AGB-Kontrolle. German courts review standard terms and conditions for fairness and strike out clauses that unreasonably disadvantage the other side — and they do it between businesses, not only against consumers. A German company cannot rely on having got a hard clause into its own paperwork. A court will read it and may simply remove it.
business
The business judgment rule
Under American corporate law, a court will not second-guess a board’s decision if it was made in good faith, on an informed basis, and in the honest belief that it served the company. Directors are protected even when the decision turns out badly. The judgment itself is what the law examines, not the outcome.
Employment at will
The American default: either party may end the relationship at any time for any lawful reason, without notice. Forty-nine states apply it. There is no statutory dismissal protection accruing with service, and no requirement to justify the decision.
Work owed and effort owed
German contract law distinguishes the Werkvertrag, which owes a result, from the Dienstvertrag, which owes an effort properly performed. The distinction determines liability, and it turns on whether what was promised was an outcome or a way of working.
People buy from people
People buy from people they like. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Nobody buys a product, they buy a feeling. Three sayings in circulation across American sales training, and all three make the same claim: the transaction runs through the person.
Examining the working
German examination assesses the process as much as the answer. Apprentices are examined on practical execution before a chamber committee. Engineering students show the derivation. A right answer reached the wrong way is marked accordingly.
A/B testing
Show half your users one version, half the other, and let the numbers decide. No argument, no theory, no meeting. The disagreement is resolved by running both and reading the result.
The thank-you note
After an American interview, a pitch or a meeting, a note follows. Its content is conventional and everybody knows it. Sending it is read as care. Not sending it is noticed.
The workaround
An American word for the informal route people use when the official one does not work, and it is largely neutral in tone. It is discussed openly, sometimes documented, occasionally adopted as the new official route.
Glassdoor and Levels.fyi
American employees publish their own compensation to public databases, by company, level and location. The market price of a role is crowdsourced and freely available to anyone considering a move.