Malika (31 years old)

Business manager of mobility company ‘Mobifiel’ & flexible civil servant Mobility

This evening, when I picked our son Jon up from school, his mentor asked me how I was doing. “Busy,” I said, “one of the mobility companies has been removed from the cooperation. An employee leaked that they consistently withheld requested trips through a hack to send their own vehicles there.”

You see, I run a company for modular passenger transportation on request. All local mobility companies cooperate through one contract with the city council. We share information and customer requests with each other, which allows us to deploy our joint pool of vehicles very efficiently. The people of Ghent and the environment benefit from this.

The mobility data is analyzed by Artificial Intelligence, which directs the entire system. But like I said, this week, it became clear that someone within the cooperation withheld such information for their own gain. We cannot accept that. We decided to remove them from the cooperation. We are already working on restarting a new patch and a new partner, but it may take a while. Until then, we will work overtime.

At the beginning of the school year, all parents already explained their availability for contributions to school activities to the mentor group for social dynamics. I work fulltime, which means: twenty-eight hours a week. I spend eight of these hours working as a flexible civil servant at the city’s mobility service. There, they can really use my practical experience. But now, we will have to step up for a while. It is no problem, I like doing it. Moreover, mobility is important for livability. I really reap satisfaction from my commitment in this area.

My wife Elisa doesn’t have a job. She reaps satisfaction from her hobbies and from spending time with the children. Also, she often helps the school as one of the class parents. This has been possible since the introduction of the guaranteed minimum income for everyone. She looks much happier now. But me, I should be able to be busy, and I need my own projects.

“This week, Elisa will come over to assist for a few days, won’t she?” I ask Jon’s mentor. “That is correct,” says the mentor. “It is perfect timing, because we have a lot of plans outside the classroom. We will head to the Overmeers to study the ecosystem and we will also go into the city once to practice our meeting and introduction skills.” “Sounds cool,” I say. I go home with our son. I’m looking forward to tonight’s meal. It is Friday, which means all neighbors will look in the shared digital kitchen to see which leftovers are still in everyone’s refrigerators. Then, we collect everything and prepare a nice meal for the entire floor in the communal kitchen. It’s always delicious, and it’s nice to get together!