When an arising issue doesn't turn into a crisis.

Greetings to all!

I have now reached over 20 days of my internship at Medine. I have decided to accept my boss' proposal of staying until the end of the year. Why have I accepted (thinking that I have many upcoming assignments to work on) is because I enjoy what I do, and I am also in the state of mind that if I don't persue my internship, I might miss out on an absolutely fantastic occasion - whatever it might be.

To tell you a little bit about what has happened lately, there was a small panic in the communications department at Medine. Actually, my supervisor did not know that an article was published on an event that occured in one of Medine's clusters. Due to the fact that I am now working at Medine, I feel like I am part of the team fully, so when I read the news during the week-end, it has become normal for me to search for anything about the company I work for. This is an unusual experience for me as I never really used to do that before my internship.


While browsing, I saw an article stating that a person was badly injured and also that the working conditions was poor. I immediately felt like "uh-oh, this is going to create a big boom on Monday at work". While cutting out the article, I very carefully kept it as I knew that this was my ticket for a proof that I am willing to do my best for the company and for the love of PR - also felt a little overexcited that I was the one to identify this issue before it became a crisis.

On Monday, I arrived at the office and the first thing I said to my supervisor was that I have found something very interesting in the news, if by any chance he has seen it. Having a negative answer, I showed it to him and I suddenly saw a look of alarm on his face. He thanked me and was stuck on the phone for several hours.

The way that he handled this issue was very inspiring. I have watched his every move and have learnt from it. He first of all called the cluster in question to enquire whether they were aware of this article. Having a negative feedback, he made me scan it and send it to the manager over there. After a few minutes, the phone rang and it was confirmed that it was irrelevant and untrue. Someone did get hurt but the working conditions are constantly being monitored due to the dangers of the job. He then called the newspaper in question and asked for the journalist who published this. Having a conversation with him/her, my supervisor then told him/her that he/she should confirm information with the people concerned before publishing a story, process which is the base of journalism.

What happened after that was the cluster's business to handle. The part where working conditions was involved was discussed in a meeting in which unfortunately I could not attend as it was with the top management and an emergency meeting. After that, I have tried to spot for several days if there was anything else published on the matter but there was nothing. I knew then that the story was very professionally handled and became transparent.

What I have learnt from this is to think well before doing anything wrong when an issue arises. Another issue arised very recently and my supervisor handled this additional issue in the same manner, with great patience, professionalism and mainly his thinking skills.

Until my next post,

Best wishes to all the PR 393 interns!
Roxanne