The German probationary period — Probezeit — is legally capped at six months, and once it ends the full protection of the dismissal statute attaches. The trial is bounded, short, and followed by something close to permanence. Both sides know the date.
The process audit
German automotive suppliers are audited on their processes, not only on their parts. VDA 6.3 assesses the manufacturing process itself and produces a score. A supplier can deliver conforming parts and still fail.
Negotiating the matter
Sachverhandlung. Sache again, attached to negotiation. A negotiation about the matter. That the compound exists at all implies the alternative — a negotiation about something else — and marks it as a different and lesser thing.
The workshop manual
Das Werkstattbuch. German manufacturers publish workshop manuals with exploded diagrams, torque values and part numbers, often for decades after production ends. The design anticipates its own repair, and documents how.
Sustainability, and where it came from
Sustainability is also a German word, and much older than the environmental movement. Hans Carl von Carlowitz set it out in Sylvicultura oeconomica in 1713, writing about forestry: cut no more timber than the forest can regrow.
The idea is prevention stretched across generations. Do not solve this year’s problem in a way that creates one for people not yet born.
Social partnership
Sozialpartnerschaft. Employers and unions in Germany are called social partners, by both sides and by the state. The word describes a relationship that is genuinely adversarial as a joint undertaking, and the naming shapes what an acceptable outcome looks like.
The project management standard
The German standard for project management defines the terminology, the process model and the required documents. Project management in Germany is itself standardised — there is a DIN number for how to run a project.
The Mittelstand employer
The German mid-sized company sector, much of it family-owned across generations and often the principal employer in its town. Standorttreue — loyalty to the location — is a stated value in these firms, and moving production is discussed in local newspapers as a breach of something.
There must be order
Ordnung muss sein — there must be order. The most quoted German phrase on the subject, and it is a statement of necessity rather than preference.
Alles hat seine Ordnung — everything has its order.
Das hat Hand und Fuß — that has hand and foot, said of something properly constructed.
Wie es sich gehört — as is fitting, as it belongs. Said of a thing done the correct way.
No little games
No little games. The diminutive is doing the work — Spiele would be games, Spielchen is petty games, and the contempt is in the suffix. Said at the start of a German negotiation, it is a statement of terms.