An interview with Lukas, Software Developer at QualityMinds

Working model: part-time – 90%, developer, he works 5 days a week, mainly remotely and occasionally he is in the office.

His workload varies a lot. Sometimes he works 5 h/day and sometimes 12/day, depending on the project and whether there is a deadline coming up soon, then he works more accordingly. He is a huge fan of remote work but also enjoys to catch up with his team colleagues on his office days.

What do you particularly appreciate about your working model at QualityMinds?

Lukas: Definitely the flexibility and the freedom to work wherever I want. Depending on the project, I can manage my working time on my own and organize my working day myself. Thanks to my flexible part-time model, I can finish a little earlier every day, which gives me more time for my hobbies and other things that are good for me.

The office days and home office days are handled very flexibly at QualityMinds and we don’t have to work in the office every day. Sometimes I’m in the Munich or Nuremberg office once a week, but there are also months when I don’t come into the office. I know it differently from my circle of friends – for many of my acquaintances, working from home is not as normal as it is for us Minds, many employees can’t work from home at all or only a certain number of days a month.

I can concentrate better when I’m working from home because I have a quiet surrounding. Outside of appointments with customers, I can sometimes sit at my desk in my bathrobe or my sweatpants, which is more comfortable. Working from home also saves me a lot of commute time to and from the office. Of course, working from home also works particularly well for us software developers, since we are working in a remote setting mostly

What do you like about working in a remote team?

Lukas: I enjoy working in my remote team, despite the remote setting and I also like being in the office. It’s nice to have a chat with my colleagues in person and hear a lot of the interpersonal tones that are missing in the home office. It’s also inspiring to meet other minds who aren’t in my team, because they often give me completely different ideas and important information. Being in the office helps me to stay up to date and strenghten the relationship with my colleagues.

Our remote setting also works very well because we have good team cohesion, and the communication via our digital channels, such as Slack, also helps. But if I need to get my work done in peace and quiet, working from home is great. Unlike in the office, there’s not so much going on and I can work undisturbed. Working remotely also offers the advantage of being able to talk to colleagues who aren’t from your own region or even your own country. For example, we worked very well with our Polish colleagues in the last and current project, who bring their own style and different impulses to the project.

How do you handle communication and coordination in your remote team? Did you have to overcome any obstacles?

Lukas: Communication in a team that works remotely is definitely a challenge. Corona has also played a key role in changing the communication in our team. We have developed new communication techniques, such as an increased use of our messenger tools like Slack. If I want to talk to someone of my team, there’s always someone online in our Slack channel. We’ve also made it a habit to get together in a Slack huddle and work together quietly – that way everyone can concentrate on their work and yet the official channels are very short when we have a topic for the team. It’s actually like being in an office, the tone is relaxed, everyone can work independently on their tasks and contribute their own ideas. And sometimes we also just have an easy conversation about non-work-related things.

Nevertheless, the challenge is that I have to be more proactive to get information and coordinate with my team. Sometimes colleagues (including me) tend to withdraw into the home office and then communication and coordination in the project is more difficult than when you can sit down in the office and talk about project challenges face-to-face. The only remedy then is a diplomatic communication style.

Sometimes there are also coordination problems when team colleagues work on different days and therefore not everyone is always there. For example, if I discuss something with a colleague on Thursday and then further questions arise on this topic on Friday, I have to find someone else to help me if he doesn’t work on Fridays. Sometimes decisions have to be made that you can’t make yourself, which then have to wait until Monday and you have to work around them as efficiently as possible. You have to plan ahead and coordinate with colleagues in advance so that you don’t miss out on important information.

The amount of work and working hours are different for each of our projects. At QualityMinds, we have a flexible system that allows us to work unusual hours and more if the project requires it (within certain limits). Sometimes you also work overtime for the project, but you can reduce this by taking vacation. But this also applies in the other direction: if team members have to look after their family and children, for example, they can finish earlier and work in the evenings instead, and this flexible system also helps here.

How do you use the training opportunities offered by QualityMinds?

Lukas: I always try to make use of the learning time we can take during our working hours. I recently trained in Kubernetes, which is an open source container orchestration system for automating software deployment. It’s relevant to my work and now helps me in my day-to-day work.

Conclusion

Lukas: I really appreciate remote work and the modern and flexible working culture at QualityMinds, especially the flexibility of being able to work in my own environment at home or elsewhere. Corona has also changed a lot in this respect and now a lot more has become possible in my working life that was previously unthinkable.

The technical setup for my home office workstation also went smoothly. I work in two places, once at home and sometimes at my partner’s, so I set up my workplace in both places.

The challenge is to organize communication in our predominantly remote team and to coordinate with my colleagues in advance so that we can work well together on projects.

Want to find out more about the flexible working models at QualityMinds? Read the interviews with our colleagues Katja, Tobias and Richard here.