Interview with Lauren Psyk

Sion: First days at work don’t always go to plan. It is normal to be nervous before starting a new job because people want to make a good impression and be seen as a good addition to their team. Lauren Psyk, a headshotPorträtheadshot photographer and copywriterWerbetexter(in)copywriter based in...mit Sitz in...based in Brighton, UK, spoke to Melita Cameron-Wood about her memories of her first day at her first-ever job after university. Now, Psyk helps people to make a good impression on their websites, but making a good first impression didn’t always come easily to her.

Melita: Can you just to run sb. through sth.etw. mit jmdm. durchgehen; hier: jmdn. (kurz) über etw. informierenrun me through sort of how old you were, where you were living and what type of company it was?

Lauren: So, I was 22. I’d just recently to graduateseinen Abschluss machengraduated from university. I went to university in Reading, and I was to apply for a jobsich für eine Stelle bewerbenapplying for jobs nearby, so it was near Reading in a place called Marlow. It was a vehicleKraftfahrzeugvehicle leasing company. They were called Lex Vehicle Leasing, but they’ve since been bought by a big bank. I think it’s like part of Lloyds Bank now. We were dealing with, like, corporateFirmen-corporate car fleetFlottefleets, so when people have a big fleet of cars, places like the BBC and quite big clients who need a fleet of cars. And I was the Marketingleiter(in)marketing executivemarketing executive there, and it was, yeah, my first day in my first sort of proper job out of uni.

Melita: And can you just sort of run me through what happened in your own words? So, from the moment you arrived in the car park (UK)Parkplatzcar park to then when they found out what was happening to your car.

Lauren: I’d got a brand-new car as well to start my first proper job. My parents had bought me a car. So, I was super proud of my new car. So, I arrived in the car park, and I thought, you know, “I really want to look after this car, so I’m going to be super careful about it being stolen and things.”

So, I attached the steering lockLenkradschlosssteering lock across the steering wheelLenkradsteering wheel to, you know, prevent theft, which, looking back, is, you know, pretty silly, really, because it was a staff car park, so it’s not really that likely that the car would be stolen, but yeah, I decided to be extra careful, so I left it there. All was fine when I left the car, went in, to sign insich anmeldensigned in, you know, was met for my first day. And that’s sort of the last I heard about it until about an hour later, when people were, you know, running around the office franticallyhektisch, fieberhaftfrantically looking for me to try and identify who owned this car. Because shortly after I’d left the vehicle, somehow, the steering lock had, like, to sliphier: ver-, wegrutschenslipped and pressed itself on to the car hornhier: Hupehorn. And it was just like, you know, constantly letting off the car horn noise like a solid, like, horn noise. And obviously, you know, because it was my first day, they didn’t have my, you know, the registration details in the, you know, staff book and things. So, they had no idea whose car this was. So, it was like an hour before they could find me and I was like, in my inductionEinführunginduction meetings and things up on the second floor and they were going round the building, “Who’s car is this? Is this your car? Is this your car?”, asking everyone. And then they found me. And it was just very embarrassingpeinlichembarrassing to be told that my car horn had basically been to go offlosgehengoing off for the last hour on the first day.

So, by the time I got down to rescue my car, you know, and they said, “Could you come down?”, the horn had like to shrink downschrumpfen; hier: schwächer/leiser werdenshrunk down to a little sort of just very patheticerbärmlichpathetic sound. It’s like a sort of, you know, farting (ifml.)pupsend, Furz-farting noise. And my poor horn was just completely to be worn outabgenutzt sein; hier: an Lautstärke verloren habenworn out, like I had to go and buy a new one after that. So, yeah, welcome to the first day in a new job, basically.

Melita: So obviously at work, you can have embarrassing situations. What do you think of the best way of navigating embarrassment at work is for you?

Lauren: I think now, now as an older person, I think the best way of dealing with it is to sort of laugh at yourself and sort of go along with the joke. But, age 22, I didn’t see it that way.

I was absolutely mortified. I was completely embarrassed and humiliated and didn’t really see the funny side of it at the time. So, I think it’s only now, as an older person, I can sort of look back and see how it how funny it was.

Melita: All right, well, thank you very much.

Lauren: Lovely to speak to you.

Melita: Yeah, lovely to meet you. Thanks again.

Lauren: Bye

Melita: Bye-bye.

Business Spotlight 9/2022, p. 37