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Casey W. Jensen
Professor Peter Blair
UWRT 1102-021
3 December 2014

Secondary Discourse: Workplace

Often people act different when adjusting to their environment, location, and people
around them. I find myself often acting more mature and properly mannered at the workplace. I
work for the largest utility company in the United States of America, Duke Energy. The
company is extremely diverse with many different type of employees doing a multitude of
different types of work. In addition, in the comparison of being at a workplace and not at the
workplace, the different operation centers, offices, and field locations all invite different attitudes
towards communication at work. Work is slowly becoming secondary nature for me now that I
have progressed through the beginning stages. Starting with the beginning orientation,
training, and my current standing in term of social communication and job performance, I
see myself improving with my secondary discourse with my workplace communication. I
intend to enter many more stages in the future including the middle stage, which I consider
myself in now, and then the infinite end stages. As time passes, I am sure I will become much
more comfortable with how I act at work, but there will always be the aspect of ensuring your
treat others with the proper respect and manners.

Ever since I first started working in my new, and exciting potential career field, I felt a
major secondary discourse in the sense of communication and behavior at the workplace. My
workplace behavior is considerable different than my typical daily behavior. At the workplace I

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always treat everyone extremely respectful and show tremendous interests in all subjects. Now,
dont misunderstand me, I show everyone respect outside of the workplace as well, but with a
much more laid back casual manner. Within the massive company of Duke Energy, it is
important to understand that everyone has different view, behaviors, and attitudes. We all share
the same goal to make peoples lives better by providing gas and electric services in a
sustainable, affordable, reliable and clean way. Although having the same goal, everyone
within the company understands that the company is extremely diverse and everyone will not
agree with everyone. This extreme diversity causes everyone to initially treat each other with a
very professional business attitude and respect. Of course some groups of employees know each
other better than others, but with the initial meeting it is important to treat each other properly.
For example, I always show everyone a professional attitude during the first meeting, but
afterwards, as I get to know the person I am working with, we both get more comfortable with
one another. An example of when I spoke with a professional attitude when first meeting a
fellow Duke Energy employee is when I meet Rob Combs. Rob Combs is the VP of
Distribution Engineering, now has changed to the VP of Duke Energy Construction. On the
first meeting, I was already nervous that Rob was high up within the company I wanted to
make sure I had an excellent impression of myself for him. When I introduced myself to
Rob for the first time I said, Hello, Mr. Comb, its great to meet you and have heard many
great things about you, I am Casey Jensen the new Intern here in the Subdivision Design
Group, and its a pleasure to meet you. Rob responses, It is nice to meet you as well
Casey, but please, call my Rob, glad you have decide to have your valuable intern
experience with us at Duke Energy and we look forward to working with all of us here.
When I speak with some of the linemen that I work with on a daily basis, I feel more comfortable

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to joke around, and speak in a much more laid back manner. It just takes time for new
employees, especially brand new employees like myself, to feel comfortable within the massive
company of Duke Energy and the welcoming environment that the company offers you.

In terms of values, the activities at the workplace imply that I tend to act like a different
person in the workplace than outside of the workplace. While at work. I change my attitude
towards whomever I am talking to. My primary discourse, I assume, is my normal attitude
outside of the workplace, which is my regular natural attitude and behavior. I act much more
relaxed and speak freely outside of work, with my close friends, teachers, and mentors. Whereas
in the workplace, the majority of the time, I approach people differently in order to gain there
respect, and friendship. I believe it is important to show people that you are a regular, laid back
person and easily approached, while still maintaining a professional attitude at work.

When I first started working at Duke Energy as an Engineering and Construction

Planning Intern I was extremely nervous to be entering into a true career. As I was applying for
the position, I understood the job description in terms of the work that needed to be done.
Although understanding the desired work needed to be completed, I had no idea that the position
was a mainly an office job. On March, 3rd 2014, I started my internship and was very well
prepared, but very nervous. Wearing a nice collared shirt, khaki pants, and dress shoes, I waited
for my supervisors arrival to allow me access to the building and to receive my employee badge.
That same morning I meet my supervisor, now former supervisor, Blake Miller. Blake was the
hiring manager for my job position, and my first supervisor and roll model at Duke Energy. On
the first day of work, Blake brought me to my office and sat with my for a few minutes ensuring
I understood how to use the computer applications properly. Blake also introduced me to my co-

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workers that are all part of the Subdivision Design Group. The first time I meet the
Subdivision Design Group is a great example of some professional dialogue between my
fellow co-workers. When I first met David Litaker, the Manager of Distribution for the
Carolinas, I said Hello Mr. Litaker, how are you? My name is Casey Jensen, I am the new
Intern here in the Subdivision Design Group. David replies, Well, its great to finally
meet you, I heard that you did an excellent job with the Interview with Blake Miller and
Casey Yelton and we all look forward to having you on our team. Welcome aboard! After
meeting everyone, Blake allowed me some time to get familiar with my new work environment.
At that moment the initial stages of my secondary discourse began. As I sat there waiting, and
reading through the company e-portal, containing current events within the company, I felt lost,
unsure, and clueless. This was the first office position that I had ever had so I was unsure on
what to do and concerned on how inexperienced and naive I looked just staring at the computer
screen reading.

As I was being introduced to so many different people throughout the office, I felt as if I
was talking to an extremely diverse group of employees. I treated everyone with extremely
respect and in a polite manner. As I started to meet more and more people at the workplace, I
started to notice that everyone treated work in a different light in terms of their performance and
attitude towards the tasks and communication at hand. In addition to the diverse environment, I
noticed that many employees had friends, close friends, and just co-workers. Close friends
seemed to treat each other as if they would any day of the week, whereas they treated everyone
else with respect and proper business manners. My long term goals towards the end stages of my
secondary discourse is to initially meet other employees with a close friend approach and show
them respect, and proper manner while still having the laid back and down to earth attitude.

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Blake and I ended up going to grab lunch that day, and he had planned for me to sit with
Frances for my first stages of training with the AutoCAD work that our group does for the
company. Once I finally started speaking with someone about the work that my AutoCAD
department did, I finally felt as if I was making progress and understanding the tasks at hand.
Frances introduced me to the symbols, maps, projects, and work request that are sent to our CAD
group. I started to learn a series of different terms that are used throughout the company such as
Base map, Missing map, EGIS (Electrical Geographical Information System), and Developer
disk. In addition to these words, there is an almost endless list of AutoCAD commands and terms
used in the workplace. Although feeling more comfortable now that I actually am learning the
work, and will soon be doing it on my own, I knew that I was still uncomfortable with the office
environment in general. A particular example of what has happened in the workplace going
along with my secondary discourse was when I complete my first AutoCAD request for a new
circuitry map out in Matthews N.C. with a Duke Energy field engineer. It was titled Plantation
Drive, in Spartanburg South Carolina for the RPAM (Project Account Manager) David Smith. I
notify him by e-mail that the drafting work for the project was complete and he has access to the
update circuitry map on the shared Duke Energy subdivision design server. Because it was my
first completed project, I spent a considerable amount of time typing a very proper e-mail. At the
start of the e-mail I said, Hello Mr. Smith, David actually responded to my trainer, Frances,
and said that he was both surprised and startled that I address him in such a manner. I was
uncomfortable with communicating with people that I have never meet before, so I would
typically address them with Mrs., Ms., or Mr. in order to be respectful. After David mentioned
something to me about how to address fellow employees in a somewhat casual company like
Duke Energy, I felt much more comfortable calling everyone by their first name.

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Deviant Workplace Behavior and the Organizations Ethical Climate written by Dane K.
Peterson talks extensively about the difference in behavior of employees outside of the
workplace and at the workplace, especially in terms of a large organization with an extremely
ethical climate. In addition, Peterson talks about the use of language within the workplace shared
among friends and employees that do not know one another. Within large companies, most of the
people you see, work with on a daily basis you do not even know there name. Mainly because
the company is so large that it would be impossible to know everyone, but it is unreal how you
can work with all of these people and at the same time feel as if you are working alone. This
resource resembled my secondary discourse greatly and Dane K. Peterson work was a great
resource in terms of having the same point of view on a similar type of workplace discourse.

I actually took some time out of my work day this past Friday to talk to some employees
that I work with about how they would compare their attitudes outside of work to their attitude at
work. Most of them did agree that they are much more laid back outside of work and find
themselves saying/speaking more freely. The employees that I spoke to agreed that is it
somewhat nerve raking at first when attempting to communicate within a large company,
especially at a young age speaking with older more experienced Duke Energy employees.
Although, Duke Energy is a great company to work for and the majority of its employee truly
love their work, I personally find it difficult to talk properly with some employee just because I
am so young and dont want to make a bad impression if I seem too comfortable or speak too
freely to them.

Now that I have been with Duke Energy for about 9 months I consider myself in stage
two, the middle, of my secondary discourse. I feel much more comfortable and confident about

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myself at the workplace, feeling more open and free to speak. My new supervisor, out of
Raleigh, N.C., Kevin Bailey, plans to allow me to start working with the engineers, Johnny and
Marion, helping to estimate jobs and secondary service cable layout. Secondary service cables
are the direct cable from the single phase transformer to the household meter center and fuse
box. Working with the engineers has allowed me to travel more frequently on field visits for
certain projects. One day, I shadowed a Transmission engineer named Tim Salzzoni, a
recent Clemson University graduate around the local transmission lines throughout
Charlotte and the associated substations, specifically with Presbyterian Hospital. Of course
on the first meeting both Tim and I were very polite with one another, although we became
very comfortable with one another quickly because we were so close in age and had similar
interest. By the end of the day, Tim and I were joking around and because of this we both
were learning a lot from one another about our two separate departments, me especially
learning tons about transmission engineering and the structure behind the city and stress
transmission towers. Duke Energy is adamant about on safety for the employees, contractors.
When out in the field I am required to wear FR, flame retardant clothing, and safety gear
including a company standard hardhat and reflective safety vest. In terms of the words I use at
the workplace now that I am in the middle stage of my discourse are much more sophisticated
and comfortably said. When speaking to the engineers I confidently uses technical terms such as
circuitry loop, transformers, CLFs (Current Limiting Fuses), ED (Expert Designer), Microstation, and SEDS (Secondary Electrical Design Software).

I remember one day when I first started training with Johnny and he introduced me to
some of the work he does on a daily basis. Johnny had a tendency to use terms and acronym, for
example, Johnny would say acronyms and terms like KVA, KVAc, Fuse, dip/riser poles, and

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cold/max load. At first thought, I had no clue what these meant. Now that I have completed some
initial training with Johnny and Marion I have a basic understanding of these terms. KVA is the
unit for Volt-Amps, the K representing a unit of 1,000 Volt-Amps. For KVAc, it is the total
KVA connected with one loop, due to the transformers in units of KVA, which is the criteria that
allows the engineers to decide the proper fuse for the loop in terms of safety and effectiveness.
The fuses can be gives in a multitude of different types ranging from 10K 100K, T, or E. The
letter designation represents the manufacturer and the type of units evolved. These fuses are
attached to the dip/riser pole, which are actually the same thing. When Johnny was training me,
he would use these dip and riser pole interchangeable because it was second nature to him. With
all of these information, using some detailed calculations you can calculate the cold/max load for
a particular loop feeding a subdivision or apartment complex using SEDS (Secondary Electrical
Design Software).

In conclusion, now that I have been working for Duke Energy for 9 months I consider
myself to have passed through the beginning stage 1 of my long lasting secondary discourse and
am now within the middle stages two of the discourse. As I have stated throughout most of this
part of the inquiry assignment, I interact with a series of different employee within Duke Energy.
I speak to engineers, AutoCAD/Drafting technicians, supervisor, Vice Presidents, and Linemen.
The majority of the time I need to approach this people differently in order to gain there respect,
and friendship. Speaking to a linemen, or an engineer is completely different than speaking with
a VP or manager/supervisor. In addition to communication within the workplace, I consider
myself to have a completely different attitude outside of work with a much more laid back
attitude. I speak to everyone differently and properly in order to gain their respect. I believe it is
important to show people that you are a regular, laid back person and easily approachable, while

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still maintaining a professional attitude at work. I foresee myself always having a form of
secondary discourse at the workplace mainly because the company of Duke Energy is so large
and I will always have that attitude towards work. As time passes, I am sure I will become much
even more comfortable with how I act at work, but there will always be the aspect of ensuring
you treat others with the proper respect and manners.

Work Cited
Greenberg, Jerald. Insidious Workplace Behavior. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.
Peterson, Dane K. "Deviant Workplace Behavior and the Organization's Ethical Climate."
Journal of Business & Psychology. 17.1 (2002). Print.
Sims, Ronald R. Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility: Why Giants Fall. Westport, Conn:
Praeger, 2003. Print.
Wengrzyn, Rob. "Types of Attitudes in the Workplace: Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral
Components." Education Portal. Web. 5 Nov. 2014.