When I moved from Belgium to Amsterdam I was a bit scared to start over. Living in a new environment, starting a new job in a (for me) huge organization,… I was a bit scared to say the least! 2 years later, I’ll share my experience…

1st day and month at Travix

I still remember the first day I walked through the Travix doors in October 2016. I got immediately introduced to all the new colleagues. So many new faces, so many new names! But everybody was so friendly… In a way, I immediately felt comfortable. The same week, I attended my first Travix Karaoke Party! And yes – I sang a song as well  😉

But there is more: the same month, I was invited to the first birthday dinner that a few people were organizing for a colleague in my team. Nothing organized by the company, but just colleagues wanting to hang out together after work. And quickly another one followed, and another.. my work life and private life were slowly intertwining.

Work/Life balance in danger?

After about 6 months, I was having birthday dinners monthly and goodbye parties weekly. At the time, there were also quite some people leaving the company. The parties gave us an opportunity to bond even more (over a glass or two ;-)).

I started adding my colleagues on my Facebook and from then on I knew: the line between colleague and friend is slowly fading… Not so strange if you know that you spend about half your day (awake time) in the office!

Why everyone should become friends with colleagues

Firstly, like I said, you spend about 8 hours with them. It is much nicer to go to a place where you LIKE to be – instead of where you HAVE to be.

Secondly, when you are having a rough day or time – it is good to have colleagues to lean on. You can vent to them, ask feedback from them, or comfort…

Last but not least, let’s say in a few years from now you are working for a different company and you stumble upon a vacancy at a company an old colleague is working for. It helps to have a good recommendation from an old colleague!

How it turned out for me?

2 years later, I am still friends with a quite some people who already left the company. My car is parked in the garage of an old colleague, I regularly have photo albums made at the company of another old colleague – my team came to watch the Amsterdam Gay Pride from my apartment this year, I visited another colleague who is working from our Travix San José office in October,…

Why am I leaving Travix?

Sadly, also in October I announced that I will leave the company in January 2019. Not because I got fired or anything, but because of love. I came here for love, and I will be leaving for love again :-).

No worries, we did not break up. Vittorio was offered a position at Philips in Hamburg so we decided to move to the next adventure! Of course I am a bit sad to leave now that I am fully settled in and have built my own circle of friends here. But I also see it as a new opportunity to broaden my circle and dust off my German again. Jawohl!

Don’t worry – I have no intention of suddenly starting to blog in German ^^

Thank you, Travix, for the amazing times.

Until next time,

Clau