A day with Paul (Unicorn Workspaces)

April 11, 2023

A little bit about Paul: in May, 2018, Paul became a member of our Unicorn family. In his position as Senior Operations Manager, he supervises our Unicorn Community Baristas in our Berlin and Potsdam spaces. Paul is also onsite and responsible for standards compliance and quality management in several of our spaces. In addition, he is the Product Owner for our Unicorn entrances, a part of the support team, a safety officer - and if all that wasn’t enough – a part of our finance team. Paul certainly enjoys plenty of variety at work, and is truly Unicorn’s Swiss army knife!

It’s 8 a.m. Are you already wide awake, or still in a deep sleep?

I like being an early riser. My rustical alarm clock wakes me up at 5.45 every day. Even when there are days where I could sleep in a bit more, I enjoy the peacefulness of sunrise. Having a morning routine is important for me: calmly starting off with 2 or 3 coffees and time for myself, easing into the day. At the same time keeping an eye on my phone, to be aware of any last-minutes changes or absences within the team, so I can react early enough to re-coordinate things. By the time it’s 8, I’ve enjoyed my last coffee for the entire day and I’m off to one of our spaces – each day I’m at different one.

It’s 10 a.m. and you’re in the middle of a productive phase. What’s essential for you to be productive?

I’m at my most productive personally communicating with my colleagues. Not only because we can discuss projects quicker, but we can also approach things directly and find solutions. Communicating with my team via Slack is very important, so that we’re all getting updated at the same time and are able to share and talk about new information, which’ll then be stored in our “Unicorn Wiki”. We work through user’s requests and issues together with the ticketing system from Zendesk, keeping the processing time as short as possible. For other work processes, I really swear by the tool Linear, which keeps track of all ongoing projects and to-dos according to priority. I hardly use a pen and paper anymore, and if I do, that information goes directly into the computer. Without a clear structure, I can’t concentrate on my work. I’m one of those people who has their smartphone on the desk right next to the computer. There has to be order. :)

It’s 1 p.m. and your stomach is growling. What do you do? Have a muesli bar and go out for a jog? Go over the latest analytics with business partners? Are you rather a stay-in-at-the-office type, or do you need to get out and get some fresh air?

At lunchtime I’m usually on my way to the next space, so that’s the time for me to pick up a small snack to go. Generally, I’m not the type of person who has lunch. Instead, I look forward to cooking dinner together with my someone special in the evening.

It’s 3 p.m. You’re off to the next space with public transportation. Are you using your travel time for a mini-meditation session or taking care of your emails on your smartphone?

I put my earphones in, some music on and continue along. The time I spend travelling is also used productively – I’ll answer messages, check my emails or work on tickets. I don’t like having telephone calls when I’m in the subway, it’s usually too loud and the quality of the call suffers. Instead, I prefer to use this time for written communication, so that when I arrive at a space, I can be fully engaged with my team and our discussions concerning ongoing projects.

It’s 6 p.m., is the workday coming to an end or just getting started?

The service hours in the spaces have already ended and my teams have gone home after a good day’s work. I’m also on the train, heading home and checking the last emails and tickets. This is normally the time when I decide which spaces I’ll be going to the next day. Provided that I don’t receive any last-minute changes the next morning.

It’s 10 p.m. and you finally have time for yourself! Are you a series addict? A music lover, bookworm or binging podcast listener?

Naturally I’m a series addict, watching with my sweetie on our huge couch. It’s a diversion, it helps get your mind off of thinking about current projects. I’m a big fan of horror and thrillers -> “Money Heist” is still one of my favorites and I’m getting some good chuckles out of “Wednesday” right now. On warm summer days I enjoy the peacefulness of our rooftop terrace in the otherwise rather turbulent Berlin. On Wednesdays, I have a regular get-together with my friends at one of our favorite bars. Sometimes we’ll go to the theater or to the cinema instead, or have a game night. The time we spend together is important for me, it’s a great way to balance out the daily work routine.