Today, as part of our series “GetMyInvoices – Behind the Scenes,” we look a little deeper behind the scenes and reveal how family and work can be combined in our company. We spoke to the new dad Christian Heimrich about this.
We can already reveal in advance: There is no talk of “sleepless nights” for the Director of Business Operations, because Christian has already “implemented” very effective routines for himself…
Christian, congratulations again on the birth. ? How old is your son and what is his name? Paul is now three months old.
Are you actually married? No, my partner Katharina and I wanted to get married last year. But then the pandemic intervened and we didn’t and don’t feel like having a “corona wedding”. So we’re getting married next year.
How did the GetMyInvoices team or the fino family reacted to your offspring? Really cute! After I posted on Slack that I was becoming a father, we received lots of nice messages and hearts, as well as a huge gift. That was really nice.
You took some time off after the birth, right? I had a month of parental leave. After a year, when Paul can do something, I’ll take a second month. Katharina and I have divided our parental leave so that it takes a total of 18 months and together we have 20 months, of which we receive parental allowance for 14 months.
And in that one month you really didn’t check Slack or your emails? I don’t even know anymore. The question is what is meant by work? I’ve certainly forwarded emails, added my two cents in Slack and spoken to Björn, the product owner of GetMyInvoices. But it’s not like I did anything operationally or engaged in anything that I would describe as pure work. To the interview with Björn Kahle
What is the situation in the home office with the little man? ? As far as the spatial arrangement is concerned, I have a room for myself in which I can work. We have built a good routine around working from home. I sleep pretty well through the night and Paul and I wake up at 6 a.m. I look after him until around 9 a.m., which means I consciously don’t plan any work appointments until then. Then I work until lunch at 12 p.m. and then again until 6 p.m. Katharina also likes the organization because she can give me Paul at any time. We just sort it out among ourselves and working from home means I see Paul a lot more. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for my father to leave the house in the morning and come back in the evening. I think it’s extremely nice that I get more out of it during the week - despite the effort.
Has your productivity suffered as a result? I used to enjoy starting work at 6:30 a.m. or 7 a.m. because it’s quiet then. By 9 a.m. all colleagues are usually there and you start to be contacted frequently. Of course it’s different now and I still have to get used to it. Additionally, I would say that I’m not as productive as before…but I think that’s just me noticing. The routines allow me to work very efficiently and we can design them in such a way that we can improve even more aspects over time. ?
Where do you see potential for improvement? Now I have to see how I can incorporate a little more sport. I’m thinking about putting a fixed blocker in my calendar every day. However, this is difficult because GetMyInvoices currently has so many exciting topics that we could jump into immediately.
Is working from home different than before? You already had a remote culture before Corona. Previously, most people in our area came from Kassel and only a few from outside came to the office for meetings. Now everyone is scattered far and wide. This means: We are in the same boat because we all work from home and communicate via online meetings. In that respect it is better now. There’s nothing worse than hybrid meetings where some are on-site and others are online. I estimate that we will continue to do this even after Corona and that it will not be the rule for us to go to the office more than once a week.
