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TikTok manager Charles Bahr: "I need at least eight hours of sleep, otherwise nothing works"
Photo: TikTok Germany
SPIEGEL:
Mr. Bahr, explain your work to us in three sentences.
Charles Bahr:
I train companies to use TikTok successfully.
So I give a lot of workshops in which I explain how the platform works and how to implement campaigns.
At the same time, I am in contact with well-known TikTok creators and see which brands I can bring them together.
SPIEGEL:
How do you start the day?
Bahr:
I usually get up around 7 a.m.
In the morning I try to stay away from social media and read a book instead.
Lastly, “10 reasons why you should delete your social media accounts”.
But it didn't convince me
(laughs)
.
And I make porridge every morning - sometimes with chocolate, sometimes with berries.
Kai Pflaume inspired me to do this.
He posts his breakfast on Instagram, so do I now.
Then I already have the feeling of starting the day healthy and being creative at the same time.
SPIEGEL:
Let's take a look at your diary: What does a typical day and week look like for you?
Bahr:
I start at 8:30 am and first of all work through my e-mails
(see calendar: daily ›Blocker Mails & Messages‹)
.
Since we are a global company, a lot of news also comes at night.
Before I finish work, after all appointments, I do this again so that I get to 0 in the evening.
In between, I don't look into my mailbox so as not to be distracted.
At lunchtime there is a no-meeting-time-blocker
(daily from 12 noon ›GBS-DACH no-meeting-time‹)
for our whole team, so that we can gather our thoughts and eat in peace and take a break.
Sometimes I also lie down to sleep for 20 minutes.
I need at least eight hours of sleep, otherwise nothing works.
In between and in the afternoon I have appointments: for example two to three times a week with the Global Business Solutions team in which I work
(Monday 2 pm: ›GBS Germany Team Meeting‹; Wednesday 5.30 pm: ›GBS Town Hall ‹)
.
Or every two weeks with individual specialist departments such as the communications, marketing or government relations and policy team.
And then of course there are appointments that don't take place every week: For example, on Tuesday I
record
a podcast
(4.30 p.m .: ›Podcast recording‹),
on Thursday I prepare a lecture for a large cosmetics company, on Friday I swap deal with medium-sized companies
(twice on Friday: ›Mid Market Customer Workshop‹).
At the ›Walk & Talk‹
(Wednesday, 2 pm)
we meet with individual colleagues: inside for a walk - mostly on the Alster, the classic meeting point in Hamburg.
On average, I can do it in eight hours
four focused only to work for me.
Sometimes I consciously block time for that.
One of my weekly highlights is the ›Lunch Club‹ on Thursday afternoon
(1 p.m.)
.
Famous artists and inspiring personalities visit us during our lunch break.
Heiko and Roman Lochmann, formerly the Lochis, were already there.
Or lastly Zoe Wees, a singer who became known through TikTok.
SPIEGEL:
That sounds like a long list of to-dos.
How do you prioritize?
Bahr:
In fact, it was difficult for me at the beginning - it's my first 'real' job.
A colleague gave me a useful table, according to which there are four types of tasks:
Unimportant but urgent: These tasks should be delegated.
Important, but not urgent: For these tasks you should make a schedule of when you will complete them.
Important and urgent: These tasks are done immediately.
Unimportant and not urgent: the tasks can be canceled.
From boss to employee
SPIEGEL:
In order to make an appointment for the interview, we were initially in direct contact, then your press department processed the request and at the end an agency got involved.
How much power do you still have over your diary?
Bahr:
(laughs)
It's about teamwork: I'm a fan of the competence hierarchy.
Of course, I have experience with media inquiries, but media inquiries within a group have rules of the game here and there.
And that's good.
So I prefer to coordinate it together with our experts: inside the communication team - and that worked out really well, didn't it?
This also makes my to-do list shorter.
But of course, I then decide about my appointments myself.
SPIEGEL:
You used to be your own boss, but not anymore.
What has changed in your appointment calendar?
Bahr:
I used to be super selfish.
If I wanted something from someone, I just called - without even thinking about whether that person would be happy at the moment.
With my second start-up there were almost no appointments: Anyone who wanted to hold a large meeting had to fill out a two-page form with a reason beforehand.
Many have already given up or found that many things can be arranged without an appointment.
But unlike TikTok, our start-up was a speedboat.
Now I am allowed to work on a cruise ship.
And that's just as well.
The speedboat makes faster progress at first, but may not last as long.
In short: I now have a lot more appointments.
"It helped me to write an email to myself if something upsets me."
SPIEGEL:
How do you deal with stress?
Do you have a tip for others?
Bahr:
It helped me to write an email to myself if something upset me.
I then put this email in a folder called ›Re: Charles‹ and check it out every three months.
This is very healing, because most of the time you find that the excitement wasn't worth it.
But I have to say: I enjoy my work so much that for the most part it doesn't feel like work.
When there is overtime, I don't even notice it as such.
SPIEGEL:
What is your compensation?
Bahr:
I'm happy that you can now go to restaurants again.
I also spend a lot of time with my mother, sister and girlfriend.
And I'm on the road as an emergency courier on weekends - on a voluntary basis.
Most recently, for example, I flew from Zurich to Amsterdam to hand over a ventilator that was transported on to India by a colleague.
Sometimes it is also stem cells that have to be in a certain location within 72 hours.
Switch off on the weekend
SPIEGEL:
Other 19-year-olds have few appointments other than lectures or vocational school and work - would you like it to be less crowded?
Bahr:
Probably my life is even more relaxed than that of a student.
I have weekends and vacation days when I can switch off completely and don't always have exams and homework in the back of my mind.
What I still want to get rid of: I have the feeling that one or the other might feel pressured when he or she hears what I was already doing when I was 19.
But nobody my age should use me as a yardstick.
I've just always done what I enjoy.
And I found out what it was very early on.
"A big issue for me is equality."
SPIEGEL:
People always say that we young people don't want to work full-time and have more flexibility and freedom.
Doesn't that apply to you?
Bahr:
At the moment, I'm not stressed at all from working full-time.
A big issue for me is equality: If at some point I had children, it would never occur to me that my girlfriend had to stay at home and that I would go to work.
I then take parental leave without question and then like to work part-time.
SPIEGEL:
Who would you like to swap calendars with?
Bahr:
With Elon Musk.
I don't think his day-to-day work is particularly healthy, but I find what he does extremely exciting.
On the outside, he always seems extremely hard working.
I would like to know how much is actually behind it.