Connecting with people evokes a feeling I would easily describe as magical. See, much like fantasy, meeting a new face everyday pretty much satisfies an almost-unconscious wish to go out and, well, meet other people. However, even this wish can be made more difficult to fulfill because of very certain conditions. Among these is the idea that seeing people in certain locations means talking to them. If the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” is to be believed, then I reserve all the right to feel anxious at the prospect. Will I offend them if I say something about any specific thing? Will my movements creep them out? What is their standard for being professionals, among others? Am I making a good impression on them? At this point, the questions take away the magical feeling and all that’s left is an evident sense of dread, which in itself poses a new question: how do we deal with it?

Now, some people may actually laugh at this question as they’re able to seamlessly make a crowd listen to them, but for people like me, that isn’t exactly an option. In fact, when I was a kid, I actually somehow found myself huddled in an almost fetal position around the corner the moment I saw a certain face. The person was tall and muscular, he had a small scar near the left eye, and I couldn’t help making comparisons between him and Patchy the Pirate from Spongebob. When he approached me and greeted me with a firm but ever-so-cheerful “hello,” I felt as though my heart was about to shatter into a million pieces with the voice sending chills and rattles down my spine. As you can see, I’ve a very vivid recollection of such a man, and I would like to think it somehow contributed to my love of being alone.

Of course, this isn’t to say all introverts are such because of some primal fear or even some sort of experience; everyone is as they grow. However, the point is that I can somehow draw comparisons between the gigantic man I met as a child and the crowd directly around me, not in the sense that they’re all muscular, but because of a rather similar feeling that makes me want to assume the same position. For a while, it was well: I was able to do well during my formative years, with decent grades in all of the schools I’ve been to. I’ll not name figures, but I can confidently say I didn’t live like a pushover. What I failed to have in terms of “tall, muscular” figures, I made up for with a love of learning. Ironically enough, however, my problems soon started after that.

While a student can satisfy all requirements and perform well in tasks that do not demand them to form groups, a worker cannot hope to thrive without even the slightest connection with others. This was exactly what happened to me when I worked for the call centre industry. While I had a team, I found myself blasting my earphones while sorting out and replying to emails from customers. I carried my own weight and only followed orders by the letter as they were being delivered to us online. I satisfied my quotas and was praised for doing well within said job. Regardless, there was a time when our team leader actually yelled at me while I was working.

The moment I heard it, however, I thought it odd. There was no reason to call me at the time as I had been following every order. At first, my supervisor told me to remove my earphones and come with them to a discussion room within the office. I complied, and it was at that point I realised my greatest folly: I hadn’t been making friends. Truth be told, my teammates were telling my leader to probably try and bring me out of my mental comfort zone. To my surprise, everyone actually worried about me and tried to talk me out of my worry. The fact that they’d use a few crucial minutes of their work just to give me a pep talk easily left its mark in the way I thought of people. However, despite all of that, I told them I still found it very hard. While I would love to talk to them, eat with them, drink and even deal with quotas with them, I knew that any person willing to talk would have to actually find it in their hearts to will it. As much as I loved the idea, I found myself having difficulties getting the push that I needed. It was at this point that they recommended Paramount Training and Development to me.

Having never heard of it, I asked them what the company was about and what it offered. They then explained that it offered training through sheer experience. They confided with me about their personal problems and told me that Paramount Training and Development offered them solutions on how to get over them. They also said that even the most furtive of loners like myself could be made to at least start learning how to form connections and establish solid networks. These testimonies, to my delight, were not false: each trainer gave me activities that made me laugh and subconsciously work with my teammates to achieve certain crucial objectives. They also gave me very meaningful advice and helped me properly set up communications and dialogues with friends. More importantly, however, is that they went above and beyond: rather than simply teach me how to approach other people, they explained the fundamentals of networking and how to make each of these connections formal, affording me not only psychological and sociological healing, but even crucial steps to help advance my career. Indeed, Paramount Training and Development is a company worthy of its name. If you would like to know more, please visit https://www.paramountplus.com.au/training/connecting-in-the-workplace-training/.