business – Page 3 – understand-culture

Salaries in Germany

Many people are moving to Germany because the working conditions and salary are often much better than in their home country. See how much money you can expect to earn and get some insights from a German.

YouTube comments:

“After working in Germany for several years in different cities and PhD in STEM, I can tell you that salaries are not that high as people imagine. After considering expensive rents and high tax, your disposable income isn’t much. The benefits come from social benefits, usually nice working hours, paid holidays, healthcare, great cheap alcohol and peaceful country. If you seek making a lot of money, Germany isn’t your country. In Europe you probably have look north for higher salaries and Switzerland, in Asia, some highly developed countries like Singapore. If you have a high level of education and work for a good company in the USA and even sometimes in Latin America, are better places to make great money. But hey money isn’t everything, you need to evaluate pros- and cons.”

“While average income in Germany was relatively high in 2019 with ~€3500 as mentioned in the video, the median was much lower with just €2500 (gross income). That means that 50% of the German population earn less than €2500 (~€1700 after taxes and insurances). It’s also worth mentioning that you’re considered upper class with a net income of around €5500 gross income, but you have to pay the property tax with just a monthly income of around €4500 gross income. If you plan to buy real estate in Germany: Forget it.”

“I work in a big car company in Germany as Engineer… and I can tell you the salaries are not high compared to the very high rent (or apartment prices), taxes and high prices of Energy and Benzin in Germany. I really wonder how people here are able to live who get lower salaries. And at some point you have to save to buy a house or an apartment (with something like half a million Euro) because after geting retired, your income gets 60% lower and then you will not even afford the rent of your apartment. I saw retired people who had to move to smaller worse apartments or ask for social housing or shelters. I think life here is not as rosy as people in the third world think. What is worse is: I think the government and politicians in Germany do not care much about this problem, or act as if there is no poor people in Germany at all. Politicians in Germany are rather busy with saving the Earth, recycling and cutting CO2 as their main mission… helping the poor or the middle class in Germany comes as second priority.”

“From the US here and about to start my first job out of college in Germany. I’m going there for the quality of life, I don’t care that I can make more here — if I die tomorrow the extra savings means nothing, but a strong welfare/healthcare system, fewer stupid people, better infrastructure, lower crime rates, better work culture, decent politicians, beautiful nature and architecture, etc. will have made me enjoy my life every day. I want that peace of mind and I can’t get that here. Everything is fundamentally messed up here and nothing will change in a meaningful way anytime soon.”

Dieselgate Scandal Negotiations

The Volkswagen emissions scandal required negotiations with U.S. regulators, affected customers, and international stakeholders. Volkswagen initially denied wrongdoing, focusing on legal defenses and technical justifications, reflecting a fact-based, document-oriented approach. Once the evidence became overwhelming, the strategy shifted to a structured, controlled negotiation process, involving extensive documentation, legal settlements, and financial compensation agreements.

Planning habits

Andrew D. Huberman (born 1975, in Palo Alto, California) is an American neuroscientist and tenured associate professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine who has made contributions to the brain development, brain plasticity, and neural regenerationand repair fields.

https://youtu.be/B8aXidTUnJc

Much of his work is focused on the visual system, including the mechanisms controlling light-mediated activation of the circadian and autonomic arousal centers in the brain, as well as brain control over conscious vision or sight.

Huberman has been credited with coining the term “Non-Sleep Deep Rest” (NSDR), referring to practices that place the brain and body into shallow sleep to accelerate neuroplasticity and help offset mental and physical fatigue.

Purposes of a plan (USA)

A plan is a systematic and organized approach to achieving specific goals or objectives. In the United States, plans are used in a variety of contexts, including business, government, and non-profit organizations. Some of the main purposes of a plan might include:

Setting goals: A plan can help identify the specific goals or objectives that an organization or individual wants to achieve. This can provide a clear direction and focus for efforts, and allow for better decision-making and resource allocation.
Organizing resources: A plan can help identify and organize the resources that will be needed to achieve the goals or objectives. This might include personnel, materials, equipment, and financial resources.
Coordinating activities: A plan can help coordinate the activities and efforts of different individuals or groups, ensuring that everyone is working towards the same goals in a coordinated and efficient manner.
Managing risks: A plan

Source: ChatGPT. Question: For Americans what is the purpose of a plan?

Short-Term Thinking Is Poisoning American Business

New York Times. December 2019. Free-market capitalism won’t survive unless it makes structural changes toward long-term investing.

We live in an economy increasingly at odds with this truth. Short-term business practices are polluting our environment and harming our health and well-being for the sake of quick payouts.

Short-Term Thinking

New York Times. 2015. From Wall Street to Washington and in the towers of academia, people are buzzing about what some say is the pernicious focus in corporate America on short-term profits.

To understand the debate, it helps to understand the various forces that contribute to the pressures on companies to focus on short-term financial results. Those pressures are not just a product of one bad actor. It turns out that nearly everyone in the investment world plays a role in creating the challenges companies face in setting their sights on the far horizon.

Be prepared when ‘what if?’ happens.

Natural disasters. Power outages. Mechanical failures. Events like these may be rare, but if they happen your business could be at risk, potentially costing you millions in lost sales and productivity. In today’s complex world a simple checklist won’t do when ‘what if?’ happens.

Only a thorough contingency plan ensures you have properly assessed your risk and have the right backup systems and strategies in place to activate on a moment’s notice. Trane can help. Our experts work closely with you using a strategic, multi-step approach to identify, prioritize and mitigate the risks you face. You get an action plan to safeguard your critical operations and peace of mind knowing that you’re prepared.

10 Traits of Highly Agile Companies

June 2021. Gallup. Among all the bad news recently is this positive discovery: German companies are perhaps becoming much more agile.

In fact, Gallup’s Agility Index shows an eight-percentage-point increase — from 9% in 2019 to 17% in 2020 — in German workers who strongly agree their company has the right mindset, tools and processes to respond quickly to business needs.

Done is Better Than Perfect

Done is Better Than Perfect: Perfectionism is no friend in addressing geopolitical challenges that impact the German economy.

German companies’ ability to perfect processes or products is unique in the global market and lends any export with a Made in Germany stamp a certain level of cachet. But this perfection comes at a cost in global economies that are increasingly oriented toward fast-paced industries and cutting-edge technology: it takes an enormous amount of time to achieve.

In a tech-focused world where the most successful new companies do the opposite of what has made German firms successful for so long—moving fast and breaking things, as Facebook would like us to believe—several geopolitical factors add to the headwind.

Did Short-Term Thinking Harm the Long-Term Success of U.S. Workers?

Aspen Institute. 2015. While the immediate value of reducing these costs is easily seen on the company balance sheet, the lost revenue of reduced worker performance goes uncounted. What’s worse, all of these practices create arms-length relationships between employers and workers, weakening trust and dampening enthusiasm for the work.

This in turn reduces the likelihood that businesses will invest in productivity-enhancing training of the workforce. Recent research bears this out, noting that an “easy hire, easy fire” policy leads to diminished worker productivity and innovation.