We at Paessler are changing the way we work at our HQ in Nuremberg

... hooold on, we've been over something similar before, haven't we? And indeed, the observant reader will recall our article published in the midst of the Corona pandemic, describing how we allowed all employees to work either from the office, from home (or, conveniently, any other location), or flexibly switch between the office and home. And not just for a month, half a year, or until the pandemic situation is over, but for good. Sorry Elon, this stuff actually works.

Since we uphold the principle that the health of our employees is our top priority, office visits still require special conditions; this includes rapid tests and the wearing of a mask. But now that the fog is lifting and we are beginning to see a glimmer of hope for a true new normal, we have decided to fundamentally change our office experience as well.

The corona pandemic was a challenge, for the world, for the economy in general, and also for our daily work. But many people were also, for the first time in their lives, really able to figure out how work "works" best for them: they learnt what setting and what environment they needed to productively accomplish the tasks of the day. That the answer to this question would be highly individual is obvious. Each person has a different background. It's hard to compare the needs of a single mother of two children with those of a young professional, who at most has to answer to herself and her judgy house cat.

But in addition to the "where" of work, the "how" is another quite individual matter – some colleagues can work best in crowded, noisy open-plan offices, while others require things to be really quiet in order to get clear thoughts. That you have to find the place where you work reasonably appealing is perhaps the only commonality in tastes.

So, without further ado:

We've started to revamp our HQ in Nuremberg in order to turn it into a place that will provide every type of worker with the environment they need to shine. How does this look exactly?

Well, it looks like this...

• ❤️💚 Through visually distinct areas, it is easy to choose the area that suits your type of work or your current work situation. In all red areas, chatting with co-workers is just as possible as answering calls. In the green areas, on the other hand, the focus is on silent, concentrated work.

• 🔇 If calls need to be answered briefly in the green area, the specially designed soundproof "telephone booths" are available for this purpose. Similar boxes are available in the red area, for when you need to concentrate – or simply need to escape this nice colleague who can't control his outpouring of extroversion.
• 🌱 Incidentally, the green area is characterized by an eye-catching artificial turf that also absorbs quite a bit of noise. The planners of the remodeling have really thought of everything.

• 👨‍💻 A dedicated workshop area can be separated from the main room by heavy curtains and has flexible seating solutions that can be arranged to suit the needs of the moment.
• 🎤 For meetings in which colleagues have to be brought in by video call (which is our new "normal mode" anyway), we have technically upgraded and created so-called "hybrid meeting rooms" that give a stronger impression of community in spite of having a video call.
• 💃 All this is rounded off by an area that is primarily intended for socializing: At a long table or in a sofa corner, we can meet for coffee for a few minutes and exchange the latest gossip about all the things we didn't do on the weekend, although clubs and bars are actually open again. Call it lockdown backlash, call it getting older.
• 📽️ In this short video, you get quite a good overview of the entire floor:

Would you like to work at our revamped HQ too?

The office transformation started with our marketing department, and we are planning similar changes in other areas of our HQ, always according to the concrete requirements and wishes of our colleagues. But what we are already observing, is that thinking in terms of traditional departments is on the wane. We would like to encourage this further and move toward a new form of interaction in which colleagues from different fields work side by side and exchange ideas. What direction is this exciting development taking? We can't say that today. That's because we design our working environment like we plan our software: In iterative steps, from which we gain a lot of new insights.

🎉 Would you like to join our path to a hybrid company that guarantees you maximum flexibility and well-being? Then take a look at our career page and maybe discover your new dream job.

❤️ A special thanks goes to our awesome Nadine from back office, who has significantly driven and shaped this new design approach.