«Motherhood doesn’t make you dumb, unambitious or incompetent»

Although flexible working models are also becoming increasingly popular in Switzerland, many companies don’t explicitly advertise jobsharing options with their vacancies. There are no exact figures on this, but experts estimate that only 19–27 per cent of employers offer job sharing options. And the practice hasn’t become established at Digitec Galaxus either. When Veronika Holzwarth, a Business Engineer at Digitec Galaxus, fell pregnant, she had concerns about how things would continue after her child was born. «It was clear to me that I wanted to continue working as a Business Engineer while being a mum. I didn’t want to have to choose between my child and my job. After all, that’s not something fathers usually have to do,» Veronika explains. «So I discussed various options with my boss. As business engineers often do project-based work, they typically work on an 80 per cent basis at a minimum.» Veronica’s limit was 60 per cent. Without taking much time to mull it over, her team leader advertised a second 60-per-cent position. «I was convinced that even in a challenging position like this, jobsharing would work. Too many employers are too busy being afraid of communication breakdowns to realise that with jobsharing, they’re getting the power of two brains instead of one,» says Lauritz Fricke, Head of After Sales and Retail.

No longer stuck on the mommy track

When the vacancy was advertised, Nicole Geisser applied. Her daughter was one year old at the time, and she was looking for a job where she could reach her full potential. Having returned to work after maternity leave, her previous employer had been sidelining her. Instead of being given new tasks, she was relegated to the mommy track. The job search, however, wasn’t easy. «In tech in particular, there are very few part-time positions, and most positions are advertised on an 80–100 per cent basis,» Nicole says. «This made me all the more pleased when everything fell into place at Digitec Galaxus – especially working with Veronika. We’re on the same wavelength, but don’t have the same strengths. That’s what give us an edge.»

Putting things off isn’t an option

Veronika and Nicole are Business Engineers in our After Sales Service Team. Nicole is currently working on various initiatives, such as improving the customer journey during warranty claim registration and making it easy to register a transport damage claim online. Veronika, on the other hand, deals with projects related to After Sales Refurbishing or the warehouse expansion taking place in Krefeld, Germany. Even before they started jobsharing, it was clear to the pair that good organisation would be the name of the game. They’d also hear things like «I can’t remember who works when.» «We wanted to prove that jobsharing works in the tech industry too. With this in mind, we place a lot of importance on coming up with good arrangements, communicating clearly and doing proper handovers,» Veronika says. Nicole adds: «Our way of working forces us to tackle issues directly, rather than putting off tasks. In the second half of the week, I’m often reliant on work that Veronika has done in the first half.» Both Business Engineers spend two days in the office together, which also makes collaboration easier.

Half of the employees in the After Sales Service Team are women. As the focus on technology and logistics grows, that number is falling, and men make up the majority of leadership positions. «We want more women in tech jobs. However, it’s also clear that we employers need to find more ways to be attractive to women,» says Lauritz. Recently, Nicole took her first step on a new path, assuming a management position as a Deputy Leader.

The burden of being grateful

Talking to Veronika and Nicole, it’s always apparent that they’re out to prove something – and not just to themselves and their team. «I’m doing it for my daughter too,» Nicole says. «I want to model for her that it’s possible to do both – to be a good mum who’s successful at her job.» Both women are keen to be role models within Digitec Galaxus too. Company culture and values are important precursors for keeping obstacles to alternative ways of working as negligible as possible. It also needs to be possible for women to develop in technical professional fields and assert themselves in what’s seemingly a male domain. All these factors should be a given regardless of gender. Nevertheless, Veronika and Nicole always catch themselves feeling as if they should be grateful. «That’s definitely a flaw in the system. At the end of the day, we do our jobs just as well as our male colleagues,» Veronika says, adding, «Motherhood doesn’t make you dumb, unambitious or incompetent.»