Work-Life Archives - Page 8 of 11

Leave Is for Rest

Under the Federal Leave Act, leave must as a rule be granted in one block. If it is split, and the employee is entitled to more than twelve days, one part must cover at least twelve working days in a row. During leave, the employee may not do paid work that goes against the purpose of the leave. An employee who falls ill during leave does not lose those days. With a doctor’s certificate, they are not counted as leave.

Leave must also be taken. In 2018, the European Court of Justice decided the case of Tetsuji Shimizu, who had worked for the Max Planck Society and claimed pay for 51 days of leave he had not taken. On 19 February 2019, the Federal Labor Court decided the case on that basis. Statutory leave now lapses at the end of the year only if the employer has asked the employee to take it and has warned clearly and in time that it will otherwise be lost.

No Duty to Read the Message

An emergency paramedic in Schleswig-Holstein was off duty when his employer changed his roster for the next morning, with a start at 6 a.m. The employer phoned him and sent text messages. He did not respond. The employer recorded an unexcused absence, deducted hours and issued a reprimand. After a similar case months later, it issued a formal warning. On 27 September 2022, the regional labor court of Schleswig-Holstein ruled for the paramedic. A change of roster takes effect only when it reaches the employee. An employee in his free time is not obliged to read messages from work. Opening and reading them counts as working time.

Work by Day, Guests in the Evening

Goethe wrote the ballad Der Schatzgräber, The Treasure Digger, in May 1797. A poor man tries to raise a treasure by magic at night. Instead, a boy appears and gives him other advice, and the poem ends with it: Tages Arbeit, abends Gäste! / Saure Wochen, frohe Feste! / Sei dein künftig / Zauberwort! Work by day, guests in the evening! Hard weeks, happy feasts! Let that be your magic word from now on.

Anecdote on Lowering the Work Ethic

Heinrich Böll wrote Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral, Anecdote on Lowering the Work Ethic, for a radio broadcast on Labor Day, 1 May 1963. A tourist wakes a fisherman dozing in his boat. He cannot understand why the fisherman does not go out again and build up his business. The fisherman answers that he can already rest in the harbor. In the 1970s and 1980s, the story was compulsory reading at many West German schools.

Who Hears About Your Money

Über Geld spricht man nicht. “One does not talk about money.” In May 2026 the polling firm YouGov asked 2,094 people in Germany with whom they talk about nine money topics. The answers form rings. Between 42 and 56 percent talk with their partner, depending on the topic. With close family the share is 22 to 44 percent, with friends 11 to 35 percent, with the wider family 4 to 14 percent, and with colleagues 3 to 14 percent. On their own income, 53 percent talk with their partner and 17 percent with friends.

Colleagues are not entirely outside the circle. In a 2023 survey of 3,000 skilled workers for the job portal meinestadt.de, 53 percent said they did not talk openly about pay with colleagues, which means close to half did.

Please Contact My Deputy

Ich bin bis einschließlich Freitag nicht im Büro. In dringenden Fällen wenden Sie sich bitte an meine Vertretung, Frau Weber. I am out of the office until Friday inclusive. In urgent cases, please contact my deputy, Ms. Weber. A German out-of-office reply usually names the Vertretung, the person who is responsible for the area while one is away. Before the holidays, teams agree on a Vertretungsregelung, an arrangement for who covers for whom.

The Office Is Not the Home

In Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (Economy and Society), Max Weber described the features of modern bureaucracy. In principle, he wrote, the modern civil service separates the bureau from the private residence of the official. Bureaucracy sets official activity apart as something distinct from the sphere of private life. German summaries of Weber list this feature as Trennung von Amt und Person, the separation of office and person.

Here I Am Human

In the scene Vor dem Tor (Outside the Town Gate) in Goethe’s Faust, the people of the town walk out into the countryside on Easter Sunday. Faust watches them come aus Handwerks- und Gewerbesbanden, out of the bonds of craft and trade, and aus dem Druck von Giebeln und Dächern, out of the pressure of gables and roofs. Faust, the learned doctor, says: Hier ist des Volkes wahrer Himmel, / Zufrieden jauchzet groß und klein: / Hier bin ich Mensch, hier darf ich’s sein! Here is the people’s true heaven. High and low cheer, content. Here I am human, here I may be.

The Du From the Christmas Party

In December 2010 the Tagesspiegel answered a reader’s question. The boss had offered the du at the company Christmas party. How should the reader address him now? The newspaper advised caution. Ihr Chef hat diese Entscheidung vielleicht nur aus einer Feierlaune heraus getroffen. Your boss may have made this decision only in a party mood. At the next meeting, wait and see. Bleibt Ihr Chef beim Duzen oder siezt er Sie wieder? Does your boss stay with du, or does he go back to Sie? If you have to speak to him first, use Sie.

Volkswagen Switches Off the E-Mail

At the end of 2011 Volkswagen began to switch off e-mail on company phones after work. From 18:15 until 7:00 the next morning, the BlackBerrys of the employees covered receive no mail. The rule covered more than 1,100 employees. It did not apply to managers.