March 2020. Currently, the country has one of the lowest unemployment rates in Europe, hovering around 3-4%. Having one of the most diversified economies in the world, Germany offers jobs in almost any sector.
Salaries in Germany are also quite high for global standards. The average net salary in Frankfurt is 2700 EUR per month. In Berlin, the average net wage is 2500 EUR per month.
Some economic sectors in Germany have a greater demand for foreign workers than others. Notably, health care and tech are among the sectors with the highest demand for foreigners.
Tech jobs are known to have some of the most lavish benefits and perks, not to mention some of the highest salaries in the country. Still, that is not enough to keep some millennials from quitting. CNBC Make It spoke to several people who left their lucrative tech jobs to find out why they did it and what they are doing now.
YouTube comments:
“I am 50 years old working in the high tech industry, mentally tired and sick of the weekly 8 to 5 routine. Never got a proper day off even through the pandemic. Hats off to the millenials and GenZ that think differently and put more weight on LIVING rather than just WORKING.”
“As someone who used to work 80 hours a week, quitting my job to become a freelancer was the best thing I have ever done. Sure I still work a lot of hours and often close to 70-80 hrs a week, I feel like I am doing this for myself and not some corporation.”
“I worked a low paying tech job for six years and still felt the burn out. The problem is that tech is very fast paced and competition focused. You can barely keep up. Though I got promoted regularly, my higher ups told me the truth before they left, they said that I was severely underpaid based on my skills (essentially I branded myself a one stop shop for the marketing department as I am both technically knowledgeable, people oriented and strategic). I maxed out at $50K. So I decided to jump ship with little planned. Now I run a financial agency with my husband and we make $250K a year as entrepreneurs and we have the freedom to set our own lifestyle.”
“We don’t want perks. We want more money and we want autonomy. It’s simple.”
Work hard, make money, send your kids to college, retire to Florida. it sounds nice in theory, but the reality of work in America is dramatically different from the American Dream we’ve all been taught to believe in.
YouTube comments:
“You aren’t paid by how hard you work, you’re paid by how hard you are to replace.”
“I used to work for a company in Montreal (Québec) that had an important partnership with NY and, you guys, you are INTENSE. This American girl spent three weeks at our office, and she proudly said she would stay in the office until 2 a.m. just to get the project/ do a certain transfer on time instead of waiting the next morning like a regular person (or just tell the client that we were humans beings getting good night sleep at 2 a.m., and postpone the thing.). For her it was perfectly normal, and she looked at us as if we were lazy for going out for beers after work and getting a life. All my American contacts were like that, to different levels, but from our perspective they were always “difficult” to work with because they did not have limits or boundaries with work…I was regularly receiving emails at insane hours from people working in the same time zone as I was, and one girl was impressed that we were NOT doing 12-hour days. In a way it was sad.”
“I’m American now living in the UK. I had the American work mentality when I moved here and everyone thought I was crazy. I felt so guilty taking any of my 25 paid vacations days a year. I would log into my work email whilst on vacation and got told off for it. I got pregnant and only took 6 months of my 9 months paid maternity leave. I eventually calmed down my workaholic tendencies and honestly I feel more balanced. I enjoy my time with my son and husband. We can plan vacations abroad 2-3 times a year and I’m able to shut off as soon as I leave work. Don’t even get me started on healthcare.”
“Being a truck driver…I get paid to go on road trips and listen to Rogan, other podcasts, and music all day.”
“Not in the warehouse world. No no no. If you tell your boss you got 3 hours of work done in 1 hour they will then dump everything on you. They will continue adding to your plate. You’ll get the opposite of fired. Youll get so burnt out and stressed that you quit.”
“Some people die at 25 and aren’t buried until 75.”
“The absolute worst thing in the world is knowing you can finish all of your tasks in one hour but you have to stretch it out over 8. Pure torture.”
David Rolfe Graeber (1961 – 2020) was an American anthropologist and anarchist activist. His influential work in economic anthropology, particularly his books Debt: The First 5,000 Years(2011) and Bullshit Jobs (2018), and his leading role in the Occupy movement, earned him recognition as one of the foremost anthropologists and left-wing thinkers of his time.
For a business to be successful, it’s important for employees to share ideas and work well together. Organizational silos can affect how employees interact with one another. As a manager, understanding the pros and cons of organizational silos can enable you to communicate effectively with every member of your team. In this article, we discuss the definition of organizational silos and how you can dismantle them.
Wikipedia – In (German) operational information management, the term Bringschuld (obligation to bring) was adopted from the law and means that a person is obliged within the scope of their information behavior to pass on the relevant information that has become known to them in a timely and comprehensive manner and in a suitable form horizontally (same level employees) and/or vertically (supervisors), so that they can make the right decisions.
These debts exist at all hierarchical levels. In this context, there is also talk of reporting levels, where a responsible person has a reporting obligation to a higher-level responsible person. Conversely, supervisors are also obliged to pass on information that has become known to them to employees, provided it is not secret.
Often German managers would rather complete a certain task themselves instead of passing it on to a team member. Many do repairs in their house, fix their cars, and some sit in their office at home until late into the night.
For those with limited financial resources, doing things yourself might be a question of economics. For others, there is a German reason: they often have a clear picture in their mind of how the final product should look. That they don‘t hand it off to a team member is not a sign of mistrust or lack of confidence.
Instead, Germans are skeptical that the other person will fully understand what is expected. By the time they have explained the task and how the final outcome should look, they most likely will have completed half of the work.
For the team member will create her own picture of the final product. Two pictures of what the work should look like. A dilemma for every customer-supplier relationship.
The German Institute for Norms (Deutsches Institut für Normung – DIN) sets voluntary standards for material and immaterial things.
DIN norms are suggested typically by German industry. They are set only when all parties to the discussion are in agreement. DIN norms are to Germany what ISO and EN norms are to international and European industry respectively.
The first DIN norm was set in March of 1918. By 1927 the Germans had settled on more than 3,000 norms. In 1948 the number reached 8,200. As of 2012 there are over 33,000 DIN norms, most of which are in the areas of mechanical engineering, construction, air and space, information technology, environmental protection, optics and professional services.
Each year produces roughly 2,000 new DIN norms. Each and every norm is reviewed every five years as to whether it is necessary and or meets current standards. The DIN system has begun the process of integrating itself with European and international standardization systems.