Knock, knock… May I come back to work for you?
Look who’s back - Fatma (on the left) entered the Laika space ship again
Sometimes opportunities do indeed knock twice at the same door…
I’m Fatma, and proudly work at Laika… again. That’s right: again! I’m a so-called boomerang crew member. I was away for a while, exploring another realm, another work opportunity, but now I’m back on the mothership, navigating through the cosmos of comms.
When I tell others that I’ve gone back to my old employer, I’m often greeted with, “How come?” and “Can you even do that?” And the answer, of course, is YES!
PR forever?
But first let's start from the beginning…
After an exciting bachelor's internship in market research and PR, I decided to enter the PR industry. Fortunately, the company I interned at, promoted me and kept me onboard. In the six years I was there, I was able to learn so much about the start-up scene, the fashion world and consumer/lifestyle PR. At the time, Laika was supporting my company with its PR. Getting a peek behind the scenes of agency work, started whetting my appetite and growing my interest. When I was ready to reorient myself professionally, Laika was an ideal and exciting employer. I had the opportunity to switch to the agency side, continue PR work for the company I had left, among other things, while handling many other new clients.
As exciting and challenging as it was, at some point I started wondering if I was going to stay in PR forever. Naturally, we evolve, and develop curiosities about what else is out there for us.
Getting on board a new spaceship
I was still grappling with this internal question, if PR was my forever, when a new career opportunity suddenly popped up in my hometown. With it came the promise of a lot of networking, contact with people, project-based work in teams, and building something new. And all of this locally (I live in Aachen, and was working remotely for Laika, based in Berlin). I asked myself, “Why not?” After six years of chasing journalists and constantly pitching, I was tired of PR, working remotely, and felt it was time to explore a new opportunity.
Ela, founder and CEO of Laika, was more than understanding and supportive after I explained my decision to leave. When I was in Berlin those last days, to say goodbye, I was overcome with sadness. I was leaving a great team, where we had celebrated many successes together. Not to mention, the beautiful farewell I received.
At the new job, things were quite chaotic at first. The company was still in its concept phase. It was challenging: a new vision, a new team, new tasks and then the Corona lockdown, two weeks after I started. Hello home office—again! But I coped with it well, we still hit the ground running, and had many new projects. And this time around, it felt different, everyone worked from home, and not just me.
Some months later, the initial excitement wore off, I had a breakdown and started questioning everything, especially my decision to switch workplaces. Looking back, perhaps, it was partly due to the lockdown, and having all that time to think, and asking myself questions about being fulfilled and finding meaning, especially with work. It wasn't long before I started looking for new opportunities. I will never forget how Ela reminded me, more than once, that there was always a place for me at Laika. "I already have an employment contract with your name on it," she had said.
The comeback… 3,2,1... blast off!
It wasn't until several months later, I sucked up all my courage and called Ela. She explained to me all the new developments at Laika, how I could support the crew, which clients she saw me working with, and I knew that this was something I wanted to do again! I wanted to return and be part of my old crew.
It was in mid-September 2021, I started back up again at Laika, and it felt like we had never even parted ways. Old crew members welcomed me with open arms and didn't find it at all odd that I had left and come back. New crew members were just as open-minded. My re-onboarding ran smoothly, as well as the overview of clients and client projects, summary reports on internal developments, and more.
I really enjoyed seeing how things that were just ideas for improvements, when I was there in 2019, had been implemented and established, like retrospectives, for example. A method to get to know each other better, in a friendly way, and better understand where crew members are coming from, while reflecting on what we’re doing well, and what we can be doing better.
It was awesome to see how many bright new stars had joined the Laika crew while I was away. In addition, many internal processes had been fine-tuned and streamlined. At Laika, values which are important to me, such as openness, constructive feedback, teamwork, and honesty are always present in my daily work environment. The eclectic mix of expertise among the team enriches me on a daily basis, and in exchange I share my knowledge and experience in areas such as co-working, branding, real estate management and concept development, in hopes to enrich my fellow space dogs as well.
Staying the course
I have no regrets, and this time around it feels different—I feel further along, I have more clarity, and I once again feel ready to take on the PR industry. I ask myself: is it different because I had a little breather from PR? Because I've evolved personally? Because I overcame the struggle of finding purpose in my work life? Or is it different because I was able to directly compare leadership styles, company values, and ways of working, and chose the place which I could most identify with? I think in the end, it was a mix of everything.
Looking back, I think that the journey (I call it that because it actually feels like a voyage) to another company was actually necessary for me. Necessary to experience something other than PR. Necessary to gain perspective and clarity. As they say, you don't know what you have until it’s gone. This was definitely true in my case.
- Fatma