DAM: Today we’re chatting with Deniz, who is a mother, and security guard. Deniz, thanks for sitting down with us today.
D: Thanks, glad to be part of it!
DAM: Deniz, can you start by telling us a bit about your upbringing?
D: I was born and raised in Blacktown for the first 12 years of my life. I have two sisters, but I’m also a twin. I’m Turkish, my parents met and got married in Turkey in their early 20s and then came to Australia.
DAM: Often Australians with immigrant parents can feel a divide between who they are and who their parents want them to be, what was your experience like with your parents?
D: I think for the most part they were a lot more understanding than other traditional Turkish families or any Middle Eastern backgrounds for that matter – in terms of supporting a lot of ambitions and decisions that we decided to make in our lives. My father is someone that I admire and I look up to, he is the age of 56 now and he still works six days a week. I think that’s also a big reason why I work so hard, but also my mother, who just endlessly supports us being her children. She’s the one who always told me to believe in myself. They both really moulded me into who I am today.
“I think they’re also a big reason why I work so hard… They both really moulded me into who I am today. “
Deniz, on her parents
DAM: That’s awesome, that you had that support from them. Tell us a bit about your fitness journey?
D: I got into training I think when I was around like 16-17 but really inconsistent. I would go to the gym for like one day in a week and then, you know, not show up for like the next two weeks. What really got me into it was the mental benefits, you just feel proud of yourself and just that reward that I would get from it alone, is what has gotten me to the point where I am today in my journey. I enjoy challenging myself and just seeing what I’m truly capable of under pressure. But in terms of my training now, it has been going really well. I still do powerlifting style of training, as well as hypertrophy.
“What really got me into it [fitness] was just the mental benefits, you just feel proud of yourself.”
Deniz: Did this fitness side transition into you doing security work? How you got into that?
D: Before I had my son, I was 23 and working in construction as a project administrator. I loved that job. It was great but after I had my son, I just decided I needed more of a work-life balance, so I took on security work because the hours were so flexible and it was good pay. My friend at the time offered me a job and that was kind of how I fell into it and I’ve been doing it ever since. It was pretty interesting because I initially started working as an RA Marshall, so you kind of get the gist of things of working as security. You’re doing obviously a lot more than an RSA Marshall would, so it was really interesting. I learned a lot in terms of just honestly – learning how to talk to people and learning how to be a good listener, but also learning how to kind of put your foot down when you need to and just set that kind of standard where – ‘I’m not your friend but I am here to look after you as well if anything were to go down’. So it’s kind of an interesting boundary that you gotta set with a lot of people you come across in the industry.
DAM: What were the first impressions of friends and family once they found out about it?
D: A lot more concerned for my safety because they look at me and I’m not a typical person to be working in security. You know, you normally get used to seeing big, Islanders working nightclubs, who are the best kinds of people but then they look at me and might think, ‘she’s probably not capable of doing much’. They underestimate you a lot but like I said, I think it’s the gift of the gab. If you know how to talk to people, you can really get out of many situations quite easily. In terms of my family and friends, they were concerned for my safety, that was the main thing but they know me quite well and know that I’m quite persistent. When I want to do something, I will do it, disregarding what anyone says.
“They look at me and might think, ‘she’s probably not capable of doing much’... When I want to do something, I will do it, disregarding what anyone says.”
DAM: Is security work as dangerous as it’s made out to be?
D: It depends on where you work and who you work for. But I think as long as you have a good team of people you can count on, it is generally pretty safe. After two years of doing security work, I still haven’t encountered any real major issues with fights. I think a lot of the solutions are based on words you use on people that you’re dealing with. If you know how to talk to people, I think that is probably the biggest gift that you can have working in security. In Australia, New South Wales, they are very strict on hands off policy when it comes to working security, so we’re not actually allowed to use physical force unless that is being used on us. We actually can’t by law unless it’s for defending ourselves.
DAM: What would you say would be the biggest misconception with your line of work?
D: Yeah, that we’re not all assholes for one, we are just normal people just there to get paid and get home safely to our families. No one working in security is actually out there to get you. We’re just actually showing up to work the same way you do and we’re just trying to do our job. I think like with anything else, the moment you show people empathy, they kind of bring their walls down. So it helps, it becomes easier for them once you start listening, they become more receptive to this. Sometimes with the job you just stop talking for a bit, just listen, let them have their little tantrum, their moment, and then they become more receptive after that. You know, once you show people that grace, they show up back to you a lot of the time. So I realised that’s something very important.
“Like with anything else, the moment you show people empathy, they kind of bring their walls down. It becomes easier for them once you start listening… Once you show people that grace, they show up back to you a lot of the time.”
DAM: What’s the biggest thing you’ve learnt from doing this?
Dee: Patience is a big one for me. Patience is a virtue and I think that’s really been the hardest learning curve in my life just overall, especially in security because, you know, you’re just dealing with some people that are hard to deal with, but comes with the job. One of the things that I do tell myself, like when I start feeling myself getting frustrated with the person I’m speaking to a situation I’m trying to resolve, is just trying to take the emotion out of it from my part and just look at it from a kind of bird’s eye view and not make it so personal. Just kind of take the situation for what it is and just try to separate my emotions from work. Working security is like, people could be saying all kinds of things to you, but really it’s a mere reflection of them and not so much you.
DAM: What would be your advice to anyone out there wanting to pursue something but maybe facing doubt?
D: If you’re going to pursue something, don’t just give it your best, give it your all. I think that is a huge one for me. Just do not limit yourself to your own beliefs. Push past those beliefs and prove to yourself just how much you’re capable of. Because you will be so surprised at what you’re capable of if you just really put your mind into it and just give it your all.
“Just do not limit yourself to your own beliefs. Push past those beliefs and prove to yourself just how much you’re capable of. Because you will be so surprised at what you’re capable of if you just really put your mind into it and just give it your all.”
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Innify Website: innify.net
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Published by Sangeetha Gowda & Marshall-Weishuai Yuan ~
Photos by NOAH Creative ~
Diversity Australia Magazine 