Post-Corona update: Spending a day with Florian from Unicorn Workspaces

May 4, 2024

February 2021, almost one year after the start of the Corona pandemic: masking, rapid tests, social distancing guidelines, fully-remote work – and of course, thoroughly washing your hands – all became imbedded in the daily routine. Fast forward to 2024 – after our lives had been completely turned upside down, we’ve returned to “normalcy”. However, the “new normal” is not necessarily a return to the pre-Covid way of life. Which changes remain with us from the pandemic and what’s become totally different?

Three years after our first Spending a day with Florian Kosak, we check in with our Unicorn CEO once again to see how he now spends his day.

Unicorn provides fully serviced, ready-to-go team offices including Barista services - at flexible monthly leasing terms.

Florian would like to add:

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It’s 8 a.m., your alarm goes off. Do you first check out the news on NTV or view messages on Slack?

Well, now it’s different. I don’t necessarily check out the news in the morning. I take a look in the afternoon instead, and then especially at spiegel.de. I usually like to open up Slack at around 10, after I’ve had a healthy breakfast at my place which includes homemade muesli.

It’s 11 a.m. and you have your first meeting – it’s an interview with a prospective new team member and you’re presenting Unicorn to them. What is different now compared to 2021?

Unlike during the pandemic, we’re starting to grow once again and are hiring new Unicorns. We’re focusing on organic growth. We’re looking to open three new workspaces this year. I would probably also tell this potential team member about our newest offering, “Flexible Coliving”, which we want to roll out this year. There’s a dire shortage of housing, especially in popular cities like Berlin or Munich. We’re planning to convert office space into micro apartments – with the goal of providing affordable, yet nevertheless high quality accommodations.

It’s 1 p.m. and your stomach is growling. Are you going to spend your lunchbreak with the team?

Absolutely! It’s possible to have team lunches again – without distancing rules and limits on how many people can be present. I really enjoy it when everyone’s chatting and laughing heartily – and when it’s a Unicorn’s birthday, there’s of course cake for everyone.

It’s 4 p.m. and you have a meeting with the press. They want to know about the founding of your business and how you made it through the pandemic.

Well, the flexoffice is once again in demand. It was the opposite situation during the pandemic, when working from home was mandatory. That was a difficult and economically uncertain time for us, yet we were able to garner new clients because right at that point there began to be a lot of interest in flexible solutions. What’s new is that now even larger companies have started to “source out” their offices to flexoffice providers.

It’s 6 p.m. and just starting to get busy. Is your laptop going to be on until midnight?

I work less now than I did during the pandemic. At that time, we had set up our own test centers in just a short while. Sometimes we had 150 employees who were solely working in the centers. After carrying out 800,000 tests for the public, I think I can now be granted a bit of relaxation in the evening.

It’s 10 p.m. Finally there’s time for your thoughts, or for reading or listening to something. Is this time for the On the Way to New Work podcast or Blinkist?

Nowadays I have less time for listening to podcasts. I like to listen to the audio articles on spiegel.de instead. I’m concerned about the conflicts in the world and want to keep myself well informed. I also go to bed a little earlier now, at around 11.30. When you’re 40, you need more sleep than you did at 30. :-)