Why Blogging Works
Our brains are wired to connect to stories. That’s what helps us remember. We connect with stories that are relatable and emotional. Here’s one of mine, but CE Blog is…
A Perfect 100 Helps Celanese Build a Brighter Future for All
It’s my pleasure to announce that Celanese has officially been named an HRC Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality. This achievement is the result of hard work and commitment…
Black History Month Brought To Life By BOLD
his·to·ry ˈhist(ə)rē noun 1. the study of past events, particularly in human affairs; 2. the whole series of past events, connected with someone or something Black history is rich and…
Why Interning At Celanese Has Been An Amazing Experience
Interning at Celanese has been an amazing experience because of the education, experience, and engagement I have had. I never thought I’d be walking into such an amazing environment where…
Walking With The Elderly
Since I joined the Amsterdam office in October 2017, I have had the pleasure of participating in three Walking with the Elderly events. For those not familiar with this program,…
An Awesome Journey – How Our Celanese Team Raised 22,000 Euro While Sitting On A Bike
In the years that I’ve worked for Celanese, I have enjoyed various volunteer events with my colleagues from the Amsterdam office. We have upgraded facilities at a petting zoo, pruned…
Working Together To KeepSAFE
Process safety is something I’m incredibly passionate about! Everything can change in the event of an emergency; and as a process safety leader, it’s my job to always be prepared…
Advocacy in Action – Celanese Celebrates Women
Since 1975, International Women’s Day (IWD) has been celebrated each year on March 8 to commemorate the movement for women’s rights and to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political…
Celanese Ignites Collaboration At The Detroit Auto Show
Using just about every inch of 2.4 million square feet in its current home at the Detroit COBO Center, the North American International Auto Show (or “Detroit Auto Show”) presents…
10 Ways We Showed Our Celanese Hearts In 2017
Since its start in 2012, the CE-Blog has given our leaders and employees a platform to be heard and seen. With nearly 250 posts, the CE-Blog has helped to build the culture we have today.
We have a tradition here on the CE-Blog to pause and reflect on the previous year’s stories with a Top 10. It’s a chance for us to recognize the great contributions of our employees who are the success behind this powerful online platform. As I read through these stories, some common themes began to emerge, including, caring for our people and communities, a passion for our work, and the big heart of Celanese…
Collaborative Process Safety: How To Steal Shamelessly And Get Away With It!
I have the coolest job at Celanese. In process safety, we save lives, protect the environment and preserve all our jobs by keeping bad things from happening in our manufacturing plants. This may seem like a rather bold statement, but consider the toxic gas release that occurred in Bhopal, India in 1984. The company which had the incident no longer exist. The chemical industry was transformed in a positive way through regulations and voluntary improvements to the way we design, build, operate and maintain our manufacturing facilities…
Seeing Through Another Person’s Eyes At The Florence Facility
It was the middle of Summer. I had been leading the Florence Facility Pride Team for almost a year, and we had rolled out some great events and initiatives. This day, I was setting up the Town Hall room for a guest speaker through our ERG shared program called “Through One’s Eyes.” It is a way for WIN, Young Professionals and Pride to bring true stories of the community to share in our message of diversity and inclusion. This month, it was Paula Ison, and she was going to speak about her life being transgender.
Paula began her life story and invited anyone to ask whatever they wished. No holds barred. Many attendees asked some great questions, and then a man raised his hand. His question made me realize that my team and I are making a difference in sharing a perspective others may have previously been unfamiliar with…
CIIP Team Brings Company Values To Life In Real Time
In September I had an opportunity to participate in a networking event with the Budapest Shared Services Center (BSSC) in Hungary. This was not a traditional “job fair” event, but instead a relaxed, after-hours event where we invited people to come in and learn more about the BSSC, its people and culture. Instead of a booth and a line, we mixed with potential candidates and were able to have individual or small group conversations.
As a talent acquisition professional, listening to people is the most important thing I do. So, when I meet with potential candidates, my role isn’t to just start talking about all of the great reasons to work for Celanese; it’s to listen to what is important to them and then help guide them to the connection with Celanese…
Being B.O.L.D.
In a Ted Talk video featured at the launch of the Dallas chapter of B.O.L.D. (Blacks Organized for Leadership Development), Verna Myers said,
“We can’t just decide not to see color. The problem was never that we saw color; it’s what we did when we saw color.” She went on to say, “While we’re busy pretending not to see, we are not being aware of the ways in which racial difference is changing people’s possibilities.”
I think we’d all like to believe we’re color-blind when it comes to racial diversity, but unfortunately, we’ve got a long way to go toward making equality the rule rather than the exception…
Behind The Scenes Of The Celanese BBSC Image Video
At the beginning of 2017, the Budapest team received an exciting email from Corporate Communications. They were looking for a handful of actors to star in an engaging short film about our office, our people and life at Celanese Hungary. Needless to say, I was in! Mere minutes after the first email, Petra Czugler, corporate communications manager Europe, and project owner, gathered her team of enthusiastic actors, and the preparations began…
5 Reasons You Should Follow Celanese On Social Media
As Celanese’s social media manager, I’m deeply involved with the planning and promotion of our company through our various social media platforms. It’s several of the many communication channels I enjoy supporting every day. Here on the CE-Blog, the hub of all things social for us, I thought I would spend some time sharing with you why you should be following us on social media!
We Are The “CHEMpions”
On June 13th more than 63,000 participants ran or walked 3.5 miles between towering skyscrapers while enjoying the beautiful Frankfurt skyline at the J.P. Morgan Corporate Challenge. Nearly 100 Celanese employees ran for a good cause under the “We are the CHEMpions” motto. Participants represented 5 Celanese locations, including Kaiserslautern, Amsterdam, Budapest, Sulzbach and Frankfurt. After the run, everyone met together to enjoy the great weather with a bratwurst washed down by a cool beverage to celebrate.
The Email That Put My Weight Loss Journey Into Overdrive
I will never say my decision to start losing weight was an easy one. I had a pretty terrible three days and it led me to focus on myself and making sure I was happy. While I had never been fully content with my weight, I never let it hold me back from living my life. As a full-time graduate student, my process always starts with research, so I looked into credible lifestyle change advice and recognized dieting fads weren’t going to lead me to real, sustainable results. At work, I started observing what people ate. The key is moderation. I started tracking my calories, meal prepping, and going to the gym.
Between school and two jobs, timing was everything and freeing up that time was crucial. Interning at the Celanese office in Dallas also gives me access to a gym facility, which really helped me stay committed while simultaneously avoiding rush hour traffic. I had changed my diet, started working out and after 4 months and 40 pounds, I received the email that put my journey into overdrive.
A Mother’s Day Gift From Celanese
Last month, new and future moms at the Celanese Florence, Ky., site got a very meaningful Mother’s Day gift from Celanese. The Florence Women’s Impact Network (WIN) partnered with site leadership to establish a Mother’s Room where they can comfortably and conveniently pump during their work day.
Returning to work after the birth of my son was difficult, to put it mildly. Sure, part of me was anxious to regain a slight sense of normalcy and solve some problems that didn’t involve diapers. But those first weeks of being separated from that tiny human to whom I’d become so irrevocably attached–those were heart wrenching; not to mention the stress of finding child care, balancing the new list of responsibilities, and adjusting to a new sleep schedule.
More Than A Budapest Shared Service Center
I have always been expecting more than just a 9 to 5 job. I wanted to work somewhere where people care about each other. A place where my ideas are heard and where I can be challenged every day. Have you ever wondered what makes our Shared Service Center (SSC) different from the others in Budapest?
A Storyteller’s Gem–Celebrating Five Years of the CE-Blog
I recently attended a social media conference to learn new trends, to connect with communication peers and to leave inspired and refreshed. As a communicator, the emphasis on transparency and social storytelling affirmed Celanese’s communications strategy to have a consistent and authentic voice.
The CE-Blog came to my mind several times over the course of the conference, especially when one speaker shared how to unearth the spirit of a brand through storytelling. She was talking about how a brand’s mission is its story. The more she talked, I couldn’t help but think how great it has been for our company to have created a space to give our employees a voice to our customers, our communities, our teams. This blog has helped to pave the way for our company to build the culture we have today. It speaks to our company values and has been a place where we’ve tackled challenges and shared about the people and the causes we’re most passionate about.
How We Integrated A Syrian Refugee In Our Sulzbach Office
During the past years Europe has been the desired destination of millions of refugees seeking safety and shelter. Not only for Germany this new situation means a big challenge for society. It is a huge responsibility to successfully integrate refugees with a permanent residence permit into our society, culture, language and work environment. That’s why in 2016 various employees from the Frankfurt and Sulzbach site founded the “Celanese refugee initiative Rhine-Main”. Under the umbrella of this initiative we took a step further and were very proud to have our first refugee intern, Mohamed Takika from Syria, working with us in the Celanese Commercial Center in Sulzbach, Germany, in January and February.
The Power Of The Working Family
I underestimated the amount of change I would go through as a new mother. People told me my life would be completely different, but there aren’t enough words to describe how my world was turned upside down in the most challenging, beautiful, and rewarding way.
Something Is Wrong If You Don’t Belong
Have you heard this phrase? It’s true in many places and, in my view, it’s especially true at work.
Let’s face it, we spend a lot of time working. The average person will devote one-third of their life to the workplace. With that kind of commitment, it’s important to feel at home in the workplace. We should feel appreciated and at ease. Many factors are involved to be able to achieve that, including the quality of your job, feeling successful at what you do and having good people around you who know you and respect you for who you are.
Be Open To Being An Ally
Early in my career I had an experience that changed my views on diversity, opening my eyes to the value of being inclusive and open. As a young engineer in the early 90s (as my daughters constantly remind me that would be last century), the plant in which I worked in my first job out of the university was required to have off-site diversity training.
My Diversity Experiences At The Singapore Plant
“Sir, I would like to talk to you about the Process Engineer position at Celanese Singapore. Is it convenient to talk now?” I said as I asked the recruiter.
“Sure. It’s convenient to speak now. Could you please repeat the name of the company?”
And thus began my journey with Celanese. My first experience with diversity at Celanese was when I met the team that came to Mumbai for job interviews. After the usual interview questions, I was given an opportunity to ask some questions. I remember asking: “Do you have someone from India working there?” I was told you’d be surprised – and you bet I was.
Top 10 Blogs of 2015
What makes a great blog? Is it the practical advice we relate to when employees share about their everyday life? Or is it the empathy and strength we’re inspired by when our colleagues share about the challenges they’ve faced?
In 2015, our top 10 bloggers wrote on a variety of great topics! Thank you for sharing your personal stories with us and making CE-Blog a platform to discuss the things we care about most. So grab a cup a coffee and sit back at your desk as you catch up on the latest and greatest blogs and consider what story you might like to share in 2016!
Online Shopping Tips That We All Tend To Forget During The Holidays
Online shopping has become the preferred method of many holiday shoppers. With the introduction of Cyber Monday, retailers are providing deep discounts and easy ways for shoppers to find the perfect gift for friends and family. Since I’ve started my role in IT Security, I’ve begun to look at online safety from a different perspective. We often think of identity theft and Internet security as some distant thought, but your information (and in some extreme cases, your financial livelihood) can be compromised with a single click.
A Jump Start In Sneakers
Personally, I always enjoy participating in social and team events. Especially at a sporting event like the J.P. Morgan Chase Run where It is easy to just jump into the next conversation around you and get to know new colleagues from others sites, departments and businesses. Where else would I have the chance to meet all these faces?
Sport has always been a good (and healthy) reason for people to get together and join the race. That’s why I also decided this year to not let the Frankfurt Chase happen without me. I grabbed my bags, a few colleagues from the Dutch site in Geleen and took the bus to Germany. During the 3-hour ride, not only were our sneakers ready for the excitement, but also our moods for the biggest Celanese European team event.
Communications To Facilitate Change
Some changes are welcomed, but others may not be. Many of us enjoy changing our iPhone 5 to the iPhone 6 plus without any hesitation, but we may be reluctant to change the environment we have been used to.
Obviously, we like to embrace the change when it benefits us, but we are nervous, or even resistant, if we see uncertainty or risks deriving from the changes. This is not about culture or mindset, it’s about human nature: as a general rule, people don’t like ambiguity.