Teamwork Archives - Page 3 of 14

The Joys of Duty

In Siegfried Lenz’s novel Deutschstunde, The German Lesson, of 1968, the young Siggi Jepsen must write an essay on a set topic: Die Freuden der Pflicht, the joys of duty. He hands in an empty notebook. As a punishment he must write it after all, and he writes down his memories of his father, the village policeman. The policeman’s task is to deliver to the painter Nansen a ban on painting imposed by the Nazis. The novel is still read in the upper grades of German secondary schools.

The father does his duty completely, and the novel asks what that duty served.

Every Author Answers for the Paper

The German Research Foundation’s code of good scientific practice of 2019 says of the authors of a publication: Sie tragen für die Publikation die gemeinsame Verantwortung, they bear joint responsibility for it, unless stated otherwise. Honorary authorship is not allowed. A leading position alone does not make anyone a co-author. The Deutsches Ärzteblatt called the affair around the researchers Herrmann and Brach the largest German forgery affair. Several hundred co-authors were checked. In 2002 the foundation excluded the Freiburg professor Roland Mertelsmann for five years as a reviewer and applicant because of serious flaws, and two other co-authors for two years each. The foundation’s president, Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, told the Ärzteblatt: In der Wissenschaft ist das die Höchststrafe. In science, that is the maximum penalty.

As Well as He Can

How well must a German employee work? In 2003 the Federal Labor Court gave an answer that labor lawyers still quote: Der Arbeitnehmer muss tun, was er soll, und zwar so gut, wie er kann. The employee must do what he is supposed to do, and do it as well as he can. In 2008 the court dealt with a worker in a mail-order warehouse. His error rate was between 4.01 and 5.44 per thousand. According to the employer, the average of the 209 workers in the third quarter of 2004 was 1.34. A clearly higher error rate over a long period can point to a breach of duty, the court said. The employee must then explain it.

Who Pays for a Mistake at Work

In German labor law, an employee’s liability for damage he causes at work depends on how careless he was. The rule comes from the courts. In 1994 the Grand Senate of the Federal Labor Court applied it to all work caused by the business, even work that is not dangerous. For the slightest negligence, the employer bears the damage alone, as part of the general business risk. For medium negligence, employer and employee share it. For gross negligence and intent, the employee must in principle pay for all of it.

The Worker Checks His Own Part

In German manufacturing, Werkerselbstprüfung means worker self-inspection. Der Werker, der das Teil produziert, prüft es selbst. The worker who produces the part checks it himself. One definition states the rule in four words: Kein Weitertransport ohne positives Ergebnis. No onward transport without a positive result. The worker is to sign the check with his name. The method arose in the mid-1960s, and the trade journal Produktion calls it disputed.

Duty, Not Inclination

In 1785 Immanuel Kant published the Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten, the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. It is taught in upper-school philosophy classes, for example in North Rhine-Westphalia. Of kind acts done from inclination, Kant writes that such an act, so pflichtmäßig, so liebenswürdig sie auch ist, however dutiful and however kind it is, still has keinen wahren sittlichen Wert, no true moral worth.

In the Xenien, the satirical couplets of Goethe and Schiller published in 1797, a reply appeared under the title Gewissensscrupel, scruples of conscience: Gerne dien’ ich den Freunden, doch thu’ ich es leider mit Neigung, / Und so wurmt es mir oft, dass ich nicht tugendhaft bin. I gladly serve my friends, but sadly I do it with inclination, and so it often bothers me that I am not virtuous. The answer followed: Da ist kein anderer Rath, du musst suchen, sie zu verachten, / Und mit Abscheu alsdann thun, wie die Pflicht dir gebeut. There is no other advice. You must try to despise them, and then do with disgust what duty commands.

Practice Is Done at Home

On 19 December 1991 the Federal Labor Court decided a case about musicians of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. The dispute was about pay for a short strike. In its reasoning the court described the duty of an orchestra musician. To perform his services properly, he needs individuelle Vorbereitung durch häusliches Proben und Üben, individual preparation by rehearsing and practicing at home, in order to meet the orchestra’s quality standard. The collective agreement did not say this anywhere. According to the court, the parties to the agreement took it for granted, selbstverständlich.

The Claw Left on the Track

In the night before 12 April 1999, a crew worked on the track of the Wuppertal suspension railway. A steel claw fitted for the work was not removed. The first train of the morning struck it and fell into the river Wupper. Five passengers died, and at least 37 were injured. Before the line was released, three supervisors each had to check on their own that the track was clear. The regional court convicted them. It acquitted five other defendants. It reasoned that each worker could rely on the others, under the Vertrauensgrundsatz, the principle of trust. On 31 January 2002 the Federal Court of Justice overturned four of these acquittals. Where the danger was obvious to everyone working there, a worker had to make sure that his colleagues had done the work given to them.

Eight of Fifteen Missing

In August 2013 the signal box at Mainz main station could not be fully staffed. Of its 15 employees, five were sick and three on holiday, according to Bild am Sonntag. For about two weeks, trains had to be rerouted or were canceled. A labor lawyer explained to the legal portal LTO: Eine rechtliche Verpflichtung der Mitarbeiter, vorzeitig aus dem Urlaub zurückzukommen, gibt es aber nicht. There is no legal duty for employees to return early from holiday. Deutsche Bahn’s chief executive, Rüdiger Grube, apologized in public. A railway spokesman said: Zusätzliche personelle Kapazitäten gibt es nicht. There are no additional staff.

The Helper Shuttle in the Ahr Valley

After the floods of July 2021 in the Ahr valley, tens of thousands of volunteers came to help. Within days, local people set up the Helfer-Shuttle, the helper shuttle. Buses collected volunteers at points on the heights and took them down into the valley. The Bavarian fire-service journal brandwacht later called it probably the most important institution of the spontaneous helpers. It estimated that about 50,000 such helpers came by September. The chair of an expert commission said: die Einbindung in den Stab hat nirgends funktioniert, the integration into the crisis staff worked nowhere. The main criticisms were poor coordination of the helpers and poor communication by the authorities.