The desire to protect others, not just ourselves

Gabriella has been working at Axelent since August 2018. She works as a machine operator, welding our mesh products. She lives just a stone’s throw from Axelent in Hillerstorp, and feels it’s great to be so close to work. She is married and has three children, the oldest of whom has moved to Stockholm to study while the youngest is at preschool.  

Gabriella enjoys her job and gets on well with her colleagues. The work itself is also not as physically demanding as it has been in the past. A great deal is automated, with a significant proportion of the work now focusing on checking and controlling machines, ensuring that things function smoothly.   

Safety in our day-to-day lives and our working life  

Generally speaking, Gabriella describes feeling a sense of security in her life. Gabriella moved to Sweden from Chile when she was 11 years old, and feels that Sweden has become her home and a secure place, even though she was not born here. She also describes how family helps when it comes to feeling a sense of security.  

Gabriella explains that a practical safety approach is incorporated in much of what we do in our day-to-day lives.  
“Even though I live close to work, I’m careful when crossing the road in the morning when there’s a lot of traffic. I also bear in mind that it can be slippery in the winter, although you can’t always see the ice.”   

Safety measures have to be considered throughout the working day. Gabriella is already wearing her work clothes when she arrives at work. In addition, many aspects of the job are characterised by safety, from checking alarms issued by machines to driving a forklift truck in a predetermined and safe way.   

“There are also other safety measures, such as the fact that you’re not allowed to wear headphones when driving the forklift, to ensure you can hear properly and avoid accidents.”   

This can also relate to opening and closing doors for machine guards, as well as knowing which buttons to press in different situations. Gabriella’s physical workplace involves a lot of people in motion, a lot of noise and other people moving about on foot and by forklift, so there is a lot to take into account when it comes to safety. This is something that constantly needs to be considered in the working day.  

The desire to protect others, not just ourselves 
When Gabriella reflects on the little safety measures she implements on a day-to-day basis, it becomes clear that many of the safety measures we carry out are often a matter of protecting others that we care about.  

“This can be as simple as putting out cycle helmets for your children, even though they are teenagers and would rather not wear them.”  

In the same way that we make these efforts for our children, for example, and always have done, the things Axelent is working on are all about protecting others as well, she explains. It’s hard to give examples of all the little safety measures we put in place in our daily lives, because we don’t notice them.   

Important to learn and understand what we are doing  

Gabriella feels it is extremely important to know what the company does and what these products are used for and contribute to.  

“I don’t just want to work on something and not know anything about the product. When I started here, I learned a great deal about the entire production process and about the product itself, because working with safety products of this type was completely new to me. I have learned about the multiple different applications they are used for. This also means that I can tell other colleagues or friends about the process, and they can learn and acquire an interest in the journey from production to where and how the products are used.”