Betriebsferien. Many German companies close entirely for a fixed period, commonly in summer or between Christmas and New Year, with the works council agreeing the dates. Nobody is covering. Nobody is on call. The building is shut.
words
The matter-worker
The German title for a caseworker or clerk translates literally as matter-worker. The person who works the matter.
Not an officer, not an associate, not a representative. The job is named after the thing being handled.
The state of the matter
German legal reasoning separates the Sachverhalt — the state of the matter, what actually happened — from the rechtliche Würdigung, the legal assessment of it.
The facts are established first, as a distinct step, with their own section in the judgment. Only then does anyone argue about what they mean.
The structure of a German court decision is the structure of Sachlichkeit.
Keeping score
Money talks. Show me the money. Put your money where your mouth is. What’s the number? It’s not about the money — it’s about the money.
American expressions in which the figure stands for the assessment. Compensation is discussed openly and read as a verdict.
Process for process’s sake
Checking the box. Going through the motions. Paperwork exercise. Compliance theater. Four American expressions for procedure performed without purpose, and all four are dismissive. The vocabulary for hollow process is far richer than the vocabulary for good process.
Clarifying the facts
Sachverhaltsaufklärung. Clarification of the facts. German procedural law obliges a court to establish what actually happened before applying any rule to it, and the phase has its own name and its own stage in the judgment. The facts are settled first, as separate work.
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.
Celebration evening
Celebration-evening. The German word for the end of the working day, and there is no English equivalent because English has no word for the thing.
Ich mache Feierabend — I am making Feierabend — is a complete sentence and a complete explanation. The day’s work is over, and what follows is not called leisure or free time. It is called a celebration.
Good faith
Treu und Glauben. Section 242 of the German Civil Code requires performance according to good faith, with regard to common usage. One sentence, and it is among the most heavily used provisions in German law.
Courts apply it to strike down conduct that is formally within a contract but unacceptable in substance. The agreement being signed does not settle whether it is enforceable.