Federal civil servants in Germany must work extra hours without pay when the service requires it. Section 88 of the Federal Civil Service Act sets a limit. Once the extra work exceeds five hours a month, the civil servant must be given an equal amount of time off. The law sets a cutoff period of one year for this claim. If time off is impossible for urgent official reasons, some civil servants may be paid instead.
Billed in Quarter Hours
Some German lawyers bill their time in units of 15 minutes, and every quarter hour that has started is charged in full. In 2020 the Federal Court of Justice ruled that such a clause is invalid in contracts with consumers. According to the legal publisher Haufe, the court found that such clauses open wide room for abuse. The lawyer’s work must be described concretely. Haufe adds that the actual effort must be documented exactly.
135 Minutes
In 2008 an administrative employee with 17 years of service recorded arrival times that did not match when she actually arrived. Over seven working days in a row, the difference added up to about 135 minutes. Her employer dismissed her without notice. In 2011 the Federal Labor Court upheld the dismissal, even without a prior warning. The court wrote: Der Arbeitgeber muss auf eine korrekte Dokumentation der Arbeitszeit … vertrauen können. The employer must be able to rely on correct records of working time.
The Minutes That Count
German labor courts decide which minutes count as work. In one warehouse, smokers used to leave their workplaces without clocking out. From 2013, a works agreement required them to clock out at the nearest time clock for every smoking break. One worker had 19 minutes deducted for January 2013, 104 minutes for February and 39 minutes for March. In 2015 the Higher Labor Court in Nuremberg ruled that he had no claim to paid smoking breaks. A case in the other direction reached the Federal Labor Court in 2018. A cash-transport employee had to change at work into a black polo shirt with a large yellow company logo. The court ruled that time spent changing at work must be paid when the work clothing is especially conspicuous.
Overtime Must Be Counted
An employment contract contained this sentence: Mit der vorstehenden Vergütung sind erforderliche Überstunden des Arbeitnehmers mit abgegolten. The above pay also covers any overtime the employee needs to work. In 2010 the Federal Labor Court declared the clause void. An employee must know when signing the contract how much extra work is owed without pay. A valid clause must therefore limit how much overtime the salary covers.
A Time Debt
A working-time account can also fall below zero. In 2011 the Federal Labor Court ruled on when minus hours may be booked. The employer must have paid for the hours in advance, as part of a steady salary, and the employee must be obliged to work them later. In its reasoning the court uses the word Zeitschuld, a time debt. The ruling also sets a limit. If the employer simply fails to schedule the hours the employee owes, the missing hours do not become the employee’s debt.
The Time Account
Many German employers keep an Arbeitszeitkonto, a working-time account. Extra hours are credited to it as plus hours, and they are later taken back as time off. According to the Institute for Employment Research, IAB, about 37 percent of all employees had such a short-term account in 2023. The share of workplaces with these accounts had doubled to 29 percent. At the end of 2023, the average account holder had 30.4 plus hours. In total, about 473 million hours were held on these accounts. Some employers also offer long-term accounts. In these, pay is saved as a Wertguthaben, a value credit, for a later period of paid leave, such as care leave or early retirement.
Words for Staying With One Thing
auf zwei Hochzeiten tanzen — to dance at two weddings. Duden explains it as wanting to be everywhere. It is often said in the negative: Man kann nicht auf zwei Hochzeiten gleichzeitig tanzen. You cannot dance at two weddings at the same time.
jemandes Kreise stören — to disturb someone’s circles, to disturb a person in their work. The phrase goes back to Archimedes, whose last words are said to have been Störe meine Kreise nicht, do not disturb my circles.
bei der Sache sein — to be with the matter, to keep one’s mind on the task.
Ich bin gerade mittendrin. — I am in the middle of something right now.
Bitte nicht stören — please do not disturb, the sign on the door.
die Stillarbeit — quiet work, a period in which each pupil works alone and in silence.
Three Hours Every Morning
In exile, Thomas Mann kept a fixed working day. Jeden Morgen um neun zieht er sich für drei Stunden zum Schreiben zurück. Every morning at nine he withdrew for three hours to write. After dinner he read the pages of the morning aloud to his wife and family. The Thomas Mann Archive at ETH Zurich runs a long exhibition on his study, Im Schreiben eingerichtet, Set Up for Writing, from 2023 to 2029. It asks how his working day and his family life were arranged around his writing.
Phones Out of the Classroom
Several German states have tightened their rules on smartphones in schools. ZDF reported that Brandenburg, Bremen, Hesse, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia did so at the start of a new school year, um die Konzentration zu fördern, to support concentration. In March 2025, Hesse announced that it would ban the private use of smartphones, smartwatches and tablets through a change to its school law, starting in the 2025/26 school year. The Hessian education minister, Armin Schwarz, said schools should be places where students can frei von Ablenkung und Ängsten lernen, learn free of distraction and fear.