... small talk in the hallway
Ursula Kals
Editor in business, responsible for “Young People Write”.
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Nadine Bad
Editor in business, responsible for “Job and Opportunity”.
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Holger Appel
Editor in business, responsible for "Technology and Engine".
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Uwe Marx
Editor in business.
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Benjamin Fischer
Editor in business.
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Ulrich Friese
Editor in business.
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Once a week we went from the correspondent's office to the head office for the analog conference - back then, before Corona. Getting there and back was a bit of a nuisance, but professionally, so to speak, the cultural highlight of the work. This trip was canceled for around twelve months due to the pandemic. A whole year later, the first "real" encounters and a rollercoaster of collegial feelings: Man, the colleague no longer dyes, now wears her locks in fashionable gray - and looks years younger. The boyish colleague is different, he still sweeps the corridors with elastic strides, but has a new maturity on his face - and finally a girlfriend by his side, as he beamingly announces: He met her while dating in the park. And the corona crisis is not that bad, life is beautiful. It is also for the colleaguewho has made a career leap. Congratulations and all the best! And there, the colleague, whom we saw foggy on the video tile every now and then, he walks past, looks up, pans back and falls around my neck - we're both vaccinated!
Joy of reunion and shared euphoric feelings like at the do-you-remember class reunion. It feels good to be catapulted back into working life on site! The hour before the first analog conference is completely devoted to socializing: for strolling through the no longer so orphaned corridors, for looking expectantly into offices, for being disappointed that the long-missing colleague has her day off today, and for being sad that that The office of the meanwhile retired Mr. G. is empty. Instead, new faces appear, unknown and half masked. But now one is trained to recognize whose eyes are laughing with you. The mutual patterning takes place depending on the temperament. The crisis has left no one unaffected. Now the first coffee together at the conference table. Man, office life can be exciting!
. . . on a business trip
It feels weird to be standing on the platform again. The announcements have hardly changed, of course the train runs in reverse order of cars, cars 21 to 29 in sections A to C and cars 31 to 39 in sections D to F. Everything on the train is amazingly the same. There is a new announcement here: "Please note that it is compulsory to wear medical mouth and nose protection." However, the passengers do not care much. In the on-board bistro, a happy group of five toasts each other with wheat beer. The person sitting next to us has also pushed the corona mask under his chin and a torn open bag of "Nic Nacs" is lying on the table in front of him. He shoves one of the peanut balls into his mouth every two minutes - I didn't know you could eat sooo slowly - so that he can chew on forever.So he can avoid wearing a mask until shortly before leaving, after all he eats all the time. Anyway, it's still exciting to get away from the screen and into the real world. So exciting that you can even generously forgive the half hour delay that the train ran in due to a broken signal on the way.
Infection protection is taken really seriously in the hotel at the destination. Without a 3G certificate and hand disinfection, nobody will be checked in, plastic gloves are required at the breakfast buffet, and the tables are set far apart. Other business travelers say that meetings are not always as consistent: mask requirement and distance in the meeting room, shoulder-to-shoulder conversations while drinking coffee at the bar table in the anteroom. And even more so in the evening at the Italian restaurant. Everyone is sitting together at the long table. There are a few contradictions that you just have to endure at the moment.