How long have you been at Telefónica and what is your assessment of your time here?
I joined Telefónica in March 2012. It was a great experience because they gave us a training course in Madrid, and I was able to meet future sales people like me in a student environment. It was the best time of my life, even though you don’t have any money. With those “compis” you get together from the first minute and we help each other in difficult times.
I like to think that we are what we learn in difficult times. What I have learned… empathy and patience.
My assessment is positive, because I learn something every day. And because I have changed city and position every 3 or 4 years. That’s part of my way of being, I always want to be on alert, and I flee from the state of comfort to improve as a person and professional. I moved to a new city to take on new clients and with greater responsibility. I moved from Segovia to Pamplona. Two cities that I have fallen in love with and whose telephone colleagues I still see at least twice a year.
I have always been a positive person who likes to work in a cheerful environment. That’s how I always arrive at new places, like a sun radiating warmth. I put harmony and enthusiasm into everything I do, although there are days when it’s hard. When I succeed on those days is when I really feel good about myself.
For a few years now I’ve been working behind the client’s back, and it’s been an experience where what I cultivate most is respect for all the work of my colleagues. I’ve loved it because I’m learning a lot from the inside. I love knowing that there are so many good professionals.
I have discovered the Formador 10 programme and now I want to get involved as much as possible. With what I have learned, I want to teach.
Is there any project at Telefónica that you feel particularly satisfied with or proud of?
I get to know the projects through informative e-mails and those that touch the customer, if I get involved (Faro, Iberbanda). For me, the priority is always the customer. Internal and external. This is very important when you are in sales.
I especially like those that have to do with volunteering, that part of Telefónica that is less known by our customers, and in which I am spending more and more time outside my working hours. I am a volunteer, member and vice-president of the local assembly of the Pamplona Red Cross, and a member of Yoga Without Borders. I practice yoga and I am a yoga instructor. I teach the elderly, vulnerable people and young people in these entities. And I give talks in schools about how we should treat others: about constructive empowerment. There is a lot of talk about this, but people confuse this concept. Always in a positive way, never to think we are better than others.
What do you expect from the company’s Centenary in 2024?
I expect changes. I think change is good, always constructive. Technological advances in work tools and in management. That we are valued for our training, our experience, our desire to achieve our objectives and a good working environment instead of being valued only for the years we have worked. Mental well-being makes you work better every day, less stress and anxiety makes us give more of ourselves. We need to teach this aspect, which helps to achieve the company’s objectives and reduces absenteeism.
What do you think Telefónica has contributed to society in these almost 100 years?
THE NETWORK FOR EXCELLENCE! And very professional people who continue to fight, with fewer resources, to make customers satisfied.
Where do you see Telefónica in the next 100 years?
What a question… teaching other companies, researching, using its professionals to tell the world what we are and will be able to do if they let us create. That’s what is missing a little bit in the company, letting its professionals fly, give ideas, grow as the network has done. I myself want to grow and I find “ceilings”, but I don’t give up, I always look for another room with higher ceilings?
Could you live without a mobile phone?
YOU SURE COULDN’T.
Help us solve one of the great enigmas of humanity: the potato omelette… With onion or without onion?
WITHOUT ONIONS because it makes me sick.
Nominate another colleague to appear in this section.
My money is on someone young, we need more people like her. She is wonderful, hard-working, eager to learn and with a lot of empathy: Celia Lobato Cobo.
