Petra Trinkl and Klaus Schwarzenberger are INFORMATICS veterans. The two of them talk about bulls, smoky printer paper, blue hair and what "Ask the hamster" means.
Klaus: I already have an inventory ticket. Otto originally recruited me for a play, then for a job in 2003. Back then there were three managers, one apprentice and one employee. We had a one-room office and a glass cabinet as a server room. It got so hot that we used gaffer tape to stick an air conditioning unit on it. There were many legendary sentences like: "I can speak English, but not the vocabulary" or "Are all these bulls bred for rodeos?" when we were at Otto's parents' farm and visited their bull farm. Then we moved to Salzburger Straße. Otto's mother took care of the plants and Peter's mother initially kept our office tidy and clean. We also learned a lot of "useful" things there, such as the principle of the 1000-calorie diet - one colleague ate two bars of chocolate a day, nothing else.
Petra: I joined these "special characters" in 2012. Henry had an office without windows, but he was a chain smoker. You could tell as soon as you entered. Our printer paper smelled of smoke. I knew the three managing directors from the 3e. We stayed in touch and I followed them into the INFORMATICS family. We still are, despite the rapid growth. A family in which everyone is allowed to be who they want to be.
Klaus: As you can see with Petra and me, we hardly lose any employees, instead we keep getting more. This is due to the open company culture. We have hardcore nerds and cosplayers. There are Marvel shirts, band shirts, slogan shirts, Star Wars shirts and even Christmas sweaters and suits. Diversity is lived here. I'm older than my office colleague's mom. He came to the interview in a white shirt. On his first day at work, he had blue hair and silver fingernails. And he's really blossoming. It's great to see how young employees grow.
Petra: It's also exciting for us old hands to get to know new things. IT people are very pleasant and open people. Things are rougher in other sectors and industries. On our company outings, employees sometimes take a garbage truck from Velden to Klagenfurt, jump from a Viking ship into the Danube and swim to the shore. A planned 1.5-hour Moldau paddle tour then turns into 4.5 hours because Henry has sunk our boat.
Klaus: Everyone has their own bird and that's a good thing. It creates space for creativity. We even have three different bands in the company. They are called "Ask the Hamster", "40 p.m." and "Bogus Dukes". And we have a flagball team. Roli brought Thomas to the flag football team and into the band, and Thomas brought him to INFORMATICS. "Bring your friend" is not an empty phrase.
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