In 2026 the digital association Bitkom asked employed people with summer holiday plans whether they would be reachable for work. Two thirds, 66 percent, said they would be. The share was 67 percent in 2025 and 66 percent in 2024. The most common reason, given by 53 percent of those reachable, was what colleagues expected. The expectations of superiors came second, at 47 percent. Among those on holiday over Christmas, the share who stayed reachable fell from 71 percent in 2019 to 43 percent in 2025. Bitkom recommends clear rules: Regeln zur Erreichbarkeit für den Fall der Fälle schaffen Klarheit für alle Beteiligten. Rules on reachability in case of need create clarity for everyone involved.
Switching Off, Tuning In
The Mannheim work psychologist Sabine Sonnentag studies how people recover from work. Research links Abschalten, switching off mentally after work, with less tiredness the next morning. In 2019 Sonnentag and colleagues published a study of 151 employees in the Journal of Management. It found that people also need to reconnect mentally with their work at the start of the day. This tuning in, Einstimmen, goes together with activating work-related goals.
Not Reachable Except in a Crisis
In 2014 Deutsche Telekom said that since 2010 it had had a policy recommending that managers avoid sending e-mails after the end of the working day, for example at weekends. In 2013 the Goethe-Institut described the company’s self-commitment: müssen die Arbeitnehmer außer in Krisensituationen in ihrer Freizeit nicht erreichbar sein, except in crisis situations, employees need not be reachable in their free time. In 2013, at the energy company E.on, no business e-mail was allowed from 20 minutes after the end of the working day. BMW chose a different route: Wir haben uns im Wesentlichen für Vertrauen und gegen starre Regeln entschieden. We have essentially decided for trust and against rigid rules.
Off Sick Means Staying Home
An employee on sick leave was invited by his employer to a meeting about where he could work in the future. He did not come and received a written warning. On 2 November 2016 the Federal Labor Court ruled that the warning had to be removed. An employee who is unable to work because of illness is as a rule not obliged to appear at the workplace on the employer’s instruction. The exception is a case where his presence is urgently necessary for operational reasons. The employer may write to him and ask him to get in touch if he is interested.
No Homework on Sundays
Section 28 of the Bavarian school regulations sets a limit for children: Sonntage, Feiertage und Ferien sind von Hausaufgaben freizuhalten. Sundays, public holidays and school vacations are to be kept free of homework.
Eight Services a Week
An orchestra musician’s working week in Germany is counted in Dienste, services. The collective agreement for orchestra musicians, as quoted by the Federal Labor Court in 2003, sets the limit. On average over eight calendar weeks, or 16 in concert orchestras, a musician has to play at most eight services a week. If most performances in that period are of works rated difficult by their score, the limit is seven. A 2008 position paper from the German Stage Association described a regular week as eight services of two and a half or three hours.
A Working Week for Soldiers
Since 1 January 2016, German soldiers have had regulated working hours. The Soldiers’ Working Time Ordinance created a legal basis for this for the first time. The regular week is 41 hours, which can be cut to 40 on request in certain cases. Soldiers must receive a minimum rest of eleven consecutive hours in every 24 hours. Samstag, Heiligabend und Silvester sind grundsätzlich dienstfrei. Saturday, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are as a rule free of duty. According to the federal government, troops on exercise usually fall under the ordinance’s exceptions.
On Call Is Working Time
Norbert Jaeger was a junior doctor in the surgical department of a hospital in Kiel. His on-call duty followed his normal shift. He had to stay in the hospital, where he was given a room with a bed and could sleep when he was not needed. On 9 September 2003 the European Court of Justice ruled in his case that such on-call duty counts in full as working time. In Germany, the dental journal zm reported that 30-hour duty shifts were now a thing of the past. The German Hospital Federation expected to need 27,000 new hires.
The Mask of the Role
In 1924 the philosopher Helmuth Plessner published Grenzen der Gemeinschaft, the limits of community. He defended distance, tact and the Sehnsucht nach der Maske, the longing for the mask. German Wikipedia summarizes his idea of the mask. Through it a person becomes general and turns von der Privatperson zur Amtsperson, from a private person into an official person. Tact, in the same summary, dient der Entspannung unter Menschen, die man nicht kennt, eases things between people who do not know each other. Plessner wrote against a strong longing of his time for total community. His view stood largely alone in Germany at the time, and the book was only rediscovered in the early 1980s.
Duty Is Duty
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