In a representative Trendence survey reported in March 2023, almost one in five employees said they had ghosted an employer. Of these, 18 percent did not show up on their first working day. Half of the 1,914 respondents with work experience said that a potential employer had ghosted them.
Punctuality on the Curriculum
In a 2019 study by the Allensbach Institute for the Roland Berger Foundation, Germans ranked what secondary schools should teach. Spelling and grammar came first, with 80 percent, and general knowledge second, with 76 percent. Pünktlichkeit, Zuverlässigkeit, punctuality and reliability, came third, with 66 percent. English followed with 63 percent.
Three Days, Until Sunset
In Friedrich Schiller’s ballad Die Bürgschaft, published in 1799, a man condemned to death asks the tyrant: Ich flehe dich um drei Tage Zeit, I beg you for three days’ time. His friend stays behind as a pledge and will die if he does not return. On the way back, floods and robbers hold him up. He keeps going, because the bloody tyrant must not be able to boast daß der Freund dem Freunde gebrochen die Pflicht, that the friend broke his duty to the friend. Und die Sonne geht unter, da steht er am Tor. And the sun is setting as he stands at the gate. Da bin ich, für den er gebürget! Here I am, the one he stood bail for! The tyrant concludes: Und die Treue, sie ist doch kein leerer Wahn. And loyalty is not an empty illusion after all.
One Man, One Word
Ein Mann, ein Wort. — One man, one word. The dictionary DWDS explains: one can rely on what this man announces. It also lists the variant eine Frau, ein Wort. In 2012 Der Spiegel used the phrase about the 89-year-old Henry Kissinger, who kept a promise to visit his hometown football club. In 2017 Die Zeit used it about Olaf Scholz, whose motto had always been Nur das versprechen, was man auch halten kann, promise only what one can keep.
A Score That Needs Time
The credit agency Schufa holds data on 67.9 million people in Germany. Its new score, due to start on 17 March 2026, uses twelve criteria on a scale from 100 to 999. One of them is the age of a person’s oldest credit card. Christine Steffen of the consumer advice center of North Rhine-Westphalia commented: Gerade jüngere Verbraucher:innen haben gar nicht die Chance auf einen guten Wert, weil sie sich noch nicht im Wirtschaftsleben beweisen konnten … Younger consumers in particular have no chance of a good score, because they have not yet been able to prove themselves in economic life.
The False Promise
In his Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten of 1785, Immanuel Kant considers a man who sieht sich durch Not gedrungen, Geld zu borgen, is forced by need to borrow money. He promises to pay it back, mit dem Vorsatz, es nicht zu halten, with the intention of not keeping it. Kant asks what would happen if everyone did this. It würde das Versprechen und den Zweck, den man damit haben mag, selbst unmöglich machen, would make promising itself impossible, and every promise would be laughed at as eitles Vorgeben, empty pretense.
Their Words Hold
On 20 January 2012 the general assembly of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Rostock adopted a guiding statement for honorable merchants. Ehrbare Kaufleute achten die Gesetze und halten Verträge sowie Abreden ein. Ihre Worte gelten. Honorable merchants respect the laws and keep contracts and agreements. Their words hold. They versprechen nur das, was sie auch halten können, promise only what they can keep. They are interested in caring for business relationships with customers and suppliers over the long term. In Hamburg, the Versammlung Eines Ehrbaren Kaufmanns traces its roots back to 1517. It meets at noon on New Year’s Eve, and more than 2,000 people attended the assembly at the end of 2014.
Eleven Years in One Company
In 2021 employees in Germany had worked for their current company for 11.0 years on average. In 2019 the figure was 10.9 years. The German Economic Institute calculated these figures from the Socio-Economic Panel.
The House Bank
A German company’s Hausbank, its house bank, is the bank through which it handles more business than through any other. The start-up portal of the federal economics ministry and the KfW describes the relationship: Mit ihm besteht eine dauerhafte und vertrauensvolle Beziehung. It is a lasting relationship of trust. The house bank also has a formal role. Companies and founders usually apply for public development loans through it. This is called the Hausbankprinzip, the house bank principle. The house bank usually keeps the customer relationship and the risk.
Trust Capital
A supermarket cashier, known in the media as Emmely, was dismissed without notice because she had redeemed deposit vouchers worth 1.30 euros that did not belong to her. She had worked for the company since April 1977. On 10 June 2010 the Federal Labor Court ruled on her case. A deliberate breach can justify dismissal without notice even when the damage is small. But the court also weighed the Vertrauenskapital, the trust capital, that she had built up in more than three decades of service without problems. The dismissal was invalid, and a written warning would have been enough.