We support our employees in organizing their work flexibly so that they can better balance work and private life. However, there is no blueprint for flexible working, because as a chemical company we combine a large number of different professional fields. What is the situation in production like, for example? What does work look like when you work exclusively from your home office? And how do you keep a team together whose members are generally on the road a lot? Five employees report on their experiences.
Sascha Börner und Tobias Kleinar
“Among other things, I am responsible for maintaining a high level of plant availability and optimizing production facilities, as well as handling TÜV inspections. This means that I have to be on-site quite often and cannot always be absent. But at the same time, I have many tasks that can be done at home. The work in my home office is of particular benefit to me when it comes to intensive detailed planning. It’s quiet there, and I’m not distracted by anything or anyone. If I have to stay at home for family reasons, I discuss this with my direct supervisor Tobias and so far we have found a solution. I support my parents when needed. My brother lives with them and needs special care. So far, I only do this when necessary, i.e. very irregularly. The last time was about three months ago. It would be perfect for me if I could work from home more often. However, it would be difficult to determine in advance on which days this should take place. In my opinion, this must always be flexibly adapted to the current situation in a production company, but it would be possible.”
“As a plant technician, Sascha performs work that cannot always be planned and requires his presence in the event of a system malfunction. Therefore, a fixed home-office agreement cannot be implemented. In 2016, he asked for the first time about the possibility of working from home. The implementation of his coordinated work went very well, so I am happy to support him when he requests a home-office day for family reasons. Thanks to his commitment and reliability, he has my utmost confidence even when working hours are used flexibly, which is why I am always open to the subject.”
Steve Bornack
“I was on parental leave for just over two years and worked 75 percent. During the first period of my parental leave, I was completely at home on Tuesdays and on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. On the one hand, I enjoyed this time, because strangely enough, our son’s developmental milestones always fell on a Tuesday. On the other hand, the half days at the office stressed me out: I had to leave at 1:00 p.m. – even if something happened at 10:00 a.m. at the plant and my work as an application supervisor was required. I could only count on my staff. Today, our son goes to day care and I take advantage of the Flexi 95 model – which fits me perfectly. I give up five percent of my salary and get more days off in return. Unfortunately, the subject of home office has not yet really hit our area. However, many of us are able to work from home from time to time, even in the production area. I’d be happy if we could be a little more open about this.”
Catherine Scionti
“I am a remote employee who only has a home office. I only visit sites for meetings or workshops. I initially became a remote employee because I worked at a site that was being closed. Since my role was already one that served multiple sites, it didn’t make sense for me to relocate as I often needed to travel in order to support all the people I serve. Becoming a remote employee was an adjustment as it can be lonely as I sometimes miss seeing people and relationship building. In my experience, it is important to have a clearly dedicated office and to be disciplined about your schedule so you are not working too much because there is no ‘time’ that everyone is leaving. One advantage is to feel a greater degree of autonomy and the true trust of my manager. He is extremely supportive of me and other team members who are remote or who work flexibly. The other advantages are that I save time and stress without a commute. I am definitely more productive and work more hours per day than when I had to go into an office. Home office is not for everyone though: some managers struggle with trust and giving autonomy and some employees need more structure and people around them to perform their work successfully.”
Thomas Duletzki
“Most Fridays, I’m not in the office, but in my home office in Hamburg. For this reason and because of my relatively busy schedule, I offer 90 minutes of office time for my team on my days in Cologne. In this time, I am in the office and have no appointments or telephone calls. This gives us the opportunity to coordinate our work personally, despite working from home or our busy schedules. We agreed on this as a team because we basically believe that flexible and mobile working only works well with appropriate agreements and in a culture of trust. For me, that means home office isn’t compensatory time off. Rather, the work is ‘normal,’ concentrated, and committed, but not in the office. This also means, for example, that during working hours toddlers should normally not be cared for at home while employees are working. In addition, employees can divide their working time relatively freely when working from home. However, this should be reliable and transparent so that colleagues know when they are gone and when they can be reached – home office working hours should therefore not always be outside normal office hours. In our team, this is a matter of course. There are employees who sometimes come to the office later to avoid traffic jams. Until then, they work from home and everyone – including the assistants – is informed. Or if someone has an obligation on a Friday night, it’s okay to leave the office on Thursdays and work from home on Fridays. My experience is that this flexibility in relation to the place of work increases everyone’s satisfaction. Personally, I think we should push for more result-oriented thinking and make the culture of being there in person more flexible. I demand and continue to receive high-quality and timely results from my team. But from where these results are achieved doesn’t matter to me. I am pleased that our Board of Management and Human Resources recently addressed this issue in a targeted manner and that LANXESS is developing further in this regard.”
