Elke Bauernhofer’s day is meticulously planned. It has to be, especially as the mother of two children. There’s breakfast together, then she sends the kids off to school. Once they are settled, she heads to work. It takes her just over five minutes to get from home to the office. She works until 1 p.m., then heads back home for lunch with the kids. After that, it is time for taxi service: football training, tennis, music school, and other activities are on the agenda. Good thing she is well-suited for planning.

After all, she does it professionally, too, albeit in a slightly different way: As part of the planning team, she takes care of the technical planning for the bespoke interiors at Josef Göbel. Unlike in design, where it is all about the "beautiful plans that every client understands"—as Elke puts it—the technical planning gets down to the nitty-gritty. "We select the hardware and design the ceiling so it does not fall down," she explains succinctly. Elke and her colleagues know exactly what they are doing, which is why no ceiling has ever come crashing down.

Project planning and Elke just seem to go hand in hand. "I really enjoy it," she says. And she has to. She has been working in Fladnitz for over 15 years now, partly part-time, partly full-time. She even gained experience at a small carpentry workshop in the Mürztal. But she learned her trade at Josef Göbel. Afterward, a colleague recommended that she complete the master’s course at the Ortweinschule in Graz. She returned to Fladnitz, she had previously lived in Bruck, for more pragmatic reasons: Her parents lived in the area, and "it didn’t really matter if I drove up to Mürztal or down to Fladnitz." “I asked Josef if I could come back, and there was a vacancy in the planning department," Elke recalls. Sometimes, that is just how it works.