“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”
William Arthur Ward
This year I’ve written a lot about company culture and all that I have published comes from the experience of working in an organization that I am proud of. More so one that I absolutely love.
It’s been a year and a half at Serein and I often get asked what I love most about my work. I thought I’d take my last work day in 2017 to pen down what I am most grateful for this year at Serein.
THE PEOPLE THAT SHARED THEIR STORIES, EXPERIENCES WITH ME
As any writer knows, it is an absolute privilege to listen first hand to someone’s life story. During our projects while writing the stories of some of the interesting people I met, I was lucky to meet some strong women, powerful activists and members from the LGBTQ community. These were women who dared to share their experience of sexual harassment. It was their insights that made our content better and our approach in trainings more accessible and relatable to others.
COMPILERS, OUR CO-WORKING BUDDIES
When you spend most of your time on academic research about company culture, you are often left wondering “is it possible beyond the theory to actually build an open company culture?”. But then we found it. I am thankful to Compile who in all their genuineness reinforced everyday what a safe, fun, authentic and hardworking start-up looks like.
CLIENTS WHO BECAME FRIENDS AND FIERCE ADVOCATES FOR OUR WORK
All of us at Serein were new to Bangalore and we began to build our professional network from scratch. But through it all our biggest sponsors have been our clients – founders, HR partners, our research collaborators. It has been absolutely re-affirming to have them speak about our work. They believed in us enough to campaign for our approach on our behalf.
MY SPONSOR AND MENTOR BY EXAMPLE
I’ve always wanted a work space where I could do the one million things that excited me. But I wasn’t sure that it would be possible. Reflecting back on my year at Serein, I realize that my role at Serein was designed for me to work on projects that I enjoyed. Like a true sponsor Ishani had patiently nudged me into projects that scared me until I excelled at them.
Thank you for always making Serein about our team and our work. Thank you for standing up for our values always and pushing until we achieved all our goals on our 2016 excel sheet.
It’s been an exciting year. One I am extremely proud of how much Serein has grown and achieved in the space of workplace culture and inclusion. Looking forward to an exciting and adventurous 2018 at Serein – to our new office, bigger team and all the new projects ahead.
