Giving back to Berlin
How one SumUpper inspired her colleagues to donate their spare time to worthy causes.
Irene van der Werf is a People Partner in our Berlin office and the driving force behind SumUp’s social days initiative. Irene is a big proponent of social responsibility and was eager to inspire similar enthusiasm in her fellow SumUppers. “At my previous company, we did a corporate social day once a month, but this was compulsory for everyone. I wanted to do things differently at SumUp. My main aim was to make it easy for people to volunteer. We have a lot of non-German speakers in the company, and it can be hard to find volunteering opportunities when you don’t speak the local language. And I wanted to remove barriers for people who were keen to get involved but maybe couldn’t commit to anything regular.”
Late last year, she shared some thoughts with her Team Lead over Friday evening drinks. “He was really enthusiastic and encouraged me to think big, and gave me the go-ahead straight away to drive it. So I got a budget pretty quickly, and was able to get to work on our first event.”
The first social day was a huge success. “The project was delivering Christmas presents to child refugees, so it was a very easy sell and a lot of people wanted to get involved! The aim was to deliver 4 small gifts to every kid under 18 living in any of the city’s 15 refugee hostels. It was a really special thing to be a part of.”
SumUp social days now take place 6 times per year, and Irene feels that variety is key to their continued success. “Some people are passionate about working with refugees, others want to focus on homelessness, others on the environment, so I try to mix it up. I also aim to make sure the activities are enjoyable, as people are giving up their weekends to get involved. In February, we went ice skating with refugees who are still getting used to life in Germany. I was paired up with this young girl, she was maybe 11. We were both really bad at skating, and she must have fallen over at least 30 times. But she kept trying and she stayed so positive. She started talking to me about her home country, and about how her grandmother always told her to keep going and never give up. It was a really inspiring story and the day was so much fun.”
Other social days have proven emotionally challenging but deeply rewarding. “Another big success was our day working in the soup kitchen by Hauptbahnhof station. It was so humbling. The kitchen serves the entire city and they have such limited resources. We barely managed with 10 of us working there, and some days they have just 1 or 2 volunteers. They have a memorial wall for anyone who died on the streets but who didn’t have anyone else to remember them. And the chef is amazing, he does everything he can to make sure people are getting as varied a diet as possible. It was all so moving.”
Joanna Deng moved to Berlin from Melbourne earlier this year and subsequently, joined SumUp as an Office Manager. She was thrilled to learn about the social days initiative and soon became a regular at Irene’s events. “I got involved in volunteering when I was very young. There was a nursery near my house, so I’d go there with my sister to sing songs and do the other kids’ hair. I guess I didn’t understand why I was doing this, but it made me so happy! Then in high school, I joined a volunteering committee and we did things like cleaning our campus and helping out at homes for kids with learning difficulties. I feel fulfilled whenever I can do something to make others feel that the world is a caring place.”
Joanna says that the social days have also made her feel more at home, both in Berlin and at SumUp. “I wanted to find ways to volunteer on my own, but it’s tricky because I’m not a good German speaker! I really appreciate that we have this platform in SumUp, to enable us to get together and do something that we care about. It’s also a good chance for me to get to know my colleagues better. We currently have 3 offices in Berlin, with new people joining all the time, so it can be hard to keep track of everyone. I rarely have time to speak to some of the other volunteers at work, but I really enjoy spending time with them on our activity days.”
As we’re wrapping up our conversation, Irene observes that her experience of running social days is reflective of her time at SumUp in general. “I think there’s real freedom to try new things here, and that makes you feel really empowered. I’m in a relatively junior position, and in some companies, I wouldn’t be able to set up something like this. But here, it makes no difference whether you’re a new starter or the CEO — if you have an idea, people will listen and take it seriously.”
