Working in Germany: Derek's Perspective

Derek has written a post that shares his life in the German workplace. Enjoy! 

Derek outside of his office in the Odenwald

While I was finishing my engineering degree last fall in Indianapolis, Courtney and I began talking about some of the opportunities that I should look into for after graduation. One thing we discussed is how cool it would be if I could get a job that would take us overseas for a year or two before returning to the States. I don’t think it was more than a couple weeks after that when I received an email from a recruiter who was looking for candidates that were willing to spend a year in Germany in a Product Design Engineering position before returning to the States. It couldn't have worked out more perfect. Four interviews and a month later, I was hired and we had to begin thinking about how we were going to pull this off.

The reason that Courtney and I were able to move to Germany was because my company, Freudenberg, is working to unify the knowledge and experience between the lead-center in Reichelsheim, Germany, and the competency center in Morristown, Indiana. I will learn what I can during the one year that I am here, and then bring that knowledge back to the United States to the plant in Morristown, along with the connections that I have made with the other product development engineers in Germany.

View from Derek's office window

Now I’ll jump forward to my first day. I first met with Dr.Thiel, the boss of the lead-center and he told me that the first important decision that I will have to make each day is what meal I would like to eat for lunch. I will get more into lunches, as well as meals in general later. We then proceeded to the office where he began by gathering everyone around, perhaps 30-40 people, and introducing me to the office, in German and English. Germans love shaking hands, not unlike Americans, and so the next half hour or so was spent walking around a shaking hands with people in my office. I discovered that unlike my office in Indiana that only has one window, which is on the door leading to the production area, my desk in Germany offers a view of a castle perched atop a small mountain on the other side of the small town. I don’t remember much more of the first day except eating at the Kantine, and then having my first experience with the after lunch routine. Every day after lunch, by custom, you must go outside and have the option of either walking a lap around the plant, or standing and talking with your co-workers. This lasts for typically between ten and fifteen minutes.

As far as the office environment goes, it is very relaxed. People are not stressed, they go to work, work, and then go home and enjoy their lives. At my work, overtime is not permitted for salary workers. In March, my boss even went so far as to send an email out to all of the salary employees, telling us that already this year there have been 17 instances of people working overtime, and that working more than ten hours in a day is not allowed; and if he discovers people working overtime again, there will be repercussions. This is something I don’t think I’ll have too much trouble getting used to. In America, it is typical to talk about work outside of work, such as with friends, family, etc., but in Germany this is almost never the case, and it fits well with their work hard, play harder attitude, where work and normal life seem to be very separate things. Germans also get at a minimum 24 days of vacation each year, and so companies that work with German companies are accustomed to having their contact go on vacation for sometimes three weeks at a time, during which work on the project pretty much stops.

Derek's Office Space

Lunches at the workplace are subsidized in Germany, and so for €3.25 I get to eat a warm meal for lunch every day. Now, if you are German, you will only eat one warm meal a day. This means that if you plan to cook dinner with your husband or wife that night, that you cannot eat anything above room temperature for lunch or breakfast, and Germans follow this rule to a T. I believe that part of their reasoning is that they believe eating warm meals (especially more than one in a day) is the way that you gain weight.  I did not know this at first, and so when my co-workers found out that I was eating two warm meals a day they were surprised, and joked about how I better make sure to workout hard or I would gain a lot of weight. Also, you must completely finish all of your food on your plate, unless the meal is unsatisfactory of course. I don’t know if this is because of a desire not to be wasteful, or just culture,  but it is different from the U.S. where it is perfectly normal for a person to not be able to finish all of the food they have on their plate. The one exception to this rule is the soup. If you think the soup is too salty, you must simply make a comment to your co-workers about it and then remove it from your tray.

Another interesting thing is the greetings and farewells here in Deutschland. Every morning begins with Morgen, Moin, Moin Moin, or something that sounds like Moisure. All are simple, and pretty much  just mean "good morning." Starting at 11:00 am (or 11:50 at my work since most people eat at noon) you will almost only hear people using Mahlzeit as the greeting, which literally means “meal time” and is used anytime you meet someone or pass someone during this time. This lasts until about 1:00 pm, but can stretch as far as 2:00 pm sometimes. When it is time to leave work for the day, there are some normal goodbyes like Schön Abend (have a nice evening), Bis Später (see you later), or simply Tschüss (goodbye, see-ya), but my favorite one is Schön Feierabend, which was translated to me as essentially "happy quitting time."

And on that note, I will leave you with Schön Feierabend and return with part Two of Working in Germany soon enough. Tschüss! - Derek