By Barbara Ellington, Flair Co-ordinator
Rudolph Brown Photo
TODAY, SHE is in charge of a staff of 57, six of whom report directly to her. But when she applied for her first job she didn't even get past the administrative assistant who declared the petite Marlene Virgo unsuitable because the job required a lot of climbing.
Virgo took it in stride and moved on. She currently holds the position of General Manager for DHL Jamaica within its Latin American region of 52 countries, and was recently appointed Human Resources Co-ordinator for the Caribbean.
Now, when she is employing someone, Ms. Virgo says her only concern is that the individual is healthy and if a medical condition renders them at risk, she ensures that their health is not jeopardised.
"I don't care as long as the person is willing to, and capable of doing the job," she said when asked how that experience has influenced the way she goes about the hiring process.
The dual roles are challenging, "...but I have a strong support team which includes a great operations manager, finance manager and customer service manager. Our sectional heads do their job and it makes running the office a lot easier," Virgo said in her interview with Flair.
DHL recently celebrated 13 years in Jamaica. The latest Gallup Poll survey shows that DHL Worldwide has the biggest market share of the courier business, controlling Africa and Europe. However, Ms. Virgo conceded that the brand was not as strong in this region.
Don't be fooled by Ms. Virgo's petite frame and youthful appearance, it's never been a problem in the male dominated corporate world in all her working life. To Flair's question on whether she faced sexual harassment or discrimination, she said there had been occasions when she got "little and cute" feedback but when she opened her mouth to speak, it determined the respect she received.
"I don't send sexual signals, don't bat eyelids, give off that aura or put myself in potentially serious situations," said the marketing specialist whose original career goal was to be a chemical engineer.
Did she set out to be at the top of her career ladder?
"No," she answered. "I have always managed to be in leadership positions as I have gone along, I'm not particularly ambitious, I like being the big fish in the small pond."
Perhaps that's the secret to her success. She knows each member of her team by name and although she will not be resistant to where the forces take her, she wants to remain in that position.
Her staff speak highly of her management style, describing her as, "no-nonsense and a hard task master, supportive, has an open-door policy and gives you room to grow and keeps you highly motivated, she doesn't take excuses and expects you to take responsibility for your actions."
Another plus is that Ms. Virgo sees herself as a part of the team. She regularly wears the company uniform so that she will be recognised as a DHL employee and secretly gets a kick that on such occasions, outsiders don't know that she's the boss.
LOVES TEACHING
Ms. Virgo likes teaching and having taught Operations Planning and Scheduling at the University of Technology part time, plans to pursue it in the future. Her two older sisters are teachers and she feels she has much to contribute in that area.
So what does the future hold? Ms. Virgo said she was not daunted by what may happen in the future. "I'm not afraid of losing my job, any adjustment that I would have to make, I would do it easily."
The mother of a one-year-old boy is enjoying her child and quickly demonstrated his first steps for our camera. She does not have to juggle motherhood and a busy career because in her words: "I do not have an exciting life, when evening comes, I go home to my son, there's no intrusion or disturbance," she said.
She added that she was grateful to be at a point where she could afford to have someone provide constant care for her son who also has the loving attention of his grandparents.
On the national scene Ms. Virgo, like most Jamaicans, is bothered by the crime situation. Having spent half her life in Kingston and the rest in the country, she has seen things get to a point where no one knows what to do.
"People need work, you can't divorce crime and unemployment and as long as they have nothing to give them a real sense of self, we will have problems. We cannot afford crime at the present levels, it's worrisome."
Still, she's not among those rushing to live elsewhere, saying that she was cognisant of the fact that crime was everywhere.
While she is at the helm, Ms. Virgo said she would like to see the DHL Jamaica brand become top of the mind so that when one wants courier services, it's the first choice. "If I can achieve that in three years, I can go teach," she said with a smile. She's confident it can be done with the creative team in place. The target is to have 40 locations islandwide, up from the present 27. To unwind, she listens to music, reads to her son, helps friends to grade scripts, goes to the movies and travels around the island.
