Netflix published its culture document in 2009 and it was downloaded millions of times. Its argument was that a company should give people the context to decide well rather than processes to follow. It included an unlimited vacation policy and an expense policy of five words: act in Netflix’s best interests.
words
Care before and care after
Vor, before. Nach, after. Sorge, care.
German has a clean word for each — care taken beforehand, and care taken afterwards — and uses both in ordinary speech. Medicine, law and business all distinguish them.
English has prevention and aftercare, but they do not sit as a pair. The German words do, and the pairing makes the choice visible every time either is used.
Beta
American software ships in beta and says so. Gmail carried the label for years while being used by millions. The product is released unfinished, on purpose, with the unfinishedness advertised.
Balance of interests
Interessenausgleich. Balance of interests. A term from German labour law, where an employer planning a major change must negotiate one with the works council before proceeding. The statute names the objective. Not an agreement, not a settlement — a balance.
Quiet quitting
An American phrase that went global in 2022, describing an employee who does their job and nothing beyond it. The phrase calls that quitting. Doing what you were hired to do is framed as a partial withdrawal.
Without culpable delay
The word unverzüglich runs through German commercial law, and it has a legal definition in § 121 BGB: without culpable hesitation. Not as soon as convenient. Not within a reasonable period. Without hesitation for which you could be blamed.
Agreed is agreed
Abgemacht ist abgemacht.
Ein Mann, ein Wort — a man, a word.
Darauf kannst du dich verlassen — you can rely on that.
Sein Wort halten — to keep one’s word, and sein Wort brechen, to break it, which is spoken of as damage done to the word itself.
The German expressions treat the agreement as a thing that exists after the conversation ends, independent of either party’s continued attention.
The process owner
German organisations appoint a Prozessverantwortlicher for each process, named in the quality system, responsible for its definition, review and improvement. The process has a person attached to it in the same way a product line does.
The SOP written afterwards
American standard operating procedures are frequently documented after the work has been done successfully several times, by the person who did it. The document records a practice rather than prescribing one, and everybody involved knows which came first.
Bigger, faster, more
Go big or go home. More bang for your buck. Supersize it. Bigger is better.
Four ordinary American phrases, all approving, all about quantity of output. There is no equivalent family of approving phrases about consuming less.