In a German company with more than twenty employees entitled to vote, the employer needs the works council’s consent before it hires or transfers someone. This is Section 99 of the Works Constitution Act. The works council may refuse. It must do so in writing, within one week, and it must give reasons. The law lists the grounds it may use. If the works council does not refuse within the week, its consent counts as given. A refusal stops the hiring for the time being. The employer can then ask the labor court to replace the missing consent. In this setting, a German no is not the end of the matter. It comes with reasons that a court can examine.
business
The Guarantee Must Be Signed
A German who promises to pay another person’s debt must give that promise in writing. Section 766 of the Civil Code says: Zur Gültigkeit des Bürgschaftsvertrags ist schriftliche Erteilung der Bürgschaftserklärung erforderlich. For the guarantee to be valid, the guarantor must give his declaration in writing. An e-mail is not enough. The same section excludes the electronic form. In a judgment of 17 February 2000, the Federal Court of Justice described the purpose. The form requirement soll den Bürgen warnen und vor nicht ausreichend überlegten Erklärungen sichern. It is meant to warn the guarantor and to protect him from a declaration he has not thought through. Merchants are the exception. Under Section 350 of the Commercial Code, a guarantee that is part of their business is valid without the written form.
Dictate Instead of Compromise
On 26 June 2023 Germany’s minimum wage commission decided to raise the minimum wage twice by 41 cents, to 12.41 euros in 2024 and 12.82 euros in 2025. For the first time, the commission did not decide by consensus. The union side voted against. The chair, Christiane Schönefeld, used her vote, and her mediation proposal passed.
Steffen Kampeter of the employers’ federation BDA regretted that for the first time a decision had not been made im Konsens. The union federation DGB headed its article Mindestlohn: Diktat statt Kompromiss. Minimum wage: dictate instead of compromise. In June 2025 the commission decided unanimously again.
Forcing a Quick Solution
In April 2026 the German business magazine Business Punk listed eight leadership mistakes that make team conflicts worse. One is Den Richter spielen, playing the judge. Sich auf eine Seite zu schlagen, ohne alle Hintergründe zu kennen, verschärft den Konflikt meist. Taking a side without knowing all the background usually makes the conflict worse.
Another is Schnelle Lösungen forcieren, forcing quick solutions. Doch das funktioniert selten. But that rarely works. Aktives Zuhören braucht Zeit – spart aber langfristig Nerven. Active listening takes time, but it saves stress in the long run.
The Average Is the Rule
In the metal and electrical industry of Baden-Württemberg, the collective agreement adds performance pay to base pay. Across a plant, the performance pay is to come to 15 percent of total base pay.
In 2014 the Federal Labor Court ruled on who must prove what. An employer who rates an employee below the 15 percent must prove that the rating is justified. An employee who wants a rating above it must prove that he earned it.
Even Required
In 2010 the Higher Labor Court of Munich ruled on two warnings. The employer had told some employees of the internal audit department about them. The court found nothing wrong with that. A law firm’s summary of the ruling puts it this way: such information was regelmäßig zu erwarten, zum Teil sogar geboten, to be expected as a rule and in part even required, because the employees shared their work in divided processes.
The court drew the line at the pillory. The employee had not been put an den Pranger. Only a particularly grave pillorying that harmed his honor would have required a public retraction.
The Aldi Equator
In 1961 the brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht ran about 300 discount stores together. That year they decided to go separate ways. The best-known reason is a dispute over cigarettes. Theo wanted to sell tobacco for its higher margins, and Karl refused. Many experts doubt that this alone caused the split. Since then Germany has had Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd. The line between their territories is called the Aldi-Äquator, the Aldi equator. It runs from the lower Rhine near Mülheim across large parts of Hesse to north of Fulda and Bavaria. The two firms are separate companies, and they still work together in some central areas.
4.6 Million Kilometers
In 1981 the Greek taxi driver Gregorios Sachinidis bought a Mercedes 200 D that already had 210,000 kilometers on it. He drove it as a taxi until it reached 4.6 million kilometers. According to Mercedes-Benz, it is the highest known mileage of any Mercedes. Over the years it received two replacement engines, and the engine was overhauled eleven times.
In 2004 the car went to the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. Mercedes gave Sachinidis a new C 200 CDI in return.
The Bakery That Dropped Two Checklists
A German craft bakery chain has 145 stores and more than 1,350 employees. Many of its workers said they disliked being monitored through checklists. The firm then removed two of these checklists in half of its stores, chosen at random. Economists from Cologne and other universities studied the results. Sales in the stores without the checklists rose by 2.7 percent on average. Turnover among trained staff fell by 35 percent. In team surveys, employees named spürbare Wertschätzung, appreciation they could feel, as the reason. The co-author Matthias Heinz summed it up. Wer Mitarbeitende zu stark kontrolliert, schadet dem Unternehmen. Whoever controls employees too much harms the company. The effect was not the same for everyone. Unskilled workers left more often after the checklists were gone.
Never in the Team Meeting
In 2016 the Deutsche Handwerks Zeitung gave supervisors five tips on feedback. Vor allem wenn es um Kritik geht, sollten die Besprechungen immer unter vier Augen stattfinden. Above all when criticism is involved, the talks should always take place under four eyes.
In 2024 the IT magazine Computerwoche quoted the coach Katja Ischebeck: Üben Sie negative Kritik immer unter vier Augen. Always give negative criticism under four eyes. A manager should point out a team member’s shortcomings auf keinem Fall im Team-Meeting, in no case in the team meeting.