The issue was recently raised by Chancellor Mertz himself. Speaking the other day to the Christian Democratic Party’s annual Economic Council with an official invited Kyriakos Mitsotakis, he said that “with a four-day work week and a work-Life Balance we will not be able to maintain our prosperity”. But what happened? Was the path of work virtue removed from the path of the labor virtue, those who made the finger raised to the “lazy” of the European South? Or are they made of word -made cultural stereotypes that have a little relationship with reality?
The issue with the national virtue of the German workers is complex. It was fueled by the toolbox of Prussian virtues and Protestant work ethics, abused in the Third Reich as a means of propaganda of an undefeated people, revived after World War II to lead to the German economic miracle to “overwhelm” it in recent years. Not that there are no hard workers in this country with 2 and 3 jobs, retired workers, single parent families in Kourbetti, all those who are paddling and moving the economy through successive crises. But do they all just become less and less, not only because of the aging of the population but also of the irrational demands by employers?
Numbers and the reality
The numbers have their own language. In the OECD statistics, Germany is in the last place in terms of working time. The average German worker works only 1341 hours a year, when the average EU is 1571 hours. The Americans, for example, work 1811 hours, the Mexicans up to 2,226 hours. Of course, the essence behind all these numbers lies in the fine letters of statistics and in the notice that due to different sources and calculation methods they are not suitable for comparisons. So was the German work ethics saved? Not exactly.
Last year, the Germans received sick leave 19 days on average, went on a 28 -day vacation, got a 9 -day unpaid license and have stopped overtime. Work conditions that not even dream of Americans and Asians dare. The fact that since 1991 the average work has been reduced by 14% is a seemingly bad sign. But at the same time productivity increased by 25%, the retirement age of 67 is at the EU ceiling and the 20-24-year-olds’ workforce is in record levels. “The overall picture that no one wants to work anymore is not the case, the trend goes in the opposite direction,” says Enso Veber, head of the research department “Forecasts and Macroeconomic Analysis” at the Employment Research Institute.
Ah these stereotypes …
But there are differences from older ones. The Germans’ identification with their work is not the same as the old one. An overwhelming majority of full -time would like to work for less hours, with the same pay – unthinkable of course – because they feel exhausted, but it doesn’t because someone has to make money. Mertz called on the Germans to review their relationship with the job “because it can be fun”. Weber says something else. That productivity is not in line with working hours. And whoever asks the employee to go to work in the crazy joy must give him motivation, better quality of work. Working hours will not make Germany richer or poorer.
What is the tuner? That the image of the workers’ German or the lazy Greek is a myth, as in mythology, the rigid work models belong. Every German is not a priori lazy, but it has demands. And has every right to have. All the rest belong to the sphere of stereotypes that torment the understanding of peoples and poison their relationships. And that’s where it takes a lot of work.
