After two years of a pandemic and a wide variety of restrictions that have changed often and quickly, one thing is clear: the concept of the “office” is no longer up to date.

We have become accustomed to being digitally networked and, in return, to hanging out the laundry or walking the dog between calls (for example, like our Software Engineer Keighley, who worked a week out of the winter wonderland that is Slovenia).

Many companies find it difficult to trust their own employees under such “freedoms”. We see it differently. We founded hi in mid-2018, so we’ve been in “digital mode” longer than we’ve been in the office. Since we want to rethink previously established systems, such as the healthcare system, it was therefore not difficult for us to switch to a hybrid model in March 2020.

With our physical offices in Vienna & Berlin, our employees always have the opportunity to meet with each other offline (yes, in 3D!). We still think that the social exchange among each other and regular meetings at team events is important for the team feeling and especially nice when you can spontaneously start a conversation in the coffee kitchen, for example.

(Find above a typical “home office” view of our marketing lead Bastian, who spent two weeks in Paris.)

However, we would like to give our team at hi the opportunity to change their location in between, precisely because we have not been allowed to “go out” for several years now.

To this end, we have developed our “work from anywhere” concept, which allows our employees to work from “anywhere” for up to 30 days at a time, as long as it is ensured that we can communicate properly via a good network and similar time zones during our core hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and that you can participate in meetings as usual.

So our colleagues in the team have also used different locations for “working from home” and moved it to foreign countries. We call some of the photos that came out of this our “POV Working for hi” series, which continues to grow. For example, our Quality Assurance Engineer Ciprian decided to work from Valencia, Spain for a few weeks and confirms, “Since working at hi, I’ve had one of the best work-life balances ever.”

Have a look, what his view looked like after he closed his laptop for the day:

Of course, it is important to make sure that the concept is done within the framework of current labor law guidelines and therefore we give our employees good advice within which they can live out this concept.

Especially in the first months in the new job we welcome and find it important if the onboarding also takes place in a physical form, i.e. a so called work buddy takes care of a new employee and familiarizes him with all “team” related topics as well as a series of professional intros coordinated by the “onboarding manager”, usually the direct supervisor (don’t worry, there is not much hierarchy in our company yet).

If you have any further questions about our benefits as a colleague at hi and would also like to take a look at the positions we are currently looking for, take a look at our careers page. There you will also find the right contact person if you have specific questions. We are looking forward to meeting you!

At the end of this article, please find another image of the Slovenian winter cottage and Keighley’s beloved dog Daphne, who is clearly enjoying “getting out” for a change, too: