What’s next in terms of “work-life balance”?

Recharging batteries and spending time with family and friends matters to you and us. This is what we understand as “work-life balance”. As a company we already offer more annual leave days than what is prescribed by German law. But could we do even better than this? The idea for our “9 for 10 program” was born. And it perfectly fits our values.

The concept of “9 for 10”

What is putting most pressure on oneself? Squeezing in a doctor’s appointment, feeling guilty (again) about not making it to the gym? Not spending quality time with kids or your hobby close to your heart? “9 for 10” (abbreviated as “9/10”) is addressing most, if not all of it.

Every two weeks, our team members are now getting a day off. This day can be chosen arbitrarily, as long as a colleague can back one up during the day of your absence. Vacation days are not affected and can be taken as usual.

Passing the reality test in a working environment

In the course of a three-month experiment, we analysed its effects on the team’s work-life balance, i.e., its well-being, and productivity by individual and collective observations as well as 1:1s between project managers and project team members. In essence, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, handovers worked well and we even saw more team coheasion happening. Productivity was as good as before and in some case even higher.

The team’s feedback

Here are some voices from the team:

More voices will follow over time. If you have made your own experiences with such programs, please get in touch and, for instance, leave a message on our LinkedIn pages.