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Just before Christmas, the time will come: the third child of the K. family from the Stuttgart area is expected. The 40-year-old project manager and his wife (32) already have a boy (5) and a little girl (2.5), both born via C-section. As a well-organized project manager, Michael K. can calculate that his wife will need help around the time of the birth and afterward: "We live in a rural area, and we don't know how much longer my wife will be able to drive. But she needs the car to take our son to kindergarten, and my daughter will also start going there at three years old.” Additionally, it's part of the family father's job to occasionally travel for one or two days – he feels more at ease knowing that his family has help in such cases. "We originally come from the Braunschweig area. Unfortunately, we don't have family or relatives here in Stuttgart to rely on in an emergency," explains the 40-year-old.
Already in the first trimester of pregnancy, from April to June 2013, the K.s sought outside help: "Back then we organized household help through our health insurance ourselves, which started helping us after just one week. However, you had to contact the social station and organize that yourself." Mrs. K., who suffered from extreme morning sickness, had some relief in everyday life with the children for 5-6 weeks this way. "That was good, but we realized that we needed to plan for the further course of the pregnancy," the father of the family says. "And then I remembered reading on the intranet that our company helps us in finding childcare services.
Michael K. considers himself lucky: "I work at Bosch and am very satisfied with how the company supports the compatibility of family and career. Our employee network family@bosch has a page on the intranet listing, for example, kindergartens with which my employer cooperates and other information related to childcare. And I remembered that there was also an offer from famPlus." So the expectant father turned to the company's social counseling service. He had no reservations about going there: "It was very uncomplicated. I got the tip to register with the online portal of famPlus, was approved relatively informally after 2-3 days, and was then able to specify my needs exactly." In the meantime, the HR department confirmed to famPlus that the costs for arranging childcare for the K. family would be covered, and after another 2 weeks, there was already a successful placement proposal: "We were suggested two candidates, one of whom we met. And she was a perfect fit - she now comes for 1-2 hours in the afternoons during the week.
Since the current babysitter will soon be focusing more on her profession as an educator, the K.s have already initiated a new placement order through famPlus to ensure everything runs smoothly at home around the time of the planned C-section and afterward. Michael K. finds that this saves an enormous amount of time because trying to find suitable childcare through newspaper ads or the internet can be quite laborious. In this regard, the K. family is very pleased that their employer, Bosch, recognized as a "particularly family-friendly company," provides them the opportunity to delegate this search.
And so, the project manager, who will soon be a father of three, can look to the future with ease and, above all, focus entirely on work. "It's going well. I have many opportunities here because we have flexible hours and I can occasionally work from home," the 40-year-old is pleased to say. It also happens sometimes, he reports, that he takes work home with him to complete in the evening—but for that, he can leave early to spend time with the children. When they are asleep, he sits at the computer for a while to finish what still needs to be done. "I'm glad to work at Bosch. With us, fathers aren't given strange looks if they submit a sick note because a sick child needs to be cared for." When asked if he has any wishes for further improving the balance between family and work, Michael K. replies, "I hope it stays this way.
