COMING OUT WHENEVER AND WHEREVER
“I hope to inspire others to express their needs without worrying” says Vojtěch Pospíšil, system analyst at Škoda GCC.
Some say corporates are full of closed off, boring people. This stereotype is completely obliviated by the young and charismatic Vojtěch Pospíšil who works at Škoda Group Competence Center for SAP® software (Skoda GCC) as a system analyst. He daily improves the Volkswagen Group stock house management systems all over the world. Because of his extroverted nature, he takes part in many activities such as the Internationals@Skoda group or the local LGBTQ+ community. Is Skoda Auto diverse and inclusive? And what happened when Vojtěch came out, during his business trip to Malaysia?
You are a big diversity supporter, and you also participate in the Skoda Proud group which spreads enlightenment about LGBTQ+ people. Is Skoda Auto friendly towards these groups?
Definitely, I came out right away. I even approached Sonja, the head of the Skoda GCC and I said: “Hi, I'm Vojta. I'm adopted, half Vietnamese and gay”. Her response was supportive and understanding. Embracing diversity is a significant aspect of my identity, and I often use my openness as an icebreaker in fostering connections.
What kind of events are organized by Skoda Proud?
Each month we have a meetup, bowling or even team buildings lasting more than one day. For example, we go together to the mountains. Supporters also participate in the events alongside LGBTQ+ individuals. Everyone is welcome to join. Even my boss Chris joined us as a supporter during one of the rainbow Prague Pride marches!
Your work takes you all over the world, mostly to Asia. Was your sexual orientation ever a problem in such countries?
No. I always come out, even during my business travels in Indonesia or Malaysia which are both Muslim countries where LGBTQ+ people might face severe punishments. But I come out everywhere. The local colleagues could not care less, they partied with me and were very friendly regardless. I have only the best experience with the attitude towards the LGBTQ+ people everywhere in Skoda Auto.
Do you think you might help your other LGBTQ+ colleagues by your openness and communicativeness about the topic?
Sure. Shortly after coming out, a colleague approached me, expressing admiration for how I handled it at work. He is LGBTQ+ himself and thanks to me, he said he feels much better.
You are also in the Internationals@Skoda group. What events do you take part in with this group?
The group exists mostly for the foreigners who come to work at Skoda Auto. I like having dinners with them because it gives me an opportunity to practice languages. I speak English, Spanish and I am learning German. Thanks to the gatherings and Internationals@Skoda events I get to meet interesting people from Skoda with whom I can improve my language skills.
Skoda Proud is an employee group that aims to create an inclusive work environment by building bridges across the company. It is open to all Skoda employees, not just LGBTQ+ colleagues. The group organizes regular informal meetings and co-organizes events for the entire company.
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that’s from how many countries Skoda Auto employees come from. To make sure all the international colleagues feel welcome in the Czech Republic, the dedicated international Skoda employees decided to create an internal employee group Internationals@Škoda to share ideas and experiences with others. Thanks to this group even the Czech employees can meet new people and learn about their cultures.
How's your relationship with your superiors?
My boss, Chris, is the best I've ever had, and I also have a good relationship with the head of the Skoda GCC, Sonja-Isabell. When I was joining a Czech-German company, I was worried that it would be full of strict and closed off Germans who will insist on dress code and will be very conservative. That did not happen and the people I am working with now are very nice and fun to work with regardless of their nationality and the language they speak.
Where are we supposed to put the goods when the shelves aren’t there?
You are very experienced, you were even at the root of the LEAN ERP project, which concerns logistics and connects the caterers, production, and clients.
Yes, that was actually a lot of fun. Each morning I had calls with clients from Indonesia, India, and Malaysia. The time difference was five hours, so I had to get up at 6 am and jump right into dealing with problems the clients had.
Can you think about some such incident?
For example, my clients sent me a map of their warehouse for automation. I set up the system, taught it how to place the new goods into the warehouse automatically but then we found out the last line of shelves was not constructed. The confused clients were calling me saying: “Where should we put the goods, there is no shelf!” I had to manually remove all the goods and then all labels had to be changed.
So, your mornings were for dealing with the incidents. What did you do in the afternoons?
In the afternoon, we were fixing the system. When we made a mistake in the code, there was always a plethora of various issues that followed. It used to happen that numbers for reports were not generating correctly, the automatic PDF documents creation failed so they couldn’t be sent to the clients. Sometimes a wrong layout or wrong price would generate, or the automated process of material ordering failed. Whenever you have an automated process, it can include a mistake and it was my job to fix those.
What do you consider to be the biggest challenge at your work now?
We are now taking over the biggest project in the Volkswagen Group which is ET2000. We must take care of it daily because should it collapse, the losses could be as high as billions of crowns.
What are some projects the Skoda GCC specialists are working on?
LEAN ERP = A project that connects the caterers, clients and production in one SAP system. Its main objective is logistics optimization.
ET2000 = A project targeted at simplifying of selling and distribution of the spare parts of the Volkswagen Group vehicles.
ProCKD = A SAP based logistics application, which supports the Volkswagen Group Completely Knocked Down (CKD) business. It ensures to send parts of cars all over the world and to do final production of the cars within the target country.
To what extend do you worry about the fact that should you make a mistake, the whole Volkswagen Group might stop?
Very much so. We are all a bit worried about that.
How do you deal with having such responsibility?
I rely on the experience of others. I have colleagues who have been working here for 15 years who told me they stopped Skoda Auto production for three hours and they still work here. According to them, I should not worry too much about that. So, of course it is in the back of our minds, but we try to minimize such worries.
Has anything like that ever happened to you?
I haven't stopped the production, but I have stopped the rollout development of the OneSap project where each hour mattered. Our Indian users asked me to move a SAP packet from an old system to a new one but they didn’t tell me how many programs it should be. So, I moved all of it and broke the new system for five hours. Because of that and by a fault of mine, a project where 120 people were working just stopped.
And you are still working here.
Luckily, my more senior colleague quickly fixed it. It was a complication though. All the things I and some others rolled in had to be removed and then everything had to be transported again.
Skoda GCC works for the whole Volkswagen Group. That way, you are working with colleagues from Europe but also Asia. Do you often encounter intercultural differences at work?
The first international project I worked on was OneSAP. We were connecting three system, three huge Indian production sites. There was time pressure as well as cultural differences between us and our Indian colleagues. The problem was that the Indian culture does not allow them to admit that they do not understand you. We had to ask several times and always make sure that we all understood what was being said.
Is it possible to see some physical result of your work?
Those are mostly visible for the distributors because thanks to our system, they can order and stock parts that travel to them across the whole world.
Each change that I make as a developer is global. When I program something incorrectly, it immediately transfers to the whole world. That's why each change goes through release and test management before it goes live.
Can you think of some other such situation you had to deal with at work?
Supplier Rating development is a good example. It is an external SAP system where you can look up all the supplier ratings regarding their credibility or sustainability. You can find out whether they are taking advantage of the child labor etc. My job was to create an interface between their system and Sko-Energo or Skoda Auto Deutschland so we could easily find out whether we can order from or sell to a certain vendor. The final interface was supposed to be launched at a precise day and time so me and my colleagues have been working on the program long into the night. Then we have launched. But it started generating incorrect numbers and the system wasn’t working correctly. As a result, orders for Sko-Energo and Skoda Auto Deutschland stopped for two whole days. The problem was caused by faulty communication between Germany and Czechia, the mistake was at both sides and solving it wasn’t easy. Plus, the problem influenced the orders.
In such huge concern with so many IT departments, it is usually important to have a detailed documentation and change logs.
Yes, each change that I make is a global one. When I program something incorrectly, it transfers to the whole world which is why we have several mechanism to ensure that there are no mistakes. Before any change is released, it must go through a multilayered control system. The first layer includes an assessment of the program itself, its documentation quality, compatibility with SAP-Standard, reusability in other regions and processes, and prevention of double development. Next, the potential impacts in the end regions are evaluated, followed by endpoint user testing using standardized testing scenarios. Only after the change goes through the whole chain of controls it is released to the live system. Despite testing and control, some bugs may still appear after release, but this is rare.
How does the Volkswagen Group prepare such processes?
We have a huge responsibility which is why Volkswagen has a huge learning program for developer keys. To successfully finish it, you must go to Germany where you take an exam in front of a six-members committee. They make sure you can not only program but also document your work. Now, even for the tiniest change, I must spend two hours documenting it in various change logs.The documentation here is very detailed and we would be lost without it. When some other developer somewhere in the Volkswagen Group makes any changes, I can easily and quickly look up what did he change and how.
You studied environmental chemistry – an area that has little to do with the stock house management system at the first glance.
I was focusing on math models and programming of sewage plant processes, and I am using the experience even now at Skoda Auto. Chemistry taught me to be interested in how things relate to one another and how do they follow each other. That comes in handy for me now because it makes me want to understand the whole process and not just a segment that I am working with.
What were some things you needed to catch up with after you joined Skoda Auto?
During my studies, I never came across economics, so I had no knowledge of accounting. Luckily, accounting is quite simple, and you can learn it even by self-study.
What do you like the most about your job?
I went to the corporate to travel. Now, three years later, I think that I have travelled enough. But it was a very beneficial experience. And another benefit? You can meet people from all over the world, from the whole Volkswagen Group. I also like our office space in Prague very much.
Read up on other benefits Skoda Auto offers to its employees.
Skoda Auto is located at Vysočany, in the AFI City building, in new, modern offices.
Skoda GCC has the nicest offices I have ever visited. Even the Visionary center in Holešovice, which is our second office building, is very pretty. I remember my first day there and it was very pleasant. And the AFI City building is even prettier. Plus, all the people who work in our offices are very friendly and helpful. I remember that right after I joined, a kind colleague took me under her wing, showed me around, and took me everywhere I needed to go. All that combined made my first days very smooth and pleasant.
Is travelling something you like to do in your private life as well?
Now, all my travel plans were cancelled by my boyfriend, with whom I bought a cottage near Kutná Hora. So now I became a cottage person, and we no longer go anywhere. I am now the office Hujer, gardener and happiness manager who brings apples from his own garden.
What was your favorite destination before the cottage purchase?
I used to work for Pirelli and went to Rome twice a month. That is why I fell in love with Italy. I even learned some Italian – whenever we were dealing with some issue, everyone just switched into Italian. After several such seven-hour-long meetings, something sticks.
What is Vojtěch's relationship to driving and to Skoda cars?
He admits he prefers to be driven to driving. However, his partner prefers driving to flying, so they traveled together e.g. all the way to Barcelona. Skoda cars are very popular in Vojtěch's family car park. “My dad has Skoda Karoq, my mom drives Skoda Citigo and I have a Skoda Yeti.”
It seems that studying languages is one of your hobbies.
That's right. For me languages are connected to specific people that I like. My superiors are German which is why I now mostly study German. They also teach me jokes and words that I wouldn’t learn at Duolingo. Plus, we have great language courses provided by the company. Skoda Auto even pays us individual acceleration courses which is a great benefit that helps a lot when learning new languages.
What makes you happy after work?
Our team buildings. They are amazing and they are often! We visit our favorite restaurants, or we take part in sports activities in the sports league of Skoda GCC. Each Monday we play badminton, in summer we play volleyball and sometimes beach volleyball. My colleagues even went on holiday together to Morocco with their surfs. So, our team spirit is really strong, and it is really important for us.
„Teambuildings are awesome! And they happen often!”
Have you experienced some untypical team buildings?
I have been in this team since October, and we already had Oktoberfest together. I am also in the Ladies Group, so I went out with my female colleagues too. With my previous team, we used to go cycling in summer and cross-country skiing in winter.
Do you like sports?
I love sports. I'm a dancer ever since I was a little child. I used to dance standard dances, Latino ones, I used to teach Zumba, I still have an old lector's license at home. I used to teach standard dances in the Center of Musical Acting which prepares its students for the conservatory. I go to the gym or go running for at least 5 km. But in our team, even beer-drinking is considered a sport.
Seeing your outfit and accessories, I must ask – is fashion your hobby?
Yes, it is. Originally, I wanted to come here wearing a wig. I used to be a stylist in my free time. I also draw and I used to want to be a fashion designer. As a child, I took drumming classes with my mom, making handmade laces. Even today, I sometimes sew a golden thread into my clothes or use golden paint because aside from the rainbow colors I also love black and golden color combination. However, I don’t have much time for these things anymore.
So, you are quite a Renaissance man.
Yes, in my previous job I used to work in marketing, I tried my hand at web design and together with my boyfriend we are even running a gift selling e-shop.
Can you also just switch off and rest?
Yes, of course. I love computer games. I'm a big fantasy fan so I'm playing Baldur's Gate 3 now. I always wanted to be an elf and to learn elvish but due to my work I must prioritize German. I learn to like it thanks to German pop and my favorite singer Wincent Weiss.
VOJTĚCH POSPÍŠIL
system analyst at Škoda GCC
Vojtěch studied Masaryk secondary school of chemistry and then environmental chemistry at UCT Prague. He joined Škoda Auto in 2020, and, together with his colleagues, he was at the root of the LEAN ERP project, which simplifies logistics and storage of new car parts throughout the entire Group. He is now involved in another challenging project – ET2000. Its purpose is to simplify the distribution of spare parts. Vojtěch is also a member of Škoda Proud and the Internationals@Skoda group.
He likes to talk to people and learn languages, is a fashionista and spends his free time gardening at his cottage. In the past, Vojtěch participated in the One Young World project, which gathers young leaders from around the world. One of his reasons for joining the project was that he wanted to represent the LGBTQ+ community. His unique openness is evident from the very first sentence he tells you: "Hi, my name is Vojta. I'm adopted, half Vietnamese and gay."
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