These professions exist only in companies operating in the Port of Klaipėda, and the demand for specialists is huge. Lina Steponaitytė is in a unique profession and she is convinced that "I wouldn't change my current profession for any other". Lina has been working at our terminal for almost a year now as a talman.

 

Lina, please explain what a talman does?

As a stevedoring company, we carry out transhipment processes and provide storage services. We handle a wide range of cargo types, weights and values, and we keep strict records of them. All incoming and outgoing cargo is recalculated and the results are compared with the accompanying documents, and acceptance documents are processed. It is the talman, also known as the cargo accountant, who takes care of all the cargo accounting at the terminal.

 

How did you get the idea to take this job in the first place?

Before working at KKT, I lived in Italy for almost a decade, where I worked in a variety of jobs ranging from receptionist to restaurant manager. However, the time came when I realised that I wanted to return to Lithuania. I packed my things and went back to nothing. I didn't have a job, just the realisation that I didn't want to work in an office in front of a computer. Then the job search started, and when you look, you always find. I received an invitation from the Employment Service to attend a showcase event for port companies to share information on the professions that are in short supply in the port. I attended and heard about the profession of talman. I was hooked and the very next day I went for a job interview at KKT, where I stayed as an employee.

 

Share what your working day looks like?

Every day is different in our terminal. The daily agenda varies from how much and what kind of cargo has arrived during the night shift, how much and what kind of cargo is left in the terminal for storage, how much and what kind of cargo needs to be shipped out, so I'm always on the move and in action. I also check the warehouse records, sort cargo by group, perform other necessary accounting functions and prepare various statistical reports. My working day has no room for sedentariness, so I would summarise it as active and organised.

 

What are the main challenges you face at work?

My team is made up exclusively of male dockworkers who do the physical unloading and loading of cargo, so one of the main challenges in the first months of my job was to gain the trust of the team. It is very important for people to make sure that others are who they say they are and that they will do what they say they will do. It is also important that the trust is mutual. If there is no trust, working together is also impossible. I believe that through my daily and consistent work, I have earned this trust and today I can confidently say that we are a team. And with a professional team, the remaining challenges are no longer daunting and can be overcome.

It is true that my work is always outdoors and in unpredictable weather conditions, so this is also a challenge, but I love it and I can't think of a nicer job now.

 

If the majority of the men in the transhipment area of the terminal are men, would you say that the job of a stevedore is also a "man's job"? 

It just seems like a man's job, but it doesn't involve heavy lifting, it's an organisational job. After all, nowadays women even fly planes. You simply have to be unafraid of working outside and in different weather conditions, especially in the Klaipėda region.

I think that we are still influenced by the perception that this is a difficult, 'male' speciality, which is absolutely not true. Often, the influence of stereotypes is felt in the family, where, from an early age, it is shaped which jobs are suitable for a girl and which ones are not. So I was very lucky that my family did not have that attitude, no male or female jobs. We had two sisters, we had a very open childhood and we never heard that you cannot do something, you don't belong just because you are a girl.

 

What are the personal qualities that a mascot should have?

First of all, organisation and the ability to manage the different qualities of the people in the team, diligence and seeing the bigger picture than just the job at hand.

 

Does your profession surprise anyone else when you tell them what you do? 

Nothing is surprising in my environment. But those who don't know, they ask with surprise in their voice: "What do you do? What's the name of your profession there? I've never heard of it."