EBF in the home office: How our employees work – Martin Pudler

The corona crisis has also brought about some changes for EBF: To protect against the virus, all employees have been working from their home offices for several weeks now – from IT consultants and account managers, who are otherwise often on site at the customer’s premises, to accountants and developers, who usually work in the office. As an IT service provider, EBF was, both technically and organizationally, well prepared for the full range of work from the home office (read more in this blog article), and offered home office opportunities even before COVID19. Therefore, the changeover also worked smoothly on an ad hoc basis and all customers could continue to be supported remotely. Nevertheless, working from home permanently was new for many of us. And of course, we also had to develop a plan B for some processes that could not be transferred 1:1 to the home office, and we also had to rethink the issues of employee management and motivation. The past few weeks have been a new challenge for all employees and managers and have brought many new experiences.

EBF colleagues report on their experiences of eleven weeks in the home office and the EBF’s measures – Martin Pudler is next.

Martin Pudler

Martin Pudler

IT-Consultant

Martin Pudler is an IT consultant and has been working for EBF for three and a half years. As an IT consultant, he advises, supports, and accompanies customers in the realization of Digital Workplace projects – from the analysis of requirements and the selection of the appropriate solution to its implementation and operation. Before the Corona crisis, he mainly carried out his activities at the EBF headquarters in Cologne or at the customer’s site. Currently, he also works from his home office, which means he no longer has to commute by train between Düsseldorf and Cologne – more time for his twins, who are almost two years old now.

What does a typical working day look like for you in the home office?

For me, the day begins when my children wake up, which is usually between 7 and 8 a.m. After breakfast, I start work at around 9 a.m. and get an overview of my emails, which I then work through bit by bit. My working day currently consists primarily of remote appointments with customers, partners and colleagues. Around 12 o’clock I take a lunch break – just like in the office – which is much shorter in comparison.  My working day usually ends around 6 pm.

How has your work for EBF changed? 

Hardly at all – at EBF we are technically set up in such a way that I can easily perform all tasks remotely. And it’s perfectly understandable for our customers that I can’t be on site at the moment. Instead, I can just as easily provide online support, for example, when commissioning a UEM system via remote access.

What has changed, of course, is my daily routine. I am much more flexible in my home office and can also take care of my children in between.

What works well, where do you still face challenges?

Thanks to the support of my girlfriend, who takes care of the children during the day, the compatibility of home office and childcare is currently working out well for me. I can now manage my workload from home without having to work excessive overtime.

How do you keep in touch with your team / colleagues?

Three times a week there is a half-hour video conference with the other consultants. These regular appointments were newly introduced during the Corona period. The time is also partly used for professional exchange, but mainly to stay in contact and to exchange about everyday matters. From my point of view this makes total sense.

In general, meetings and telephone calls with all colleagues always take a little longer than usual, because you always have a little bit of small talk to catch up on at the beginning.
Furthermore, every Friday, the tradition of a joint after-work-beer takes place virtually – a great way to stay in touch with colleagues.

What do you take away from the situation?

In the last few weeks, I have noticed that for me personally, working from the home office works well. I would like to continue working from the home office on a fixed day of the week after the Corona crisis and I hope that this will be easy to implement in my team in the future.

Are you looking forward to returning to the office or do you like working from the home office?

I am very much looking forward to returning to the office. For me, contact with colleagues is also simply a big part of the work at EBF. And I’m also looking forward to on-site assignments with our customers again.

Mehr Erfahrungen von EBF-Kollegen

Wie haben andere EBF-Mitarbeiter die Arbeit aus dem Homeoffice erlebt? Die Erfahrungen von Michael Bedros, Cloud System Engineer, lesen Sie im nächsten Blogartikel.

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