First coworking space with childcare

Her four-and-a-half-year-old daughter is practising cycling with her dad on the nearby sports field, while mum Sarah Steiner is bursting with energy as she talks to Fritz+Fränzi in a café in Zurich Albisrieden. The 35-year-old journalist and co-founder of Tadah, the organisation behind the coworking space and the online family magazine of the same name, comes across as gentle when she talks about her daughter and glides effortlessly into energy as soon as the topic turns to the planned coworking space.

Ms Steiner, why is a coworking space with childcare needed in addition to the current childcare services such as crèches, after-school care, childminders, etc.?

At Tadah, we are a team of four women with children aged between a few months and around five years. We all work in the fields of journalism, communication and advertising and have realised that we are drastically lacking flexible forms of childcare - in addition to the existing forms of childcare such as crèches. We believe that flexibility is one of the most important ingredients for a successful work-life balance and that there is still a complete lack of options. For example, if I want to pick my daughter up from the crèche shortly after lunch because I've finished work, the weather is nice or whatever, it's not possible. If I only want her to be looked after for two hours because I have an important meeting, this is also not possible with the current forms of childcare. However, it is important to us that we don't judge crèches and the like negatively; our offer should complement, not fight against them.

What is the difference between your coworking space and a crèche?

The biggest difference is the flexibility. Mums or dads can check in with their children by the hour or take out a subscription for a regular day each week. We do not have a familiarisation period or a minimum number of days of care. We are still clarifying with our pedagogical specialists whether we can set up a curfew over lunchtime, so that you can't pick up your child during lunch, for example. I think we'll see in day-to-day operations what works and what doesn't. We deliberately want to test everything with our "Powerhaus der 1000 Möglichkeiten" in Zurich so that we can gather experience for other locations. The children will also be looked after by educational specialists. However, we are also planning to include older people, retired men and women who enjoy working with children and would like to do something else. We see great added value in this for both sides. My mum has already signed up!

Who is the target audience for your coworking space?

We want a mix of people with children and without who would like to work with us. We will have around 40 workplaces and 30 places for children, i.e. two groups with a maximum of 15 children of all ages. We also deliberately approach companies so that they can offer their employees places at our centre and thus remain an attractive company.

Now you are raising money via crowdfunding, is the opening still uncertain?

No, the coworking space will open on 1 September, that's for sure. We have all quit our jobs and are fully focussed on this project. However, we still don't have the budget to finalise the group rooms for the kids; we want to make the Kids Space as high-quality and cool as possible. We still need a few customised sleeping and play areas, for example. My daughter starts kindergarten in the summer and I haven't registered her for after-school care, even though we need additional supervision. She should and wants to come and work with me in the coworking space!

tadah is raising money for the coworking space in Zurich via Wemakeit. If you would like to find out more about the project, you can read more here: www.tadah.ch. You can donate and secure a small or large reward via tadah.wemakeit.com.

More on the topic of reconciling family and career:

• 6 myths about balancing family and career debunked or: Why mums are so often so exhausted
• Irene Mariam Tazi-Preve paints a bleak picture of the compatibility of work and family life. The Austrian family researcher talks about the economy as the enemy of the family.