15 years of working in a warm bath
23 May 2011 was a special date for me. Not just any date, but the day I started at Swink. At the time, I could not have known that 15 years later I would have learned so much about myself, both personally and professionally.
Do I really want this?
By now, my job interview has become part of Swink folklore. After a year without work and many rejections, I was under a lot of stress. The work at Swink sounded completely different from what I was used to. At the end of the interview, I literally said, ‘I don’t think this is for me.’ The HR manager at the time noticed how tense I was and said, ‘Sleep on it, and I’ll call you tomorrow.’ After discussing it, it was decided that I would start with a three-month trial period. During that time, I could find out whether the type of work and the working environment suited me, without the tension the interview itself had caused me. That gave me the confidence to take the risk, because if it did not work out, I could always look for something else. That decision and his sharp insight brought me a great deal of happiness in both work and life.
Discovering myself
Working for 15 years in a place where managers take your needs into account as much as possible has given me many insights. What do I need to function well in my work? What effect do external situations have on my stress level? What do I need to deal with that and find calm again? When someone notices the signals I am giving off, that helps a lot. It prevents me from getting stuck in a moment of unrest. And sometimes a listening ear is enough to help me process a difficult situation.
Ups and downs
More energy in my free time
Because Swink feels like such a warm bath to me, I have more energy left over. As a result, I can do much more in my private life. For example, I help organize races at my running club AV’23 (the Nescioloop). I have also been able to make many wonderful trips in recent years. None of that would be possible if I were not well supported at Swink and therefore experienced less unrest. It is very important to me that I can process stimuli at work and then use my energy in my private life by cycling, running or walking outdoors. That is what keeps me balanced.
Colleagues who can help me
The recent period has been hectic for me. Many new things happened in my private life, and that had a major effect on me. It also affected the quality of my work. Colleagues who checked my work often had to give much more feedback than before. In those moments, it is a relief when colleagues raise the alarm with me or with the team leaders. Something as simple as saying, ‘I don’t think things are going that well,’ or noticing from my behavior or expression that I am struggling, means a lot to me. It gives me peace of mind to know that people keep an eye on me and help me deal with stressful situations.
Looking ahead
Together with my colleagues and team leaders, I am working on a system to better handle unrest during work. For this, I am mapping out the options I have to prevent mistakes as much as possible. This includes:
- Working in themes within an accessibility audit, for example focusing more on technical findings at the beginning of the week and more on contrast issues at the end, depending on how focused I am
- Extra checks on my reports: is everything I wrote complete and does it contain all the necessary information?
- Taking breaks when finishing a task
- Speaking up when I lose the overview
The balance between my private life and my work remains a challenge. I feel privileged to have spent 15 years in a place where that balance is taken into account so well. It continues to be a process of trial and error. At the same time, as Swink continues to grow, that brings more stimuli into the office. That is why it remains important for me to maintain the safety net of checks in my work and to speak up in time. In that way, I expect to become better at dealing with stimuli, both at work and at home, while maintaining the quality of my work.
A new specialism
After those 15 years, I am still not done learning. A year ago, I made a switch. After many years as a content specialist and repairing PDFs, I am now a digital accessibility researcher. To prepare for this role, I completed an extensive internal training program. Auditing websites is a completely different discipline with a very different way of working. It is much more of a search for where the problem lies, followed by translating that into a solution for the client.
In learning this new role too, I have been able to take valuable steps, both professionally and personally, thanks in part to the good and pleasant guidance I still receive from colleagues and team leaders. That is why I can look forward to the next five years with confidence.
