Role Model
Tatjana Thamm
“My individual work-life-balance principle is that I clearly prioritize between personal topics and working issues, giving both fair and adequate importance.”
| Business Unit: | Henkel Beauty Care |
| Division: | Controlling |
| Job title: | Supply Chain Controlling |
Question 1
What makes your work and working time model special and what benefits do you see?
I think one special aspect of my working time model is that I’m currently working on an annual working hour template. In high seasons – like planning season in fall or year-end closing in the beginning of the year – I work up to 80/100%, whereas in other times I show up in the office only once a week. This means – especially in summer – a lot of time for outdoor activities and little trips to relatives and friends.
The other special aspect is that I can do a lot of my work from at home, so even in high season – as mentioned above – I can pick up my kids early afternoon, joining their activities and getting them ready to sleep before going back to work on the PC. Same for my “Off”-time in summer, I simply take my notebook with me and check mails and current topics on-site.
Question 2
Please describe your typical day/work week (e.g. when does your working day start/end? Where do you work? What is your personal work-life balance principle?).
The nice thing about my working-schedule is that there is no typical work week. I try to be in the office one fix day (normally Wednesday) 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to allow spontaneous discussions and meetings with colleagues and principals, who know that they can normally meet me in the office this day. All other days are depending on running projects and scheduled meetings and I decide individually, if I work in the office or at home or even both including the evening.
My individual work-life-balance principle is that I clearly prioritize between personal topics and working issues, giving both fair and adequate importance. I try to foresee the upcoming job issues in a 3-month corridor and set up a resulting week-schedule linking these in to my personal calendar including spare time for individual topics (private or work) always popping up.
Question 3
What advantages does your line manager have in supporting your work model?
In my opinion – the advantages for my line manager is that he employs a 50% FTE with 100% availability, so basically he can reach me each day – sometimes only for short feedback or information on a current topic – whilst taking full use of my working hours in busy seasons.
He also knows that I take “full-time” care for all projects in my responsibility, independently from fixed working hours a day or a week (e.g. 9 a.m to 1 p.m.).
Question 4
Did the opportunity to work under flexible conditions significantly influence your decision to continue working?
Definitely.