Greetings from the home office - Episode 21: Denise Nick, Partner & Partner

Denise Nick has worked at the Winterthur agency Partner & Partner as a consultant and project manager since 2003. In 2011, the mother of two became an agency co-owner and part of the five-member management team. She is responsible for human resources and is deputy CEO.

Werbewoche.ch: How long have you been in a home office?

Denise Nick: Since March 12. We brought the lockdown forward a bit. After all, the disaster had been brewing.

Is your entire agency located in a home office?

No. We are preparing for a longer period in this mode. Our employees can therefore choose for themselves whether they want to work at home or keep partial stable watch in the office - we call it internally. However, there is explicitly no obligation to do so, and it is limited to a maximum of 14 people in 700 square meters. The stable watch can also help to break free from isolation, to get out among people again - with due distance - and to feel that there can also be a kind of normality in these difficult times. This opportunity is also used.

Did you face any technical issues while setting up your workstation?

No. Since many have always worked remotely, we didn't have to adapt anything.

Where have you set up?

In my mini-office and in the garden.

What all do you need to be able to do your job?

My laptop and headphones and of course a good fiber optic line.

Is it difficult to separate yourself enough when the children are at home?

My children are already grown up. That is both good and bad luck. Lucky, because I don't have to homeschool them or put up with their adolescent whims. Unlucky, because they actually moved out long ago and now one of them had to return from his study trip abroad, but our free rooms are already occupied by a friend with a little daughter. Full House so!

Which jobs go smoothly?

Because we have flat hierarchies in our agency, the employees take on a lot of responsibility even without Corona mode, think along, talk along, act in solidarity and independently. In this way, everything continues to run decentrally, even though not everyone physically appears on site every day.

Is there anything that even works easier or more productively in the home office?

I have fewer people to cook for.

What do they do about the ceiling falling on your head?

Talk more with people in home offices. Open more windows for focused work. Get out in the fresh air more. Taking more yoga breaks. Not reading bad media stories about Corona.

What do you miss most about the physical day-to-day life at the agency?

Our yoga classes and our lunch tables at the agency. And the associated gathering on the yoga mats and at the large round tables. Yoga lessons are held in our Lab on Tuesdays. Once a week, we usually cook for the whole agency in groups of four. Everyone gets a turn and has to conjure up something delicious for 40 to 50 people. That's all gone now, of course.

Are you confident that your agency will come through the crisis unscathed?

The crisis is an extreme burden for all of us. Privately, as well as as an entrepreneur, I am quite challenged. At the agency, however, we are now benefiting from the independence of each and every individual. What is certain is that our culture of transparency is now helping employees to act on their own responsibility and in the interests of the company. So I am confident that the damage will not be life-threatening. In addition, our many years of investment in team culture are now bearing fruit; despite isolation, no one is forgotten, everyone looks to each other and supports each other. That's the way it has to be. Otherwise, the stress increases and with it the psychological strain.

As we all know, everything has its positive sides. What is it in your current home office situation?

I save the time for the commute and can use it for sports and recreation.

What would you like to give your colleagues in the industry to take with them through the crisis?

Separate what is due to Corona and what was or is a problem for the agency. What worries me is that at the moment there is a lot of corporate spring-cleaning going on everywhere, and layoffs are being announced, jobs are being denied, and short-time work is being introduced, regardless of whether it's because of Corona or because things aren't going so well at the moment anyway. It's amazing what the virus is now being used as a scapegoat for everywhere.