Women power for modern office solutions

Once again, a woman has just succeeded in making it right to the top. Milagros Caiña-Andree, born in Spain, will be the first woman in the BMW Board. It was announced at the International Women’s Day – barging into the heated debate on quota legislation. The EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding wants the quota for Europe, the Minister of Labour Ursula von der Leyen for Germany.

Up to the 19^th century, offices and managerial positions in companies were pure male domains. Only in the course of mechanisation of office work women entered offices and administrations. In 1900, 77% of all posts for paperwork and shorthand are filled with women in theUnited States, in 1920 even 90% in theUnited States andGermany. During the past years women have been increasingly successful at schools, universities and the economy; they have carved out an important place in working life. Today, women play football, do military service or work in technical and handicraft professions. A couple of years ago, you could hardly find a woman in these occupations. But at present, the proportion of women in former male professional domains is steadily increasing. Thanks to technical aids, for a lot of jobs the importance of physical strength fades into the background. There is a demand for more and more creativity, tact and logical thinking.

Women stand their ground at Palmberg

Among the companies that also - and in particular – promote women to give them the chance of combining professional career and private life you can find Palmberg. Flexible working hours or a return after parental leaves are only two examples for this. Reconciliation of family and work has been a constitutive corporate principle at Palmberg since the foundation. This concerns both production and administration.

A lot of Palmberg employees have known the company since the beginning of their apprenticeship. Today, they daily ensure at the plant in Schönberg that the customers of Palmberg do their work with joy. In total, there are seventy women who stand their ground at Palmberg. One of them is our employee Erika David who works in the production. Born in Lüdersdorf, for almost forty years now, our collegue has kept up her loyalty to the company. She started her “Palmberg life” on 1^st September 1972. From 1972 to 1974, our congenial colleague completed her training as a wood technician at Palmberg. At that time, bedroom furniture was produced for the Russian market. Since her successful completion of the apprenticeship, Erika David has been working in the production area of Palmberg.  

In the year 2050, also Anne-Christin Baranczyk would celebrate her 40-year Palmberg anniversary. She wanted to do something “tangible”, too. The 19-year-old started training as an office clerk in 2010 originally. Like any apprentice she had to become familiar with the other departments of the company. She soon realized that working in the technical area was more fun than working behind the desk. 

Therefore, Anne-Christin Baranczyk, a native of Grevesmühlen by birth, changed her training programme during the first year and is now being trained as a wood mechanic at Palmberg.  

“By the steady increase of electronic components and innovative production technologies, like e.g. the laser technique used at Palmberg for edge processing, our daily work is constantly developing, always having one leg in the future”, says the prospective wood mechanic.

“Top women” at Palmberg

Women in senior management are still exceptional. When it comes to the issue of female executives, on an international scaleGermanystill belongs to the countries with the lowest proportion. But here, too, Palmberg works against the nationwide trend. Accordingly, two women are members of the senior management of Palmberg: Dörte Burmeister (Finances) and Agnes Hack (Personnel). Additionally, another five women work as heads of their departments: Eva-Maria Blaumann (Office Sales), Nicole Eggert (Object Planning), Ina-Maria Herpich (Customer Service), Ines Koch (Materials) und Änne Schultze (Object Handling).

" These examples from our female staff clarify that diversity and individuality of our (in total 437 female and male) employees are the key factors for Palmberg’s corporate success. This explains why Palmberg is going to invest in the training of its own employees also in the future", says Agnes Hack.