Swapping the Office for the Mountains: Eva's Six Weeks in an Alpine Hut

00:00:02: This is Roland Berger,

00:00:04: Roland Berger.

00:00:06: Hi, I'm Eva and you're watching the Roland Berger People Insights podcast.

00:00:11: Hello and welcome to episode number five of the Roland Berger People Insights podcast.

00:00:17: My name is Ben and I'm a communications manager at Roland Berger.

00:00:21: Today we are taking you high up into the mountains for truly a unique story.

00:00:25: My colleague Eva spent her summer working on an alpine hut known as an Alme.

00:00:29: From batch taking routes to the challenges of life of the grid, Eva Experience is full of lessons about resilience, teamwork and finding balance in challenging surroundings.

00:00:38: So stay tuned and get ready to be inspired.

00:00:42: Hi Eva, thank you very much for joining us today.

00:00:44: What's your role at RolandBerger?

00:00:47: Manager at RolandBerger within HR and together with my team we are taking care of staffing, so mainly in the Dachht region.

00:00:56: and performance management, evaluation, so everything about promotion, bonus feedback topics from junior consultant to senior PM.

00:01:08: What do you like about this role the most?

00:01:11: So for me personally, of course, I'm leading a team.

00:01:15: I like working with people, but on the other hand... I like working with data and numbers.

00:01:20: And I think that's a good mix because in performance management, you are working with numbers, you are analyzing KPIs.

00:01:27: Or even in staffing, you are doing some research, you are working with data.

00:01:32: But at the same time, it's about people.

00:01:34: And that's what matters.

00:01:35: And I think that's what I really enjoy.

00:01:38: What inspired you to work for six weeks on an album?

00:01:41: So people often ask that.

00:01:43: So why did you do that?

00:01:45: What was the idea?

00:01:47: Well, why?

00:01:47: To be honest, I've always wanted to do it.

00:01:51: So whenever I heard from someone I know doing that or I saw like documentation on TV, I was like, I want to do that someday.

00:02:02: And that's what we all often say.

00:02:04: Yeah, I will do that.

00:02:05: Maybe next year, maybe in two years.

00:02:07: And this year, I just said, okay, I want to do it.

00:02:10: So it was kind of always on my mind.

00:02:13: And this year, I decided to go for it.

00:02:16: So basically a dream come true.

00:02:18: How much spending did it take to make it possible?

00:02:21: I think I started to look for the exact time where to do it.

00:02:25: I think in January, February.

00:02:28: And I was already kind of late.

00:02:30: So some were already like full.

00:02:33: They said we don't need anyone anymore.

00:02:36: it's a bit tricky to coordinate it.

00:02:38: so of course before looking for an aln job I spoke to my mentor I think already last year and already two years ago I kind of addressed it that this is all my mind and you need to kind of balance that you need to find the aln but you need to get like approval at work but you cannot promise to the owners of the aln that you can do it without like having to go at work and at the same time without having an aln.

00:03:03: yeah You don't need to make everyone crazy at work.

00:03:07: How did Roland Berger support you?

00:03:08: What was the reaction when you said, hey, I want to work at an arm?

00:03:13: My mentor was not that surprised and was supportive.

00:03:16: So she said, let me know when it becomes serious and let's see how we can make it work.

00:03:21: And so I think that's something I can recommend.

00:03:24: Talk to your mentor as early as possible.

00:03:26: And I think our payroll team was extremely helpful.

00:03:29: So payroll and HR, because you need to think of... Do I stay in Germany where I live?

00:03:35: So that's easier regarding like insurance for example.

00:03:38: So they were really supportive with all of that because when you have that idea on your mind you don't think about that.

00:03:44: So everyone was very supportive.

00:03:46: Can you tell me a little bit more about how many people work at the Alpine hut usually?

00:03:51: So the size of the team depends a bit on the let's say weekday.

00:03:55: So during the week, it was usually just the two of us.

00:03:59: We were a team of two.

00:04:01: And on public holiday weekend, then the owners of the farm joined us and helped us.

00:04:08: So I think sometimes we were up to... Now I need to count six people, because then they have their grandchildren, for example, just helping us a bit.

00:04:16: So between two and six people, everything was possible.

00:04:18: And the same for the guests, because in my first two weeks at the ALM, it was... kind of always raining.

00:04:27: so then you're happy if you have like ten guests or fifteen guests or something like that and we did not count.

00:04:34: but I think there were days with one hundred guests something.

00:04:38: surely

00:04:39: Can you tell me a little bit more about a typical day on the album with good weather?

00:04:43: How would that look like?

00:04:44: No matter the weather you need to get up in the morning and of course we had electricity and like a normal with a gas oven.

00:04:54: but next to it we had an oven where you need to put in like woods to heat it up and that was like the first thing we always did in the morning and when the weather was good.

00:05:04: it was really hot and that got you to be honest if you were like standing there next to the second oven and then it was.

00:05:11: there was like time for us to have like a breakfast but you always heat that up at first in the morning and then we had like breakfast and then usually we.

00:05:20: It was open at around like ten.

00:05:22: but there was some guests who came earlier because they know they already have coffee and that's something I like about that area because there are some people who do like go in the mountains by bike or like a little hike before work.

00:05:35: That's a great start into the day I think.

00:05:37: so they knew that they can come.

00:05:39: they get like the first coffee.

00:05:40: Speaking about your.

00:05:42: Daily tasks.

00:05:43: So you mentioned cooking.

00:05:45: Did you had to bring cooking skills?

00:05:47: Did you learn something there or did the other person do it?

00:05:51: How was that?

00:05:52: In general, I think it knows to have some, at least some cooking and baking skills.

00:05:57: But when I applied for that job and when I visited them at first and they went up the mountain with me to take a look at the arm and they told me they had people who had never baked the cake.

00:06:12: or we're not used to to cook regularly so that works as well.

00:06:15: and the good thing is that I like cooking and baking in general and so I think that helped me.

00:06:20: but for example baking the variant Austrian strudel was something I had never done before.

00:06:26: I know it from McRambma.

00:06:27: so that's something I learned from my co-worker and she was a bit better with like baking and cooking so she's a bit more skilled.

00:06:36: I would say

00:06:37: What were your other tasks you had to do?

00:06:39: Do you have to care for the farm surrounding it, the land around it or the animals?

00:06:45: Or can you tell me a little bit more about that?

00:06:47: So we had young cows and we had to look after them, but they were always outside.

00:06:53: no need to get them inside no need to.

00:06:57: so they were not yet giving milk.

00:06:58: so it was just counting them.

00:07:00: and it's funny because all of them has names.

00:07:03: so they have an earmark with a number on it.

00:07:05: that's what they need to have.

00:07:07: and then additionally they have names and they always put the name of the of the cow on the earmark.

00:07:13: so I think it looked kind of funny because then you have like a paper like a block and you run around with it looking for the for the cows and let's just like check them and you'll just need to take a look at the earmarks and if there was like a name on it then you knew it's from your farm.

00:07:31: so that's something we had to do.

00:07:33: and of course like I said cleaning also cleaning toilets.

00:07:36: so if you're working on an arm you need to do everything cleaning of course serving the beverages and even carrying all the beverages up because we had them like on the one floor like lower, that's where they were.

00:07:51: They had all the food of course that you need to prepare and also everything to drink.

00:07:56: So I think it's good that I regularly go to the gym because that helped me carry all that stuff.

00:08:01: How did you experience the switch from roller-burger office life to six in the morning at the arm and long days?

00:08:12: Maybe a lot of physical work.

00:08:15: How was that for you?

00:08:16: Well the good thing was I had a few days off before starting at the island so I made sure that I had like I think five no seven seven days off so weekend and then five days.

00:08:26: so I started on a Saturday.

00:08:27: so that was I think a good preparation and I usually get up early because I live outside.

00:08:35: I'm used to that.

00:08:35: So I live outside Munich.

00:08:36: So when I go to the office, it's one and a half hours one way.

00:08:40: So I'm used to that or I go to the gym in the morning.

00:08:42: So that helped.

00:08:43: But the first days were like carrying all that stuff.

00:08:46: It was a bit tough.

00:08:47: So it's good to have like magnesium or something with you and to communicate if it's too much.

00:08:54: So that's something that you can help.

00:08:56: I was tired in the evenings.

00:08:58: That's clear.

00:08:59: And yeah, of course, it was different because we're all used to sit all the time.

00:09:05: And now you're like standing all the time.

00:09:07: And I definitely felt that in my feet, but you get used to it really fast, I think.

00:09:12: So as far as I understand, you had to bring skills to the table very fast, unknown skills.

00:09:17: You had to learn very fast.

00:09:18: So how did you experience that?

00:09:21: Was it positive?

00:09:22: Was it very stressful?

00:09:24: It was very positive.

00:09:25: When I applied to be working there, it was not clear who will be with me on the album.

00:09:32: So then they found my colleague and they gave me her number.

00:09:37: So at first we had a little call, a short one.

00:09:40: And then we met in Munich because it's funny because she lives like one hour away from Munich in the other direction.

00:09:48: So we just met there for pizza and got to know each other.

00:09:52: And at that moment I felt really relieved because we got very well along with each other and that helped to be performing as a team.

00:10:06: Did you have any days where you were like, why did I do this?

00:10:11: Yeah, when it was raining all the time and you're sitting there and you don't see anything.

00:10:17: I said I need to go down that mountain on our free day because Otherwise, I will get depressed because you only saw... You saw nothing.

00:10:27: So it was like really... Once you got down here, it was foggy, rainy.

00:10:31: And there were some... Yeah, when there were many people waiting to order, to get something to drink.

00:10:41: And it was very stressful.

00:10:43: There were some moments, just a few of them.

00:10:45: I thought, okay, what am I doing here?

00:10:47: Are there one or two moments that you like the most, where you say, this was a very, very cool moment?

00:10:53: I think there are several ones.

00:10:55: And one thing I liked is that there were people just trying to, you know, those small acts of kindness.

00:11:05: So someone brought us Britsen, so that we have... Britzen for breakfast.

00:11:10: one brought us like a homemade jam from his wife when he went to the Alm because he enjoyed it so much the last time when he was there.

00:11:17: and so that's something yeah the way you can connect with people whom you just know for a very short time and they just do those like random acts of kindness.

00:11:27: and there was one man around eighty years old already and he often played kind of like an accordion on the Alm and He came, so when my colleague Barbara left the Alm, he came just to play her a little song and he came again when I left the Alm.

00:11:47: And that was just nice, cute, however you want to call it, but it was a memorable moment.

00:11:55: How did the time at the Alm influence your perspective on teamwork and collaboration?

00:12:01: I don't think that it changed my... my view on teamwork and collaboration.

00:12:08: I think in a team, especially on the eye, you need clear roles.

00:12:12: So especially if you're just a team of two, then it needs to be clear what you're doing.

00:12:18: And so that's why we said one is in the kitchen and the other one is serving the drinks and bringing the food outside so that we're just efficient.

00:12:26: But on the other hand, when a team.

00:12:27: gets bigger, you of course need those clear roles.

00:12:31: But sometimes you need to be able to be spontaneous to support when support is needed.

00:12:36: And that's why you need communication.

00:12:38: I think communication is key.

00:12:39: You need to know if the other one needs support.

00:12:42: And so you need to feel safe to communicate that you need to support.

00:12:46: But on the other hand, you need to know each other and see when the other one needs support, I think.

00:12:57: tasty cinnamon rolls.

00:12:58: Just wanted to say cake every day.

00:13:01: But maybe cows in the backyard of the office.

00:13:05: And that's probably not possible.

00:13:06: But I think what I liked about working on the Alm is I think it was easy to celebrate each day with its small achievements because you know what you've done.

00:13:17: And I think if you are working like a corporate job, then often days are just writing emails, having meetings and sometimes you ask yourself in the evening, okay, what have I done?

00:13:27: And I think it's important to even celebrate those days because you cannot always need milestones or deliver something to always have like clear results.

00:13:38: And I think on the other was kind of easy because you know that you've served guests, you know, okay, I had three cakes and all of them are gone.

00:13:46: So just to celebrate small achievements at work, I think.

00:13:51: What did you miss the most when you stayed at the Elm?

00:13:54: What did I miss the most?

00:13:56: I think sometimes because those days were so it was so volatile sometimes to be able to plan your day or just have the freedom to decide when to start or when to end.

00:14:11: sometimes that but in the end like a coffee machine the way we're used to have it.

00:14:16: and of course we had warm water but being able like to shower all the time with warm water, who doesn't get cold and then warm and cold again.

00:14:27: And of course my family and my cat.

00:14:30: And this is my cat.

00:14:32: Do you think the time on the arm changed you in some way or developed your skills?

00:14:40: Maybe you developed new skills.

00:14:42: What do you think?

00:14:43: I think I developed new skills with regards to... baking which i will probably not need it work now but i think it changed my view on people working in that industry.

00:14:56: so i think i have always valued it but i now value it even more because it's a hard job and when ever i can i give a tip.

00:15:07: so of course only if i'm unhappy but i know that the people working in the industry will value it.

00:15:13: What

00:15:14: advice would you give colleagues.

00:15:16: considering taking a similar break or pursuing unconventional experiences.

00:15:21: Can you prepare for that mentally?

00:15:23: I would say like mentally, it depends on the experience you are like aiming for or how unconventional it is.

00:15:33: But if I consider working at an Alm, you should not come to an Alm extremely stressed, I would say.

00:15:41: So there was a guest asking us because His experience was that there were often people working on the island, who were like questioning their life or like even having difficulties with their mental health.

00:15:57: So I think it can help you to do something rather like down to earth, be in nature, but you should be clear that it can also be very stressful.

00:16:07: You said experience varies with the goal you have when you start an adventure like this.

00:16:14: Did you have a specific goal besides of making a dream come true, which is a very cool goal?

00:16:19: Was there another goal you wanted to reach?

00:16:22: Doing something completely different, I think.

00:16:26: So outside with those cows with a great view and not working with emails, your computers, just doing something with your hands and like knowing at the end of the day exactly what you've done and what you've achieved.

00:16:42: Would you do it again?

00:16:44: I would.

00:16:45: If I would do it a second time, maybe it would try like a smaller arm.

00:16:50: So there are other arms where you are often alone.

00:16:53: I think that would be a different experience, even though I enjoy working in a team.

00:16:58: And in general, try not to think, oh, I can't do that.

00:17:03: I have never done that.

00:17:04: If you are not sure, ask for help, but just try to do it, try to give your best.

00:17:10: And we are often capable of doing more than we think.

00:17:14: so it sounds a bit cliche but you often are like your own limit and so you limit yourself by thinking I can't do that and because at least you should try and that's what we often did on the album.

00:17:26: You will get better and people are not patient with you then you just tell them hey it's my first or second day.

00:17:32: give me some time but stay curious and brave.

00:17:39: Thank you very much IFA for taking the time to tell us a little bit more about your experience at DR.

00:17:45: If you'd like to know more about Roland Berger, our initiatives and the way we work and what values we are holding up, then visit our career website.

00:17:55: And of course do not forget to follow our social media channels.

00:17:59: Thank you very much for listening.

00:18:00: My name is Ben.

00:18:02: Have an amazing week and always remember be the original you.