Das Vier-Augen-Gespräch. The four-eyes conversation. German conflict handling begins with separate one-to-one discussions rather than with a meeting of the parties. Several of them, in sequence, before anyone is brought together — which takes time by design.
business
Planned obsolescence
The phrase entered American public argument through Vance Packard’s The Waste Makers in 1960, and the underlying idea had been discussed in American industry decades earlier. The country produced both the practice and the word for criticising it.
The change request
Der Änderungsantrag. A change to a German project plan goes through a formal request: what is to change, why, what it costs, what it moves, who approves. The plan can be changed. It cannot be drifted away from.
Everything’s negotiable
Said flatly in American business, and meant broadly — price, terms, timing, scope, the contract itself. It is not advice about how to behave. It is offered as a description of how things are.
The skilled worker
Skilled worker — a formal status, not a description. It follows completion of the dual training and the chamber examination, and it appears on pay scales and job adverts as a qualification. German has a word that distinguishes a worker who has been certified in a trade from one who has not, and the distinction has consequences.
The SLA
The American service level agreement states uptime, response time and resolution time as numbers, with credits payable when they are missed. Reliability is written as a contractual quantity with a penalty attached.
The severance package
American severance is generally not required by law. It is offered in exchange for a signed release of claims, and the amount is a negotiation. What a German receives by statute, an American receives by agreement.
Time to think it over
Bedenkzeit. Time to think it over. A German negotiating and mediating convention: a party may ask for it, and asking is not read as weakness or delay. The request is granted as a matter of course, and often proposed by the mediator.
The retention department
American cable, telephone and internet providers maintain departments whose function is to offer a better price to a customer threatening to leave. The published rate and the rate available to somebody who asks are different rates, and the difference is staffed.
24/7 support
American companies advertise round-the-clock availability as a product feature, with the hours stated on the packaging and in the comparison table. Responsiveness is specified in the same place as the technical figures.