How a modern workplace at Microsoft looks like

In my first blog post, I want you to experience how my business day at Microsoft looks like. The reason why I chose to write about this at the start of my own blog, is the fact that working at Microsoft is a totally new way of working from what I’ve experienced so far. I want to inspire you and demonstrate what it means to work for a worldwide leading tech company.  

So let’s start… 

6:45am is the first time my alarm clock rings. Snoozing for 15min till 7am and before leaving the bed, I always do my morning ritual, that I learned from my mum’s Qi Gong teacher, which gets me energized for the whole day. I will make a separate blog post on this in the future – so stay tuned;) 

After making my first coffee, I check E-Mails on my laptop and have a detailed look on my calendar for the day.  I decide to stay at home and work from home office till afternoon, because I have no face-to-face meetings in the morning. 

The Microsoft culture is totally based on trust, regarding the place and time you work. Of course, in your terms of employment, you have defined hours of work that were written down. But how you use them, where you work etc. – is totally up to you. To be honest, it was not that easy for me in the beginning to manage this, but you learn very fast how to think and act like an entrepreneur – and this in a huge company. Very uncommon. At Microsoft, we talk about work-life-flow. You all know the often-used word: work-life-balance. Work-life-flow is an extension of this word. It’s more about an individual creation of your day – so your business & your private life are not separate anymore. For example, people with small children have the ability to work from home in the morning, bringing their kids to kindergarten, then working again and so on. You are the creator of your day – no matter for business or private life. You define your goals for a certain period of time, that you have to achieve, together with your manager. This is how your success and your value in the company is measured. So you know exactly what your impact has to be, but how you do it is totally up to you. I think this way of managing people is very suitable for today’s world, with all the challenges & chances we have. It’s not about monitoring the employees anymore, but more about giving them the chance to work in the way they think is the most productive way for themselves, to achieve the best results and have the biggest impact.  

So back to my day: I work from home till afternoon and do some tasks, where I need to concentrate and to be focused on, like analysis of my KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) from my Power Business Intelligence dashboard. In my role at Microsoft as Product Marketing Manager for the Education Industry in Germany, I am responsible for some Education KPIs and always have to be able to provide information about it to my team and the leadership team members. 

I have to be at the office for a face-to-face meeting at 3pm, so I change my home clothes for a nice business outfit, make myself ready and get me on my way to the Microsoft Office in Munich Schwabing by tram. During the time, I need to take part in a conference, so I use Microsoft Teams, our collaboration app, on my smartphone and join the meeting while standing in the tram. I see this kind of working as a huge benefit because you can always be productive no matter where you are. Thanks to the technology we have today. Love it!

I arrive at the Microsoft office 1 hour before the meeting to have the time to say hello to my colleagues by picking up a coffee at our primo bar, where (and I’m not exaggerating guys) the best barista in the world, Bujar, works. This guy speaks pretty every language and can remember the favorite drink of every Microsoft employee in Germany. So crazy!

Interesting to know about the office in Munich, is the fact that the concept is based on the task you have to fulfill and your working style. So there are four different areas to work: 

Think Space: Silence for your thoughts, use your mental power. 
Accomplish Space: Concentrate on the job, get things done
Converse Space: Focus on joint efforts, achieve together.
Share & Discuss Space: Unchain your creativity, discuss your ideas

There are no fixed working places anymore, where you sit every day. The only fixed thing is your locker, where you can put your personal belongings. But to work you just need your laptop and a headset – that’s it! 

To have a little orientation on where you can find people & teams you might search – we have so-called “anchor-areas”. So you know, that for example the most salespeople are sitting in the 3rd floor, or the licensing specialist can be found in the 2nd floor, when they are in the office and not working from home. Such small things, give you a little bit guidance – alternatively you can find everybody online in the virtual world:) Lastly, people could be in the gym, which you find in the office and can use before, during or after your work.  

So after I finish my presentation in the meeting in front of my team, I have my last face-to-face meeting for today with my career mentor from Microsoft. We meet each other in the cafe, next to the office. There is a nice atmosphere and we can have a career talk about my future plans. I want to talk about the mentoring topic more in detail in one of my next posts. It was one of the key lessons I learned during the studies and working time. You need to look after people in business you trust and you look up to. People who can push you and with whom you can grow. So in my business life, I currently have different kind of mentors: a career mentor, a life mentor and a mentor for my current position (with whom I can build my skills for my current role).  

Back in the story: I am again on my way by tram – but now heading for my home office. Back at home, I check my E-Mails and prepare myself for the meetings tomorrow. 

After finishing this it’s time for me to take care of my body and soul for the rest of the day!:)