DTelekom boss Timotheus Höttges is now critical of the trend towards working from home. “Due to the home office, a high degree of vitality has been lost in our corporate headquarters,” he told the “Augsburger Allgemeine” (Monday). Home office is now indispensable, but virtually personal conversations and creativity often fall by the wayside. “I therefore appeal to the employees: Come back to the offices. We need personal exchange.”
Many employees who have been working from home since the corona crisis also underestimated what they mean to their colleagues on an interpersonal basis and how important personal networks are, said the manager. “And how much new and young employees in particular are dependent on working with people instead of on monitors.”
However, Höttges does not want to abolish the regulations. “Of course, employees can continue to work from home if they work on something in peace,” he emphasized. “But working from home is also a privilege to a certain extent: a good 20,000 of our employees are outside with people every day. They have no chance of working from home.”
The Telekom boss also warned of problems for the innovative power in Germany. “Because of the great prosperity, a certain arrogance has crept in with us. But the “Made in Germany” label is crumbling everywhere.” Germany does worse than Greece when it comes to the digitization of public services, for example. “And in other countries there isn’t as much chaos at the airports as there is here. And unfortunately, large projects often no longer work for us.”