Ms. Anandasivam, Ms. Tiltscher, at the laser and mechanical engineering company Trumpf, you are responsible for around 1,000 developers as main department heads, each holding a part-time position – wouldn’t a full-time position with more salary and sole responsibility have been more attractive?

Uwe Marx

Editor in Business.

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Anandasivam: When we started the tandem solution a little over four years ago, we were both already part-time managers in other areas and it wasn't about making more money.

It was about whether we have the same goals and whether we can trust each other.

How do you find out?

Tiltscher: At first we looked deep into each other's eyes and asked ourselves: Is such a tandem model conceivable for you?

It was about not competing against each other.

Either we do it as a team, in good times and bad, or we don't.

We have the same employment contract and are treated as one role in the company, just divided between two people.

And that works?

Anandasivam: We celebrate our successes together in a friendly way.

Or fraternal, as you wish.

And if things don't go that way, we're both responsible for it.

It was clear from the start: We will not let ourselves be divided.

And we immediately recognized the advantages of this model for us, namely to combine our two worlds in order to achieve great things professionally on the one hand, but also to have time for our families.

Today we cover more in terms of content than someone with a 100 percent position could because we can both play to our strengths.

You, Ms. Anandasivam, are an industrial engineer with a technical background, Ms. Tiltscher is a business economist and a classic human resources manager – does that go well together?

Anandasivam: It's helpful to have someone with you who comes from a completely different background so that you don't always think in your own cosmos.

I've been at Trumpf for 16 years, worked a lot in the technical area, was a manager - when I became a mother for the first time, I was head of the training department.

Part-time and alone.

Tiltscher: I was sure that it could work with a good team.

However, not in the classic shift model.

That's certainly not bad, but it didn't suit us that one works from Monday to Wednesday and the other from Wednesday to Friday, with an overlap in between.

We also have long working days at Trumpf, but we want to be at home when we are at home.

And your professional background?

Tiltscher: I did a master's degree in process management, worked in research and development, was a human resources officer at Nestlé, then head of human resources at Voith.

I've been at Trumpf for seven years, and my professional life has always been shaped by HR.

But when I started working with Kathrin, I thought to myself: technology could also be very interesting for me.

Especially since many HR issues are incorporated into organizational development in our development department.

We benefit from having a lot in common.