Vacation, taking sick days, maternity leave…work-life balance is really different in Germany & the USA.
So my question for you is: How do you feel about work-life balance? Is there anyone out there who prefers the way that it’s done in the U.S.? And people with children, what’s the parental leave been like where you’ve lived?
YouTube comments:
“I met a retired salesman in his 60’s finishing up his history degree. His dream was to be a history teacher. When most folks are retiring he was starting something new. I never forgot him.”
“When you’re 20 you care what everyone thinks, when you’re 40 you stop caring what everyone thinks, when you’re 60 you realize no one was ever thinking about you in the first place.”
“Thanks for the advice. I’m 52 and quit the manufacturing world after 29 years. I got so tired of the corporate puppets coming down and acting like tyrants I turned walk in and handed in my 30 day notice. I worked as a supervisor but it turned into a supervisor, manager, HR and Safety manager job and expected us to work 12 hour days seven days a week. I decided screw that paid everything off I own. I now make knives and jewelry as my hobby and help my kids out with their business. Best thing I could of done.”
“From somebody who’s done this: There is a difference between fear of failure and fear of homelessness. When I got five mortgage payments behind, I was no longer focusing my creative energy on writing, I was losing sleep because I was about to lose my house. For a novelist anyway, I think the idea of quitting your day job is really bad advice. I have found it easier to be creative when I don’t have to worry about where my next house payment is coming from. I’ve written six novels, one of them while unemployed and “chasing my dream.” Lemme tell you – financial desperation does not improve your odds. I can still produce 10,000 words a week just fine as somebody who gets a paycheck. And my books still don’t sell. That problem is not solved by adding the anxiety of having no income. .02 from somebody who tried it and lost.”
Most people are looking for job security. Not understanding that jobs are in the best interest of the company not the employees. Everyone knows about the 40-40-40 Plan, Working 40 hours a week for someone else, for 40 years of your life, to retire off of 40% of what you struggled to live off of. That’s not freedom, its a cycle that needs to be broken.
YouTube comments:
“I always thought after I graduated college and got my first job at corporate I thought finally got a job I could never lose. Boy was I wrong. I’ve seen some of the best coworkers I had get laid off because the company decided the department was no longer needed. You really need to take charge of your personal interests because no one else will.”
“You see, jobs are temporary, they come and they go. Your skills, personality and attitude stay. So smile, take a step forward, and do whatever you love. Thanks Matt! :)”
About his father being laid off from his “safe” desk job: “You can fail at what you don’t want, so why not take a chance on doing what you love?” – Commedian Jim Carrey
Paul is in his final year of college, and of late he has been thinking a lot about what he wants to do for the rest of his life, after graduation. Growing up, Paul had always been told by his parents to study hard, get good grades, so you can be accepted into a good university and graduate with a good degree.
Because having a good degree will land you in a good-paying job and in return, a good life. You see, this is the mentality that a lot of us were told. For some people, this belief is hard to throw away because it’s what we have been told since childhood.
YouTube comments:
“Not everyone is wired to start their own business. Entrepreneurship needs a strong conviction. It’s what makes the risk psychologically bearable.”
“I literally watched people get hired at my job and then get fired only months later. I’m now a full time entrepreneur myself because I saw the risk as staying an employee with any company.”
“One thing I want to point out is if you like your 9 to 5 job and it is allowing you to save money, there’s nothing wrong with that. One of the most important things to do is to like your job. If not, your spending most of your life being miserable. That’s why I want to be a teacher, and not what someone else wants. For me, being around children would definetly be better than sitting in a cubicle, waiting for my boss to walk by with my paycheck. So, if the regular lifestyle is something you like doing, go ahead.”
Oakland California sure does have a homeless problem. Driving around town, there’s homeless encampments all over the place. They’re on the side of the roads in dirt lots. There’s long stretches of them on sidewalks. Some of them are tents, some are RVs, some are actual encampments with makeshift structures where hundreds of people gather in communities.
It’s estimated there’s around 5,000 homeless individuals throughout the city of Oakland, but no one really knows the exact number. And the number of people on the streets in Oakland has nearly doubled in the last two years alone.
YouTube comments:
“The old man used to always tell me that being afraid to talk about money was a great way to not have any.”
“This is spot on. Went from $70k per year to $100k then to $115k then to $147k then $170k and now to $230k over the span of 10 years. If I had that stupid “quitters never win” mindset, I probably wouldn’t be making over $100k today. Oh, and did I mention that I have a history degree?”
“I work as an advanced practice nurse practitioner making 140K in a medium sized-city in Texas. I started nursing making 60K 8 years ago, never stayed with a company more than 2 years, and always left for hospitals that offered better pay. I had hospital admin ask me to stay for the ‘patients, friends and staff’ because they could not afford to pay me another raise. I had a new job within 2 weeks with a 10% salary increase – it took them nearly 2 years to fill the position I left behind. Those ‘friends, staff, and patients’ don’t contribute a single thing to my salary and they do not pay my bills – no thank you. Do not blindly think your organization cares about you, know your worth, and leave for the organizations that can afford to pay you what you are really worth.”
This social experiment was done to see how people react differently to a Rich girl and a poor girl.
YouTube comments:
“We’re living in a world where the rich continue to get richer and the poor get poorer.”
“They donated to the rich girl because she was hot, and dressed well.”
“I used to know a homeless man who would beg near a McDonalds. He was a really great person, and I would always donate some money. My dad even bought him a tent. Whenever I was near the McDonalds, I never really saw people who were looking to help him. Maybe they thought it was unimportant because he already had a tent, or maybe they didn’t have money, or they just didn’t want to donate. Eventually he was finally able to find a job (at that McDonalds to be exact) and he was able to sell his tent, add that money to what he had already, and buy himself a car! I haven’t seen him for a few years, but I hope that he is doing better in life.”
December 2022. The German cabinet agreed in principle to immigration reform in a bid to secure more skilled workers. Europe’s biggest economy is currently experiencing a lack of roughly half a million people to its workforce and wants to make up for the shortfall.
The federal government said it wanted to boost immigration and training to tackle a skills shortage which is hampering the country’s economy at a time of weakening growth. Meanwhile, an aging population is increasing pressure on the public pension system.
Germany is also keen on granting immigrants from the Western Balkan countries that are not in the EU, such as Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, access to their job market for an unlimited amount of time. The proposals to amend the Skilled Immigration Act, first introduced in March 2020, include an “opportunity card” for jobseekers.
YouTube comments:
“Germany is a great country to move — But living in Germany is difficult, salary is relatively low, bureaucrats, high taxes, immigrants can never feel german even of they acquire citizenship. In Canada you feel Canadian right after you arrive there. Germans are not that open minded as people from English speaking countries. Language barrier is real!”
“The title should be the shortage of CHEAP labor shortage.”
“That is fantastic news for US citizens, cuz i don’t think any US citizen want to give up their citizenship for any other country. US allows dual citizenship. I am sure many Americans would love to live in a social democratic country.”
“The solution is simple, make English the 2nd official language along with German. It would facilitate literally EVERYTHING in an instant. Plus, It would be a safe bet that skilled workers would come in droves! What happens is, understandbly so, most workers prefer to exclusively migrate to countries in whom they don’t have to start to study a new language from scratch to be able to integrate and maybe after a decade will be successful at filing their tax reports in German. Examples are Malta, Singapore and a few others. It would make Germany 50 times as attractive for international job seekers who would traditionally rather opt for Canada or UK….or if they happen to be plastic surgeons or Astronauts with half a mil in the bank: the US.”