Claas Beuke and Stephan Probst in the Drive office

Back in the team office

07/03/2020

Home office + team office – how we will proceed in the coming weeks.

Tadaa – we're back. The first of us have already been back at the agency for a few weeks. Now the rest have arrived. And it feels good! Why? And what does the future hold for working from home?

1. Working from home is and remains great

We work extremely efficiently when working from home: there's not much chatting, everyone is very focused on their own tasks and on working as a team. Each individual and all of us together are very focused and work with a great sense of responsibility – well done!
Our entire infrastructure has been digital for a long time: our project, job, and work organization is completely digital. The access infrastructure works well and is secure; our hosting and network team does a very good job here. Internal processes are fast and well established, and everyone enjoys working with the tools. New tools such as video conferencing are good, but ultimately they are mainly additions. Collaboration with our clients is also digital, very fast, flexible, personal, and close, especially now.
We already had a good home office setup before Corona, which we used often and enjoyed, and some of us work exclusively from home. Our attitude toward this form of work was not only very positive before Corona, but HO was already completely normal for us even before that.

Eduard Lamp and Waldemar Biskup at their workplaces

It's also great working with the team at the agency.

Exactly. And why is that?

The digital connection is much better at the agency than outside! Germany – a beautiful digital country? Not at all! The infrastructure of the digital networks is simply appalling in many areas. The so-called “last mile” from the hub to your home is usually a pitiful dirt track. You can hardly move forward here – the connections are certainly not highways that would allow you to reach the data superhighway at super speed (if it existed). And when the neighbors turn on Netflix, nothing works anymore. Dear German Telekom, other cable providers, and dear regulators: you all have a lot of work to do here! Please get on with it!
It's fun as a team! The DRIVE team is great – we enjoy working together, ideas fly back and forth, develop further, and in the end something better emerges than what would have been created alone. That's a big advantage, it makes us good and helps us improve together. And we want to keep it that way. It's very helpful to see each other face-to-face from time to time, to stay in touch, to feel that we can achieve more together – that helps a lot and does us good.

At DRIVE, we continue to offer the best of both worlds

We want to retain the best from all areas and develop it further. We use the home office as a place for good, efficient, and focused work. And the team office is where we create, design, and develop together.
There is no need for control. Everyone is responsible for themselves and knows how to work well with others. And what responsibility they have towards everyone else. (We have always done this and it works well on the whole.)
Those who want to stay in their home office can coordinate with the team which days, how often, and when. This requires a little planning, but it's not rocket science.
The impact on infrastructure: We are shifting everything around. In some areas, this is happening very quickly, in others gradually. Not all workstations are flexible enough yet, so we are working on that.
Clean desk policy: we will all have to tidy up our desks more often. They will no longer belong to us alone; someone else may sit there from time to time.
The advantage: even more flexibility – we also get to work with other colleagues.

Home office + team office = new work

It has been a very educational time. And we are taking away some things that we consider to be good. But we are not under any illusions: the coronavirus crisis is far from over. There is always the possibility that a similar situation could arise again, either due to this virus or another. We must continue to be very cautious and place great emphasis on hygiene and mutual consideration. Colleagues who are at risk should and must stay at home.

The positive thing about this is that it is actually an opportunity for us to become better. To focus on the essentials. On what we are good at, what is important, especially to each other. Where we see room for improvement in our work for our clients. We will continue to work on this. Hey Ho – let's go! #keineatempause #esgehtvoran #drivediemedienagentur