Care and profession

A care case often occurs suddenly, for example as a result of a stroke or other serious illness. The affected employee has to react immediately - as does the company. No one can predict how long the situation will last. There is also a big psychological difference: a child means a new start and a new beginning, an elderly mother in need of care means farewell and death. Many employees find it difficult to talk about this openly. After all, these are private worries and emotions that bring with them excessive demands with the necessary bureaucracy and fear of the future.

Bornemann-Etiketten is a family business now in its third generation. For us, family comes before career - and that means that we support our employees as much as possible in carrying out their family duties, be it childcare or caring for parents in need.

For administrative employees, tried-and-tested measures such as flexitime and working from home are the main options. But we also find individual solutions for employees in production. This means being flexible, organizing good representation and sticking together. The whole thing is a give and take. We get a lot of gratitude in return.

In the sensitive area of care and work, it is also helpful to exchange ideas in person. Personal conversations during online lunch breaks prompted me to launch a call for a kind of self-help group in our internal newsletter. We use our good contacts and always find good advice in our network. Up to four employees currently meet to look after their elderly mothers or fathers and exchange information and tips or just have a chat. This is often more useful than flyers and websites.

Over the years, my attitude has changed. Whereas I used to mainly ask how the parent in need of care or assistance was feeling, today I first ask: How are you? My main focus is on the person who is providing care and support and who has to cope with this stressful task in their normal everyday life. My advice: take a close look. It is important to talk so that we can find out how we can best support the person and take the pressure off. It certainly helps that, as a family business with 55 employees, we have a personal relationship with our staff - we know each other.