Member Interview: Dorothée Schwartzmann
Dear readers of this little dispatch,
this is the final issue of a mini-series of member interviews. During the past weeks, we've introduced the people behind Village One - one person at a time, in no particular order, giving you a little glimpse into who we are and why we founded this cooperative.
Now here is what Doro said when we asked her our questions:
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you, and what did you do before joining Village One?
Hi 👋, I am Doro. I was born and raised in Berlin, being half French and half German.
Growing up, I didn’t like going to school very much. I found it overwhelming, restrictive and unfair, so after finally finishing it, I was happy to decide for myself what I wanted to do. After two attempts, I entered the communication design program at HTW Berlin.
While at the university, I spent one semester in London studying Photographic Arts and left the city! Returning to Berlin, I co-founded a student society called »sehen und ernten« to support and enable students to their design profession. It was the first attempt to create a democratic work environment, and in retrospect, it feels pretty much like an early prototype of Village One. And this was 2012 😅
After my studies, I joined “think moto” as a UX design intern. I grew into UX design and worked on iA, Wireframes and branded interactions. Then in 2017, I joined Goodpatch. Goodpatch was rather new to Berlin back then, and I got a lot of trust and responsibility. I worked in Paris for a few months, travelled a lot within Germany and became more of a UX Strategy Consultant, helping multidisciplinary teams work together on digital products and lifting their team spirit.
In 2019 I had my first child and took parental leave. After returning to Goodpatch, I started working part-time, slowly increasing my hours and focusing on my internal role as a Studio Lead, supporting team members in finding their roles and establishing processes. Then in 2021, my second kid was born, and I used the time during parental leave to reboot and think about what I want to do in my professional life.
2. What motivated you to co-found/join the Village One Co-op?
There are a million reasons why I felt the urgency to take this step.
I was fortunate at my previous job, where I had a leading role, a great team, and the freedom to discover different areas of expertise and try out many things. So when I reflected on what I liked and wanted to do more in my next job, I knew I wanted to have even more freedom and, most notably, work within a company (team) with a strong democratic foundation.
What if everyone’s voice is equal within the company? What if salaries are not solely decided by the market but by the people who do the work and how much they think they’ll need for a living? What if people could change their roles within a team without fearing earning less or having less say? Would it enable more team collaboration instead of just advancing individual career paths? What if people could work during hours that fit their lifestyles and bio-rhythms, rather than from 9-to-5? ... These questions and ideas are so intriguing, as they would make workplaces much more democratic, human and inclusive. Yet, most companies are not doing a lot of these things. So I asked myself perhaps the most radical question: Why not do it myself?
We have just ventured out to find some answers to some of these questions, and I’m optimistic that we will tackle more of them in the future. Trying to unlearn all of the things we have simply accepted so far!
3. How does your work day usually look like?
Having two toddlers to care for means that my partner and my schedules are very much planned around the kid’s day.
My partner prepares one kid in the morning, and I prepare the other. We then have breakfast together (if I am not running late because I am pretty slow in the morning)! Afterwards, one of us brings the kids to the nursery, so the other can start their workday. (Before the kids leave the house, we can’t start working. 😅) So you will find me in front of my laptop around 9 AM.
I work until 12 or 1 PM, then have lunch with my partner. After roughly 1 hour break, I return to my computer and work until 3 PM. I use this time often to get some small tasks done as the time is mostly shorter than in the mornings.
Shortly after 3 PM, I leave the house by bike to pick up the kids from the nursery, but not before preparing a small snack for them, as kids are always hungry. 😄 Then we go to the playground, public library, grocery shopping, or home.
After dinner (around 6 PM), it’s playtime again until 8 PM. We then try to bring the kids to bed, which usually takes 1-2 hours. At 10 PM, we often try to finish some minor housekeeping; we might work a bit again and then go to bed. Phew, busy day!
4. What do you do when you're not sitting in-front of a computer screen?
Also, raising two small kids here means my private life revolves very much around them. We spent much time as a family outside, on playgrounds, in museums, swimming,... Aside from that, I like to bake bread (sourdough, of course!), try new cooking recipes, take care of my plants and cuddle my two cats, Lilu and Loki.
You can also find Doro here: I’m currently not very active on social media, but you can find me on LinkedIn, and if you want, send me an email: doro@village.one
We hope you enjoyed getting to know us a little bit? We sure had fun writing them; even better, it has helped us learn more about each other too! And if you liked our profiles and want to collaborate on a project, don't hesitate to reach out! We have some availability soon for projects and are always happy to jump on a call.
Until next time,
The team at Village One