In Germany’s volunteer and professional fire brigades, a squad works under service regulation FwDV 3. Die Mannschaft einer Gruppe gliedert sich in group leader, machinist, messenger, attack team, water team and hose team. Each has its own tasks. The attack team nimmt in der Regel das erste einzusetzende Strahlrohr vor, as a rule takes up the first nozzle. The water team stellt die Wasserversorgung vom Löschfahrzeug zum Verteiler und zwischen Löschfahrzeug und Wasserentnahmestelle her, sets up the water supply from the engine to the distributor and between the engine and the water source. Before anyone leaves the vehicle, everyone knows whose hose it is.
The Vocabulary of Someone Else’s Area
jemandem ins Handwerk pfuschen — to botch around in someone’s trade. Duden defines it as sich in einem Bereich betätigen, für den ein anderer zuständig ist, to be active in an area for which someone else is responsible.
Viele Köche verderben den Brei. — Many cooks spoil the porridge.
das Kompetenzgerangel — a scramble over who is responsible
Zuständigkeitsbereiche abstecken — to stake out areas of responsibility, as one marks out ground with pegs
Old Men’s Football
In March 2001, after a 0:3 Champions League defeat at Olympique Lyon, the Bayern Munich president Franz Beckenbauer spoke at the midnight banquet. He said the team had played Altherren-Fußball, old men’s football, like Uwe Seeler’s veterans’ team. The players then met in captain Stefan Effenberg’s room. Bayern went on to win the Champions League that season. Effenberg later said the team knew its performance had been catastrophic. He counted the banquet speech among the reasons for the title, even if über die Wortwahl können wir reden oder diskutieren, we can talk or argue about the choice of words.
Criticizing the Work
Section 193 of the Criminal Code covers tadelnde Urteile über wissenschaftliche, künstlerische oder gewerbliche Leistungen, critical judgments about scientific, artistic or commercial work. It also covers Vorhaltungen und Rügen der Vorgesetzten gegen ihre Untergebenen, reproaches and reprimands by superiors to their subordinates. Such statements are punishable as an insult only if the form of the statement or the circumstances show an insult. So a manager who tells an employee plainly that the work is poor is, as a rule, not punishable for insult, unless the form or the circumstances of the remark make it insulting.
The Orchestra Votes
A new player in a German orchestra first wins an audition. In a judgment of 25 October 2017, the Federal Labor Court quoted the audition rules of one state theater orchestra. Das Probespiel ist kein Wettbewerb im üblichen Sinne, sondern eine Einstellungsprüfung. The audition is not a competition in the usual sense, but an entrance examination. The winner then gets a contract for a probation year, as a rule. Before the year ends, the section, the artistic council, the chief conductor and the orchestra board discuss the candidate and vote in writing and in secret. After that, every member of the orchestra has a week to cast a vote. The candidate needs an absolute majority of the votes cast.
Criticize the Treatment, Not the Doctor
The professional code of the Medical Association of Saxony-Anhalt says: Ärzte haben sich untereinander kollegial zu verhalten. Doctors must behave collegially toward one another. The code then says what this excludes. Unsachliche Kritik an der Behandlungsweise oder dem beruflichen Wissen eines Arztes sowie herabsetzende Äußerungen über dessen Person sind berufswidrig. Unfactual criticism of a doctor’s treatment or professional knowledge, and disparaging remarks about the doctor as a person, violate professional rules. The association’s journal added in 2012 that factual criticism of a colleague’s treatment remains allowed.
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
The Banana Principle
German customers, especially software users, speak of the Bananenprinzip, the banana principle. Bananas are harvested green and ripen later. In the same way, a product is delivered unfinished and matures over time through customer feedback and the maker’s repairs. The saying is Das Produkt reift beim Kunden, the product ripens at the customer’s. The term is negative. A user who speaks of Bananensoftware is unhappy with it.
One definition adds a detail. The customer receives the unfinished product ohne entsprechende Hinweise, without being told.
The Hospital Meeting About Bad Outcomes
The Morbiditäts- und Mortalitätskonferenz is a regular hospital meeting about complications and deaths. A case that went badly is presented, and the team asks what happened. In 2016 the German Medical Association published a guide for these meetings. It says the discussion should be sach- und nicht personenbezogen, about the matter and not about the person. It should concentrate on facts and processes, not on people. The aim is to work through critical events free of blame. It should be possible to ask “Why?”, and doctors in senior positions must be ready to have their own mistakes discussed. Among the obstacles the guide lists is a discussion that focuses on blame and individual mistakes.