Why is it important to put people first, even in the toughest moments?

I'm going.Say whatever.I'll repeat the question so that no one thinks I'm rambling.

Why is it important to put people first, even during tough times?

Starting with the easy ones, huh? I think, because people matter more when things aren't going well. When things are going smoothly,you can be on autopilot.

But the point is that you shouldn't worry about the people once things get difficult, because it is usually already too late.

They're either with you or they're not.So what really counts is, what did you do before that moment when hard times hit?

When a difficult time hits, all you do it reap what you have already sown.

And in fact, there is no other way than to go through it and face it.

And if it's really difficult, chances are you can't go through it alone.

That's why your team is more important than ever.But again, it's not about saying, "Wow, this is a tough time,We have to do something now." You have to nurture relationships over time, so to speak, and you will eventually reap the rewards.

We certainty hope difficult times don't happen, but statistically it's likely that a difficult moment will come sooner or later.

Do you remember a particularly hard time? Maybe from a few years ago?

Yes, well, look, I think hardest time for everyone was Covid, which was a difficult time for everyone, so everyone will have their own experience of how difficult it was.

During Covid, life was tough for all of us as humans.

There was a double burden, where we experienced isolation, the uncertainty, not knowing what was happening and saying,"what will happen in a month?" And the difficulty of the business, which ran parallel to that.

I work for FlixBus, so we transport passengers for work and during that time, we were unable to operate any buses for four months.

And so that meant that our only source of income effectively ceased to exist.

So it was a really difficult time because even people who had leadership or management responsibilities were also experiencing personal difficulties. We were also trying to find ways to get the numbers back on track.

So it was a complicated period, as you can imagine, but also we learned a lot. Some things stuck with us in a positive way.

It wasn't so much about introducing remote working,which existed before.

In fact, it was only an emergency solution in name only, it was the transition to a solution that already existed, but living it.

The theme was precisely that of conveying a message to people, to say: "Okay, we always say that we are people first, now it's time to time to prove it." So, the first step was to look at the usual Excel spreadsheet,to look at the balance sheet figures and say: The numbers aren't there, we need to need to lay people off.

What worked, in fact, was saying, OK, Covid will end and we will find a way out. Things will start to move again,otherwise we're at the end of the world.

So we have to take a leap of faith and push through.

Let's bring salaries back to normal and get people back to work.

Even if the work looked different, let's give them this message of calm amid confusion.

Let's say, "Hey guys, we're here.Whatever happens, happens. We'll face it together." We started up again, as if everything was normal, because it will be, and things immediately improved.

In fact, there was a sense of optimism, the year after COVID was the best year in FlixBus's history up to that point.

And so there was a fundamental rebound, an increase in terms of volume and engagement, which, in my opinion, was achieved because it was the energy we had before the crisis.