catworkx behind the scenes: “The Lord of the Screens”

In our new blog article, we take a look behind the scenes and see who actually works at catworkx. During our tour of the offices, which are almost empty due to coronavirus, we stopped in front of one door in particular: Room 08.15. This office actually has the internal number 08.15 and is the workplace of a catworkx veteran. Highly focused, behind various screens, sits our long-time employee Holger Lehmann, who has been with catworkx for over 21 years. An interview with him revealed some exciting things.

Holle: My name is Holger Lehmann – but everyone just calls me Holle – and I work as a Senior Atlassian Consultant at catworkx. I studied computer science at the UAS (FH) in Hamburg, graduated with a degree in engineering, and have been working at catworkx for over 21 years.
I do everything here: from tinkering with computers and compiling Linux to developing and advising customers and merging Jira systems. I also look after our dev toolchain (Bitbucket/Bamboo/Sonarqube/Fisheye/Artifactory) and support our Linux desktop users. You could say, “I've been there since Linux 0.99pl14 and Jira 0.9.”

I also don't particularly like it when programs aren't open in full size, as I feel like I'm wasting screen real estate, which I've paid for and should be able to use – true to the motto: “You can hold the hammer at the bottom, the handle is paid for.”

Holle: So, if I had to describe my daily routine, it would go something like this: I check my emails and see if there are any important messages in our internal chat. Then I have a coffee... After that, it's time for the daily meeting. Once I've taken in all the information, I grab the latest issue from the Jira stack and get started. Then I record the time, get another coffee, take the next issue from the Jira stack, and so on and so forth. No, seriously: my working day is just like many others: lots of work, a few meetings, but also nice things, like chatting with colleagues on Friday afternoons after four o'clock in a relaxed atmosphere.

Holle: As always, there are several reasons: First, our founder Oliver Groht invited me to work for him back then. Second, thanks to my long tenure, I can take advantage of my freedom here and there and help shape the company. Last but not least, we have a great team here, and I can put my knowledge to good use at catworkx.

Holle: From my point of view, I don't belong to any one specific area. Of course, I also develop Atlassian apps and tools to help manage the daily madness (laughs). I'm also often a sparring partner for colleagues who need to discuss an idea. I enjoy that, and it makes my work so varied because it's not just my colleagues who come to me, but sometimes people from marketing too (winks). That means I can use my wide range of skills in new and different ways. I also get to work on the most complicated issues for customers, the ones where others say, “That won't work, it's impossible.” That's why I have the nickname “firefighter” at catworkx (laughs). It seems I'm able to implement and adapt a thing or two in a meaningful way.

Holle: Brevity is the soul of wit: We are a great team, there are nice colleagues, exciting tasks for every taste, you can work with Linux if you want, you can present your own ideas, and if they are “cool,” we implement them, i.e., we are open to ideas from all employees.

Holle: Cappuccino and espresso – and when I have time: a pot of tea. Otherwise, I can only say: GNU Emacs, of course ;-). The question is missing Mac OS (smiles). However, I only use Mac OS on my Mac Book. And: Of course, I have been a Linux user since the beginning of time.