Interviews  ›  SQUAKE

Remote working is in SQUAKE’s DNA. The climate tech company helps other companies to achieve their carbon-reduction goals and accelerate the transition to sustainable mobility and logistics. Right from the start,  SQUAKE has been working for this successfully and on a  long term basis with developers from all over the world. Remote working and online collaboration are well established features in this environment. Nevertheless, before the Pandemic, a day spent in their home offices still felt somewhat strange to employees at the company’s headquarters in Berlin.

“Before COVID-19, I didn’t work from home. But during the Pandemic I noticed that it’s sometimes really more efficient,” says co-founder Dan Kreibich. “Today I often work from Hamburg and then I’m in Berlin [in the office] for about two to three days a week, as required.” It goes without saying that this also applies to the employees. Many feel comfortable in SQUAKE’s modern headquarters in the heart of Berlin and come in regularly. A 2-to-3 ratio of “in office” and remote working seems to be establishing itself. “For us, the team is the most important infrastructure we have,” says Kreibich. “The team has to feel comfortable working here, they have to be interested in their work. Home office, remote working—and this includes workations—are simply part of this modern working environment. That’s what people expect today and in our industry.”

What’s also expected is personal responsibility. It’s the new but traditional skill that businesses have always classed as important yet which is becoming increasingly essential today. “Spontaneously moving your place of work to a new location or extending your stay after a client meeting in Amsterdam—that’s not a problem. The basic conditions are there,” explains SQUAKE’s Chief Product Officer. Transparency is important. People always know who is working where, but this young company relies completely on its employees’ sense of responsibility.

With easy-to-implement solutions, SQUAKE helps companies operate more easily and sustainably. The digital world is a familiar environment—this also pays off in the case of remote working. “We’re a tech company. Many features that are important for remote working in terms of data security, software, hardware, access options, and the like are already a given with us.”

Whether generally working remotely or being on workation for a set time,  especially in young companies ,  a generation is emerging for whom having a flexible choice of work location is just part of the modern working world.