26 March 2021

Having fun in your work is the subject of this column. This is super important, of course, because you spend a large part of your life at work. Of course, having fun outside of work is just as important, but that’s something for another column.

It might be a good idea to start with myself on this subject. I enjoy making Phoenix better, step by step, together with my colleagues. Often a step forward and sometimes a step backward when an idea works just a bit better in theory than in practice.  Evaluating how things can be improved is important but… in my role it is even more important to facilitate, give shape to the right structure so that conditions to focus on improvement are in place for colleagues. From workplace design, safety, cleanliness, comfort, to quality and much more. All this leads to a lot of work satisfaction and involvement and – not unimportant – to a good result. And to my great pleasure (yes, again), we come up with all kinds of improvements together. One person is good at recognising problems or opportunities for improvement, another at thinking up how things can be done better and yet another is good at implementing the improvement. As a result, “getting better” becomes a real team effort.

Successes also give pleasure. When we have “scored” another enthusiastic new customer and the project passes through the factory like a dream, you can see the – very justified – pride on our faces. And we have been seeing this more and more often lately. Fortunately – and indeed, with pride – we can conclude that our efforts to promote the rubber pad forming technique with more energy in “the world” have led to success.

In this column, it seems as if we only have fun at Phoenix. On the one hand, this is because it is the subject of this column and, on the other hand, because it is really fun at Phoenix. And if things are a bit disappointing? Then – like real life – that’s just part of it and the next day is probably a great day again.

The very first sentence of this column makes this my last column. Because even though I say it myself, every time I write a nice article, the delivery still hurts too much and contrary to what people always say, you don’t just forget about it :)…

So, these short “series” of columns end, thanks for reading and see you at Phoenix 3D Metaal!