsible for my behaviour and I’m certain that my behavior is not wrong. I am not responsible for the wrong interpretation. I will pay more attention to avoid bad relations but I will not stop trying to make friends who will love me for what I really am.

YOU ARE NOT EVERYONE’S CUP OF TEA… AND THAT’S OK

The world is filled with people who, no matter what you do, no matter what you try, will simply not like you. But the world is also filled with those who will love you fiercely. The ones who love you: they are your people.

Don’t waste your finite time and heart trying to convince people who aren’t your people that you have value. They will miss it completely. They won’t buy what you are selling. Don’t try to convince them to walk your path with you because you will only waste your time and your emotional good health. You are not for them and they are not for you. You are not their cup of tea and they are not yours.

Politely wave them along and you move away as well. Seek to share your path with those who recognize and appreciate your gifts, who you are.

Be who you are. You are not everyone’s cup of tea and that is OK.

I recently came across this text and the words stuck a chord.

Obviously, the first people who came to my mind were the Witch, Perceval and their Manager. But well, I remember that it didn’t take me too much time to see that they weren’t worth my attention and that I could not change anything. It was a bit more difficult about their manager because until then, he had been a person which I trusted so it struck me very hard when I realized that it was not reciprocal. In the end, I decided to let go.

It became more complex when I started thinking how much time I had spent desperately trying to convince one person that I was not negative. My emotional health suffered a lot more in that situation, than it had because of all the toxic people I came across. The article above does not tell us what we should do when the people who love us, become the ones who do not understand us anymore and who hurt us.

Until now, I had always thought of us as two cups of tea on the same tea tray. Have I been that much mistaken about that relation ?

… now I wonder why the first analogy that comes to my mind, is the one with the two teacups. Maybe our relation existed only because we shared the same tea tray and it won’t exist anymore once I leave. Will I be able to resign to that ?