American Gets First Job in Germany and Learns SO MUCH about German Work Culture!  

Ich auch !

Einmal mit Profis arbeiten!

"Feierabend" , "Feiertag" and "Urlaub" !

Pause.

@@Ashley-lm4nv "Verlängertes Wochenende"

Brückentag

Mahlzeit

If even it's : *Auf* Wiederhören / - Widersehen if you mention formal speak, you should do it formally correct 😉

Like our old Bundeskanuler Kohl said: "Can I say you to you?"

"Auf Wiederhören" always feels awkward to me if it's the end to a conversation with someone with whom one wouldn't have talked to if not for some problem, e.g. a support hotline. No, i'd rather not want to have to call again ;-)

@@jenswurm yes! So if you are on the line with a customer you will work with long time and have a work relationship it’s the best you can say.

@@jenswurm I have to agree and thinking about it I'm with 95% Tschüss, or ein schönen Tag, Abend or tatatata Wochenende ;) and I'll get this back as well to 95% of the time.

Du Hellseher!

"Ich habe keine Zeit." "Das geht dich nicht an." "Sie dürfen nicht hier parken." "Wieviele Airbus Wochen sind das?!"

Ha ha ha ha ha

isso...

And thats how it f'ing should be everywhere. And that's why it f*ing gets destroyed everywhere it is that way.

In the U.S. the GOP has actually convinced their idiot voters that if universal health care is enacted that the whole country will turn into a communist-run hell-scape. This doesn't make any sense until you understand that the U.S. is the country that brought you the Tide Pod Challenge.

@@tempest411 😆😅🤣. You made me laugh!

"5 Minuten vor der Zeit, ist des Schutzmann's Pünktlichkeit." As my father liked to say, who is a police officer.

sharp on time is 5 min to late. :-)

@@DanielRMueller Mein Großvater sagte immer "Pünktlichkeit ist die Höflichkeit der Könige" :-). Er war zwar kein König, aber legte trotzdem viel Wert auf Pünktlichkeit.

@@multa7053 It's fine. You'll grow up too and learn how to respect others.

@@multa7053 Oh shit, so you're Benjamin Button?

In most jobs you definitely won´t get a 100% bonus. That depends on your contract, it is not a law.

Let me guess: you're from the Rhineland? Because "in diesem Sinne" is one of the only phrases people from e.g. Cologne or the Eifel use to *REALLY* end a conversation... (siehe Beikircher...) ;-)

@@IgorRockt No i am from Franconia :)

Try the „ simple germany“ chanal

Hamburg is a beautiful city! I'm often in Hamburg to visit a friend and work there.

Vielen Dank 😊

@@HiFromHamburg When you shoot a new video anyway, you may as well shoot a German and an English version of it. There are many many people -- more than you think -- who would like to hear you speak German. And do not be afraid of mistakes! For it is exactly the mistakes, which would give it a very special charm...

AZERTY - just has got to be the worst!

On a vacation in Tunisia (french keyboard) I had to login to an account and I didn’t knew exactly the characters but the typing pattern. So I asked my girlfriend which character was located at which key and hd to find it at the french keyboard. 😁

Do you mean this MS Windows Feature, where you have to hold down the Alt key and type a four digit code. It’s impressive, that you learned that! But is it ASCII, or rather Unicode, or something different? Because ASCII only contains the most basic characters. (ASCII is contained in Unicodes UTF-8 and many other Encodings.) Grüße aus Deutschland!

@@oleh6738 Nur die wichtigsten ASCII Zeichen für Umlaute in Groß- und Kleinschreibung alle Satzzeichen und diverse Sonderzeichen wie Backslash usw.

Einfach die passende Bildschirmtastatur installieren.Das machts einfacher.

The so called "benefits" in the US are laughable for every EU citizen or Swiss citizen. We do have those garanteed things since the late 1890s because of the workers movement and the try from the conservatives to stop the social democrats and the socialist from succseeding with their movements. So they made confessions to make them redundant. The US Millionairs convinced the people that socialism is bad. That mantra was implemented by their politicians. But not everything that's social and good for all is comunism! The US is the most developt third world country in the world and because they only have two neigbors they have no comparing like we Europeans do have. if there is intrest in that topic: www.infosperber.ch/gesellschaft/uebriges-gesellschaft/usa-zeigen-ueberraschende-merkmale-eines-drittweltlandes/

I haven't been to Germany in 25 years, and even then, I was only in Stuttgart for two weeks, but for some reason, I think I'd like the north more. Hamburg appeals to me, as does (believe it or not) Hanover, for some reason.

@@frigginjerk I can highly recommend smaller towns(not cities) in northern germany. ... the ones with a population of... lets say less than 25k. ... Nice, beautiful, friendly and still big enough to have a little bit of everything in regards of shops, supermarkets etc.

it was specifically a SIN to work on a holy day

Vielen Dank 🥰

this got me confused so much back in the days when my English wasnt the yellow from the egg. "false friend" detected :)

@@nfp911 especially in a work place that can be a fatal misunderstanding.

@@st0ox indeed

@@nfp911 "whatever the client plans for us to do in the future, eventually we have to finish the project next week" Next week: "So do you know now if we need to finish the project this week?"

@@st0ox i know :) with back in the days i meant 20 yrs. ago :P

my company made this configurable individually (yep, if you wanted you can change it to e.g. Japanese) me and my colleges sometimes used it to prank a co-worker when they forgot to lock their PC and went out of the room

The biggest problem, however, is the labeling of the keys on the keyboard. In this case I would use the Windows Bildschirmtastatur (onscreen keyboard) with an English keyboard layout to see which key is which symbol/letter. Another useful tip if you are a German and have to use a non-German keyboard layout: Windows Zeichentabelle (charmap) where you can search for the letter or symbol and copy it.

In America, when that happens, we usually get the following Monday off. Our Independence Day is on a Sunday this year, so everyone I know who works in any non-public, office-type job will be off work on Monday, 5 July instead. ...Then again, we only have 7 holidays that are expected as days off in general (individual companies can give more if they want, but 7 seems to be the minimum, and a lot of companies don't give any more than that).

Also, in a business context a very common use of "im Voraus" is, that someone wants some information "im Voraus", e.g. before the meeting starts. "Kannst du mir die Präsentation im Voraus schicken" - "Can you send me the presentation beforehand"?

Unfortunately the part about the garanteed 25days of vacation is not right. By law the minimum vacation time an employee is entiteled to is 24 days. And that's only if your'e working 6 days a week. For usual employments with 5 work days and 2 days weekend the minimum is only 20 days. Nevertheless it's very uncommen in Germany to get less then the mentioned 25 days.

Unwahr. Die Unfallversicherung zählt auch zu den Sozialversicherungen und wird ausschließlich vom AG bezahlt.

That's because of the old (Otto von) Bismark! He was the right hand of the Kaiser. He wanted to take the wind out of the socialists and introduced “social insurance.” For this he cut the right of parliament. The Kaiser and Bismark are history. Lost the is war. The insurance, legal holidays and employee rights have remained. Unfortunately, the church tax also survived.

@@jensschroder8214 Without taxes, there will be no more country which provides you the benefits you mentioned.

@@cleancoder3838 When Jens said "Unfortunately" he was only referring to the church tax, I think. And in the past that made sense, because in the past the church did many good things (Kindergärten, Krankenhäuser, Friedhöfe, Waisenhäuser, ...). And it is one of the few taxes that you can quit paying, whenever you want.

Yes, it may be translated as "just for once" or "just for this time" ( 'mal=einmal). Grammatically it is a fillword that is not advisible in written, formal conversation, but in eye-to-eye conversation it sereves the purpose you mentioned.

My company tells me I am the "least best" employee

I'm a German and I do fully agree. Not being on time shows that the time of other people has no worth for you, it is utterly disrespectful to imply that your time is more valuable than your friends' or colleagues' time.

And I forgot - if the company is big enough, you have a "Betriebsrat" - kind of worker's board, which has to be involved in some of the decisions! Unions in Germany do not have the same bad rep as in the US - but then they also tend to be "less on the war path" … We have a pretty much "live and let live"-culture.

One thing to remember when it comes to being there on time: This includes the boss, too. There is a German proverb (which is actually derived from a quote of a French king... ;-) ), which states: "Pünktlichkeit ist die Höflichkeit der Könige" which translates to "Punctuality is the courtesy of kings". And there is another - very important - thing about working in Germany (when you are working in retail or any other job where you come into direct contact with customers"), and which differs quite a bit from the US, which is the relationship between customers and sellers/workers. In the US, you have the "golden rule" that "the customer is always right" (which means that you as a salesperson should never do anything which might anger the customer or contradict them, but have to try your best to do whatever they desire). We don't have that in Germany, simply because the customer is NOT always right (quite often, they are bloody stupid and have no clue what they are talking about, and your job is to help them to make the right decision what to buy, so that they are actually happy AFTERWARDS and come back to do more business with you later on - instead of being angry that you gave them exactly what they WANTED or thought that they wanted, but which is not what they actually NEEDED or even COULD USE AT ALL, in which case you won't see that customer again in your shop). The corresponding golden rule in business in Germany is "The customer is King" (which means that you need to talk and treat them like you would treat and talk to royalty, which means with respect and correcting them if needed in a nice - maybe even indirect - way without insulting them, but even contradicting them is fine as long as it's done respectfully) - but that phrase actually has a second part which states "...as long as they behave like a King", which means that the customer has to have good manners, too - and that if the customer loses their composure, is abusive or even insulting in their behaviour (or what they say), that rule is not valid anymore. So don't be surprised that if you are a customer in a German shop (or at a Germany company) and start to get loud or trying to insist on your "customer privilege", the clerk might simply ask you to leave, because you are not welcome in the shop/at the company anymore. The fun thing is: When you then insist on talking to the supervisor (or the boss or even the owner of the business), you'll normally hear the same thing again from them, too: That they have no interest in doing any business with you anymore, and that you have to leave (this time immediately, after all you are talking with somebody with real power this time!) the premises, and if you refuse, the supervisor/boss/owner will actually threaten to call the police on you for trespassing (and yes, I've seen that happen myself a few times over the years, in one case with them actually calling the police - it's not an empty threat in Germany, even when you think you didn't do anything wrong - hint: you did ;-) ). Courtesy goes in both ways in Germany, and normally employees can count on their boss having their back if the customer gets rude, unreasonable, or even threatening.

It's not a hectic work life. Your colleagues are often very helpful, even with the language. At 4 p.m. is usually closing time. There is little overtime. Saturday and Sunday are free time. Maybe you don't need a car to get to work. You can use bus, streetcar or regional train (monthly pass is cheaper).

also to mention 6th jan Heilige Drei Könige, but holiday only in 3 german states All Saints (1st nov.) OR Reformation (31st oct). Hamburg celebrates Reformation, but she is out of luck: in 2021 last day of october is a sunday anyway. :( Bavaria is top with 14 holidays, but one is in Augsburg only and another is Maria Himmelfahrt/Assumption of Mary (15th aug) in catholic locations only.

And don't forget to reply correctly to "tschö mit ö" by saying "ciao mit vau" ;-)

@@tychobra1 Are you serious about the answer?

@@user-bi4oq1gr3c it's fun. Not serious. 😃😉

@@tychobra1 also, nur "tschö" ist die richtige Aussage. Danke

@@user-bi4oq1gr3c na wie du meinst 😉 ciao mit vau

Hey thanks for the nice words :) I had the same problem which is why I decided to find the job after arriving in Hamburg and it’s also why I went for the freelance visa since I knew searching for a job was gonna take some time but I think employers like knowing you’re here and settled and ready to work but I know it’s possible to find a job being in the US I just wasn’t patient so I took the plunge 🙈 tough 6 months but that’s just how I did it 😅

@@HiFromHamburg thank you for your response, so glad everything worked out! hoping i am able to come into a similar situation in a few months 😊

Eisi Kater: Agreed, BUT: Once I read a document from a company where everybody understands English, but writing in English was a different matter. I first had to translate the document literally back into German to understand it. The words were English, grammar and idioms were still were German though. With some of my colleagues I actually communicate bilingual, everybody uses his mother tongue to write. my French is rather bad (A2 only) but I can understand most written stuff (in my area of expertise), my colleagues usually speak German (B1?) and understand just about everything I write. In my opinion the optimum therefore is bilingual or even multilingual (since everybody understands English as well in my job).

The better you learn to type on one style of keyboard, the harder it is to use a different keyboard.

@@JimFortune Once you are proficient enough to type blindly, though, it doesn't matter anymore what's printed on the keys. At that point, you can just change the keyboard setting of your computer to the layout you are used to.