My First Experience as a Crowd Control Supervisor

Stepping Stones

One of my new-year resolutions back in 2021 was to take up opportunities that would enable me to work on my confidence in my abilities, strengths, weaknesses, knowledge and more importantly, myself.

Over the years, since the tender age of 17, I’ve earned myself the nickname of ‘The Media Person’ and I’m fully aware that I’ve brought myself to a place where virtually everyone I knew saw me as a digital creator, a creative, and someone who’s relatively well-versed in all things related to social media and digital content.

Transitioning into Unfamiliar Territories

However, in recent years, I’ve decided to see how I would fare in jobscopes outside of the familiar landscape of social media and content creation. Crowd control and management was one among various roles I’ve decided to immerse myself in.

The reasons were simple - I had a number of friends and somewhat of a support system that was there to guide me through a role I barely had any knowledge about. Beyond this, taking up any role of crowd management would mean that I would be required to tap on my own presence in crowds and ensure I’m confident in my own skin, because people would be looking to me for directions, and I had to lead them.

As someone seeking to build up on her confidence as a person, this notion was pretty attractive.

Crowd Control Stints

I started this journey by trying out the Volunteer Leader role at National Day Parade 2021. It was the first time in a long time that I found myself not only trying to figure out ways to manage myself in the midst of crowds and on-ground uncertainties, I found myself learning how to manage a team of volunteers as well as work with different people up and down the command chain.

In all honesty, I had an incredible first time and continued volunteering in this position the following year. Many of the other volunteers I’ve worked with along the way ended up being friends up till today. I’ve gained valuable insights of the kind of leader I am and the way I operate as a team leader and co-worker.

Taking on a Supervisor Role at my Crowd Control Job

I would be lying if I said a managerial role or a supervisor role at a job didn’t sound jarring to me. As a university student who’d work multiple part-time jobs, I was only ever used to working a scope of a regular part-timer. Nothing more or less.

Therefore, when I was offered the promoted role of a crowd control supervisor at my part-time job, I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of nervousness that came with the curiosity that the offer presented.

Accepting the role would mean that I would have to mentally prepare for common scenarios that came with the job, I would be the one our crowd marshal would turn to for guidance should anything unexpected happen on the ground. I would be responsible for allocating and arranging the breaks according to operational needs, and I would also be the person liaising with the station staff and managers and working with them in coming up with the deployment plans and adjusting them accordingly especially when there are sudden changes in our manpower for the day.

It was honestly a lot to take in and learn, especially on the first day when I was on my own and had to figure out how to be a supervisor to a team of marshals who were older, and way more experienced than I was.

The process of learning was definitely not an overnight thing and I found myself learning and picking up something new about the job every time I worked. Fortunately for me, I got to know most of my teammates from an operational viewpoint, and also from an interpersonal one.

Towards our final week of deployment, we were all meeting for dinners before work and still kept in touch even after our assignment was over!

I guess my greatest takeaways from this experience would be the idea that the balance between working hard and playing hard is truly important at work especially when we’re working with the same people throughout a particular assignment. As human beings, great motivation can come from the willingness to help newfound friends out.

Getting the job done well and effectively is definitely important during the job. However, during after-hours, I would say it’s also important to ensure that my own well-being, as well as my teammates’ are being looked after and cared for.

I found confidence, peace and comfort in knowing that I’m working with a team of newfound friends who would always be willing to look out for one another at work, and outside of work. This is how I know I have succeeded as a new leader, and also as a team player.

A photo with fellow supervisors in charge of other stations.