“I feel like I’ve found my place”
Emma has worked in both large and small companies, in male-dominated environments and in close-knit teams. She
knows what she likes and what makes her feel good. When asked if she was interested in the warehouse role at Svensk Plaståtervinning, she didn’t hesitate for long.
– I thought: I’ll go for it, what have I got to lose?
What she was looking for was something she’d had before and found hard to find again: that family atmosphere. The feeling that colleagues look out for one another, that you laugh together, that you feel seen.
This is particularly evident in her own team.
– My team here is absolutely wonderful. Everyone pitches in, everyone helps out. We laugh both with and at each other. Even though we work with rubbish – a rather dull working environment, really – my colleagues make me forget all about it. That’s a good sign.
Emma is a warehouse manager and one of the few women in a leadership role within production. She has worked in male-dominated environments before and harbours no illusions that it’s problem-free, but she describes the culture at Svensk Plaståtervinning as genuinely inclusive.
– Many of the girls here are pretty tough. But I don’t think you notice that there are so many lads. You become part of the team regardless of whether you’re a girl or a lad.
At the same time, Emma is clear that more women would bring positive benefits.
– There’s a different kind of calm in a group when you mix girls and boys. We definitely want more of that. It’s an ambition that Svensk Plaståtervinning shares and is working hard to achieve.
"They have managed to retain that family atmosphere even though the company has grown rapidly and is now quite large."
