Judith, you have been working for mika:timing for quite some years now. What was the biggest change for your working routine?

The biggest change surely was the shortfall of events. My field of activity includes the employment and contract procession for our part-timers. Normally, we employ 150 part-timers every year, but had to reduce that number to zero, so this part of my work dropped out.

How did your daily work change with regards to content? Are there new fields of activity for you?

First of all, there is the processing of reduced working hours. Im involved in preliminary tasks for our wages department. Besides that, I have worked on implementing the new hygiene standards together with one colleague. We had to find out what mika:timing, as an employer, can do and also has to do, to keep its personnel safe. We also had to review the new, covid-related health and safety protocols especially with regards to our work on events during these days.

What are the measures that mika:timing takes to meet the increased hygiene standards?

There are, for example, so called 'hygiene stations' at the different entrances and exits of our office buildings, which contain disinfectant, face masks and instructions for the right use. We also pack 'hygiene bags' for our event teams, which again consist of disinfectant and face masks, in order to ensure safe and hygienic working conditions, in addition to what every event organizer has to provide. After all, we want everyone, who is working out on events, to feel safe and protected.

A few weeks ago, the legislative authorities decided that companies have to provide Covid-19 tests for self-testing for their employees. How does mika:timing manage that?

We placed the self-testing kits at one of our 'hygiene stations', so that every colleague, who wants to come to the office and get himself tested, can do so spontaneously. We are all almost exclusively working from home for more than a year now and only go into our offices, when necessary. Therefore, it makes sense to have the tests available for everyone anytime.

What do you miss most during this pandemic with regards to your work at mika:timing?

It's clearly the personal interaction and talking with my colleagues face-to-face, it's the lively and buzzing atmosphere in the offices, telephones ringing and the grinding sounds of our coffee machine.

If there was a positive side-effect to this whole situation for you or for mika:timing in general, what would that be?

If at all, last year gave me a slow down as a positive side effect. There are less appointments per day. You can take more time. For mika:timing, working from home has a positive effect. In general, working from home had been a well used option for several years. It is a crucial alternative, especially for those of us, who travel a lot. Due to the pandemic this option was extended to the whole team. To some colleagues this is a positive development for the future and also contributes to feeling a little safer in these uncertain times.