Employers in Germany must assess the hazards of work, including psychological strain. Labor inspectors check these assessments with a guideline of the National Occupational Safety Conference, dated 11 January 2018. Its checklist of hazards from psychological strain includes, under work organization, unklare Kompetenzen (i. S. von Berechtigungen, Befugnissen), Verantwortungsbereiche und Rollen. These are unclear competences, in the sense of permissions and authority, unclear areas of responsibility and unclear roles. The checklist also names fehlende oder zu eng begrenzte Zuständigkeiten, missing or too narrowly limited responsibilities.
Diffuse Responsibilities
Der Mobbing-Report is a representative study of bullying at work in Germany. Researchers at the Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund wrote it, with figures for the year 2000. Among the conditions that favor bullying, unclear work organization and unclear areas of responsibility rank high. Auf Grund diffuser Zuständigkeiten wird es z. B. möglich, Verantwortung zu negieren und Fehler abzuwälzen. Diffuse responsibilities make it possible, for example, to deny responsibility and to shift mistakes onto others.
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
Two Gentlemen in One Bathtub
Herren im Bad, gentlemen in the bath, is one of Loriot’s best-known sketches. It first appeared in his television series Loriot, which ARD began to broadcast in 1976. Herr Müller-Lüdenscheidt and Dr. Klöbner end up in the same hotel bathtub, because Dr. Klöbner got the room number wrong. Neither man gives way. They argue over whether the rubber duck may go into the water. Die Ente bleibt draußen! The duck stays outside! In the end they compete over who can stay under water longer. At the end a third man appears and asks: Ist das hier Zimmer 107? Is this room 107?
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.
No Right to Lie Out of Kindness
In 1797 Immanuel Kant published Über ein vermeintes Recht aus Menschenliebe zu lügen, on a supposed right to lie out of love of mankind, in the Berlinische Blätter. He answered Benjamin Constant, who had argued that one may lie to a murderer who asks whether our friend has fled into our house. Kant disagreed. Wahrhaftigkeit in Aussagen, die man nicht umgehen kann, ist formale Pflicht des Menschen gegen jeden. Truthfulness in statements that one cannot avoid is a person’s formal duty toward everyone. A teaching unit for grade 10 ethics classes is built on the case.
Praise, but Also Reprimand
The Bundeswehr’s central regulation on leadership, A-2600/1 Innere Führung, first in force on 28 January 2008, tells superiors in its current edition: Lob, aber auch Tadel fördern die Motivation und die Einsatzbereitschaft der Untergebenen. Praise, but also reprimand, promote the motivation and readiness of subordinates. Difficult topics such as wounds, death, fear, guilt and failure dürfen dabei nicht verdrängt oder heruntergespielt werden, sondern müssen ehrlich und einfühlsam besprochen werden, must not be suppressed or played down, but must be discussed honestly and with empathy. In einem offenen Dialog entsteht durch Vertrauen geprägte Kameradschaft. Open dialogue creates comradeship shaped by trust.
Criticism After a Win
In autumn 2012, after a 2:0 win over Werder Bremen, Bayern Munich’s sporting director Matthias Sammer said the team had not played gallig enough, with enough bite, and had been lätschern, limp. Coach Jupp Heynckes disagreed with how he had done it, and told him so. Mit der Form, der Art und Weise war ich nicht einverstanden. Das habe ich ihm auch gesagt. I did not agree with the form and the manner. I told him that too. Er weiß, dass es wichtig ist, diese Dinge in geschlossenen Räumen anzusprechen. He knows it is important to raise these things behind closed doors. That season Bayern won the league, the cup and the Champions League.
The Matter, Not the Person
German law protects sharp criticism, but not Schmähkritik, abusive criticism. The Federal Constitutional Court defines the line, as German Wikipedia quotes it. A disparaging statement becomes abusive only wenn in ihr nicht mehr die Auseinandersetzung in der Sache, sondern die Diffamierung der Person im Vordergrund steht, when it is no longer about the matter, and the defamation of the person comes to the fore.
Praise as Packaging
The German career site Karrierebibel advises against the sandwich method, in which criticism is placed between two pieces of praise. It warns that the criticism can be missed under so much icing. Der Boss redet keinen Klartext! Was er oder sie sagt ist immer nur Verpackung. The boss does not speak plainly. What he or she says is always just packaging. The site warns that managers who use the method become auf lange Sicht unglaubwürdig, not credible in the long run.