Managing Work and Personal Responsibilities
Advice and Information
Freie Universität has been a certified “family accessible” university since 2007. In 2018, it helped establish a new association “Familie in der Hochschule e.V.” (Family at the University). Freie Universität’s family-friendly policies help its members manage family responsibilities alongside work, study, and research (e.g., if they are working on completing the professorial Habilitation qualification). Dual Career & Family Service can help with questions about maternity, paternity, and parental leave as well as child benefit payments. Students and staff alike can obtain confidential advice by phone, email, or face-to-face on any matters relating to working and studying with a family. They also offer “Care Advisory Sessions” in collaboration with “Pflegestützpunkte Berlin” (the information centers in Berlin that offer help with questions relating to care and old age), while the university’s “General Psychology and Neuropsychology” research team also offers a “Neuropsychological Advisory Session” for caregivers and their families. The guidelines for supervisors on carrying out annual performance reviews encourage managers to include the topic of maintaining a healthy work-life balance as part of the review, so that they can better support employees in combining professional and personal responsibilities. Freie Universität also sends a special welcome pack to new parents with a card from the president, information about support at the university, and a small gift.
Childcare
The student union organization studierendenWERK Berlin has 180 daycare spots available at Freie Universität Berlin and is open from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. The spots are open to children of university members from the various universities and colleges around Berlin, but the families of students and employees at Freie Universität Berlin are given priority.
One focus of the Dual Career & Family Service office lies in networking with daycare centers and schools. These networks help when it comes to finding spots for the children of visiting researchers, scholarship recipients, and newly appointed professors who are moving to Berlin. The Family Service office does its best to help all members of Freie Universität Berlin find a place for their children in daycare, whether they are students, researchers, or administrative staff members. It also provides information about the mobile childcare program – MoKiS, a model program supported by the Berlin Senate Department for Education, Youth, and Family, that helps parents with special working hours. Freie Universität employees can request emergency childcare at home if something unexpected happens and other options are not available.
Flexible Working Models
At Freie Universität Berlin, there are various options that can be used where employees need to be able to work more flexibly. These include part-time working, flexitime, alternating telework, and mobile working. The project “LEON – Learning Environments Online” was set up as a response to the fact that traditional models of working and family life have changed considerably in recent years. It allows teaching staff to use blended learning options to complement their on-site teaching with online activities.
Professional Development, Family Sports, and Vacation Childcare
Together with the Center for Continuing Education at Freie Universität Berlin, the Family Service offers a broad range of informational and development opportunities in relation to families, including courses on “Being a Single Parent,” “Getting Ready to Be a Caregiver,” “Stress Management,” and “First Aid for Children and Infants.” The Family Service also works in partnership with the University Sports Center to create a variety of family-oriented sports classes as well as the vacation childcare program, “Kids’ Camp.” The Dual Career & Family Service has regular updates on regional vacation childcare offers for children and teenagers.
Service for Newly Appointed Professors and Visiting Researchers
The Freie Universität Berlin service for dual career couples is intended to make the university more attractive to researchers and is also an important factor in the university’s commitment to equal opportunities, as it signals the university’s support for partners and spouses as they adapt to the new circumstances of their lives in Berlin. Partners and spouses can get in touch to arrange individual meetings, where they can find out more about the job market and professional opportunities in Berlin, and, if applicable, childcare options. The service has a range of contacts and partnerships that it can use to help individuals find the right career or job for them. The Dual Career & Family Service is a combined service that brings together a number of different measures supporting dual career couples and families, including childcare. As a result, it is able to respond quickly to the needs of new employees, offering them help that is specifically tailored to their situation and thus assisting them in managing their academic career(s) and personal responsibilities. For example, the daycare center of the studierendenWERK Berlin (the student union association) reserves 13 of its spots specifically for the children of newly appointed professors, offering a fast, unbureaucratic process for new professors looking for childcare options.
You can find further information on the Dual Career and Family Service's website.