Dienst ist Dienst, und Schnaps ist Schnaps. — Duty is duty, and schnapps is schnapps. The dictionary DWDS explains: duty and pleasure must be strictly kept apart.
Feierabend machen — to make the evening of rest. Duden: to stop the day’s work.
nach Feierabend — after the end of the working day, in one’s free time
In 2009 the job portal Monster asked its users: Verbringen Sie Ihre Freizeit auch mit Kollegen? Do you also spend your free time with colleagues? In Germany, 33 percent answered that they strictly separate professional and private life. 40 percent said they now and then do something together as a group. 27 percent said their colleagues belong to their circle of friends. The survey was not representative. It reflects the views of Monster’s users.
In a Forsa survey for the digital association Bitkom, reported in January 2012, 56 percent of the employees among the respondents said they decline a friend request from their boss. Forsa had asked 1,002 German-speaking internet users. Bitkom’s Tobias Arns said: Die Privatsphäre der Mitarbeiter muss der Chef auch im Web akzeptieren. The boss must accept the employees’ private sphere on the web too. A later Bitkom survey, reported in 2014, found that only 5 percent were already friends with their boss online.
Duden gives the word privat three meanings. The first is about one’s own person. The second is nicht offiziell, nicht amtlich, nicht geschäftlich; außerdienstlich, not official, not governmental, not business, off-duty.
Ich bin privat hier. — I am here privately, not in my professional role.
Das ist meine Privatsache. — That is my private matter.
Berufliches und Privates trennen — to keep the professional and the private apart
dienstlich, außerdienstlich — on duty, off duty
An employee in Germany who is ill gets a certificate of incapacity for work from a doctor. The part meant for the employer shows no diagnosis. The union IG Metall explains: Gegen Deinen Willen hat der Arbeitgeber keinen Anspruch darauf zu erfahren, welche Krankheit Du hast. Against your will, the employer has no right to know which illness you have. The paper form was known as der gelbe Schein, the yellow slip. Since the start of 2023, the certificate is mostly electronic.
On 10 September 2009 the Federal Labor Court ruled that a municipal worker’s off-duty drug offenses did not justify his dismissal. A labor law firm summarized the principle: Den Arbeitgeber hat es deshalb grundsätzlich nicht zu interessieren, ob der Arbeitnehmer „privat“ eine Straftat begeht. As a rule, it is not the employer’s concern whether the employee commits a crime in private. The court noted that the result could differ for employees with official or representative duties. German law calls this außerdienstliches Verhalten, off-duty conduct. There is an exception when off-duty conduct harms the employment relationship. In 2017 VfB Stuttgart and its player Kevin Großkreutz parted by mutual agreement after he was involved in a fight in his free time.
Statutory accident insurance covers a company Christmas party only under strict conditions. The German Social Accident Insurance listed them in November 2025. The company must organize the party or at least officially approve it. Management or a person it appoints must take part. The party must be open to all employees. Its purpose must be to strengthen the Betriebsklima, the working atmosphere. Coverage lasts during the official program and as long as most of the participants are still there. What colleagues do together after that is, as a rule, no longer insured.
German courts weigh violations of personal rights with a model of spheres. The Federal Agency for Civic Education describes four of them. The Intimsphäre, the intimate sphere, holds a person’s innermost thoughts and feelings. It is almost untouchable. The Privatsphäre, the private sphere, covers private life and the whole area of home and family. The Sozialsphäre, the social sphere, is the side of a person that others can easily see. The examples given include social contacts, a visit to the cinema and das berufliche Umfeld, the professional environment. This sphere has far less protection. The Öffentlichkeitssphäre, the public sphere, has the least. In this model, a person’s working life sits in an outer sphere, and home and family sit in an inner one.
On 6 February 2003 the Federal Labor Court ruled on a question that employers may not ask. Stiftung Warentest summarized the ruling: Die Frage nach der Schwangerschaft ist unzulässig. Wenn ein Arbeitgeber sie dennoch stellt, darf die Bewerberin lügen. The question about pregnancy is not allowed. If an employer asks it anyway, the applicant may lie. This holds even when a pregnant woman may not do the job at first. Questions about membership in a party or a union are also not allowed. The legal news site LTO calls this eine Lizenz zum Lügen, a license to lie. In practice, a job interview may cover the work, but not family plans or political ties.
Surveys for the DGB-Index Gute Arbeit of the German Trade Union Confederation ask employees about work outside their working hours. Of those surveyed, 23 percent said they are very often or often reachable in their free time. In 2025, about 40 percent had done unpaid work for their employer outside their normal hours, about 14 million people. And 44 percent work longer than agreed.