Growing up, I inherited a piece of wisdom from my parents—a continuing encouragement to live outside my comfort zone. That includes constantly getting involved in a range of different activities, taking on new opportunities, exploring new passions and learning new skill sets. My mother used to tell me “Life should be an adventure, you should be in multiple shoes and wear multiple hats before settling down and committing to a lifelong venture”. I have always been eager to build my life portfolio of experiences in different fields, various subjects, and contradicting concentrations at times, to just get a sense of what I want to pursue in the long run.
CAUSE gives me a precious opportunity to explore US professionalism in both public and private sectors simultaneously. As I entered my second week at my host site, FlixBus- a fast-paced growing private corporation operating in 38 countries- I tried to grasp the similarities and differences of work cultures between both offices. One core component that the 2 organizations have in common is the value of bringing members closer together. At FlixBus, every employee that goes to the office always goes to lunch all together, leaving no one behind, and communication across different teams is generally transparent and straightforward. Employees and upper management got in touch very quickly, for instance, I was introduced to team leads and senior managers of the US office from day one.
Flexibility is another essential component of FlixBus operation. Flixies- a nickname for FlixBus’s employees- are allowed to work from their preferred locations, either in the office, WeWork (co-working spaces), or at home, so that they can reduce time spent on commute while boosting productivity. At one point, I was surprised to see the office population suddenly drop to 1 or 2 by noon.
On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to attend an ‘all-hand’ meeting, a virtual conference where every team in the US comes together to report their progress and updates. As I was grasping different information and noting down important details, I realized that the operation offices, in the East and West Coast, are super transparent with one another, in which information is quickly delivered, discussed and updated consistently, making problems easily tackled and efficiently solved. Every Thursday, Flixies always engage in team check-in where someone from the group would bring up a question to foster discussions. An optional ‘office hour’ was also provided where Flixies can talk with the Head Executive who oversees all of team USA, to build closer connections and discuss work or non-work related agenda. This work aspect where members are encouraged to strengthen connections between one another as well as with top management is something I see in both CAUSE and FlixBus.
The shared-value I have with other Flixies is being able to work, wearing different hats. Even though I am part of the GR team (Government Relations), I sometimes see my teammates step in and deal with other projects collaborating with other teams, and vice versa. This way, members are exposed to a much more transparent vision and operation of the company while developing their knowledge on different spectrums.