Career leap after motherhood
Head Logistics Planning Pfullendorf (DE)
Shortly after her maternity leave, Julia Dreher made a career leap. She is now Head of Group Logistics Planning at Geberit in Pfullendorf - on a full-time basis.
At the garden party, in the canteen, over coffee in the office - Julia Dreher knows the question. She is a mother of two small children and works full time as Head of Logistics Planning at Geberit Group Logistics in Pfullendorf. How does she reconcile all that?
“It's going quite well,“ she says and looks the questioner in the eye with equanimity. Her husband works 40 per cent, a childminder and the extended family take care of the rest. “We have all the family members practically on our doorstep,“ she says.
She 100 per cent, her husband 40 per cent: if it were the other way around, no one would ask questions. Yet they don't annoy her. “I had prepared myself for it, that's just part of it.”
Interface between logistics and the Group
Julia Dreher is used to keeping her cool. She has been working in logistics planning since 2016 - in an ever-changing environment and between different fronts. She acts as an interface between logistics and the group. “In the end, we have to get the products onto the Euro pallets so that it fits in terms of volume and weight.“
Julia Dreher has been Head of the Logistics Planning Department since November 2022. Her predecessor had unexpectedly resigned, and she brought with her the previous knowledge and a degree in international management. The ideal starting position to move up. “Of course, I went through the normal application process.
However, the step up the career ladder is not the reason why she returned to work full-time after her second maternity leave. Long before the vacancy in the management position was known, she had already told her supervisor that she would return full time after her maternity leave. “The promotion opportunity only came up when I was already working again.“
Training suggests leadership role
For her, an ideal case. “Because of my management training, I am basically interested in a management position.” She had been thinking about what goals she wanted to set for herself career-wise for some time. “Is it right for me, can I balance a leadership role and family? I came to the conclusion that if an opportunity presented itself, I would be happy to do it.“ The rest is history.
Julia Dreher is happy. Because Geberit, as an international company, is not only an interesting challenge for a Master graduate in International Management. The logistics centre in Pfullendorf is also only 20 minutes away from her home. That simplifies life enormously for the mother of two. So both fit perfectly under one hat.