About nine years ago, my wife and I wanted to move to Germany to experience life on another continent. To do so, I took a corporate job that would sponsor my visa.
Ultimately, my desire to live in Europe outweighed my distaste for corporate life, which I’d had some experience with in the United States.
However, I quickly learned that many aspects of work-life balance and corporate culture in Germany are nothing like what I experienced or saw firsthand in America.
Though there are exceptions and much of this is based on my own experience, I find many of my observations still ring true years later.
In Germany, corporate jobs seem to come with more security
Though I’m hardly a cheerleader for corporate life, I can confidently say that committing to a more traditional job structure feels far more secure here than it does in the US.
Typically, when hired in Germany, you start off with a trial or probationary period called “Probezeit.” This usually lasts six months, but can be negotiated down.
Basically, it means either party — the employer or employee — can part ways within the trial period.
This can be an admittedly stressful period where, much like in the US, you want to go above and beyond to avoid getting cut. But once you get past the trial period, you can kind of breathe a sigh of relief.
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After probezeit, it’s quite difficult to fire an employee as opposed to the US, where the system can forever keep you on your toes. Most businesses in the US operate under at-will employment, meaning employers can generally fire anyone for any reason, without warning.
On the other hand, Germany largely favors employees over employers, and there are several legal protections in place for them.
Typically, a company here needs to provide a termination notice and prove with documentation that they had a legitimate reason to fire someone. Or, prove that it was financially unable to maintain a certain position.
There are exceptions (at smaller companies and for serious problems), but the structure in place generally encourages companies to work out any issues with employees rather than dismissing them on a whim.
There’s a federal minimum on vacation days that employees are expected to use
Joe Baur
The greatest perk of working in Germany is the federally mandated vacation time, which the US doesn’t have.
Germany’s federal minimum is 20 vacation days for a standard five-day workweek, though many companies offer more. I’ve even seen some German companies offer bonus mental-health days.
For the most part, workers are encouraged to use them, too. Employers here are also supposed to notify employees of unused vacation days and encourage them to take them, though they can be rolled over until March 31 of the following year.
Many Germans take their time off seriously, too
In the fast-paced corporate culture of the US, many workers can feel chained to their job 24/7 — answering emails after hours or hopping on calls from vacation
However, I’ve found many Germans hold true to the adage of working to live, not living to work.
At the end of typical work hours, I’ve watched many colleagues close their inboxes and actually not check their messages again until the next morning.
When someone here goes on vacation, I don’t expect them to email me back, either.
At best, I may get a hilariously aggressive out of office message that reads something to the effect of: “I am out of office, your message will not be forwarded, and I will not read your message. You can write to me again once I’ve returned.”
All in all, I’d say the work-life balance here has felt pretty nice
Joe Baur
I think employees in Germany tend to feel more relaxed about separating their work from their lives and using their generous vacation packages, perhaps because of the stronger worker protections.
This also isn’t to say Germans aren’t hard workers — rather, many have just struck a good balance between doing their jobs and living their lives.
Since moving here, I feel it, too. Living in Germany, I feel more motivated to create a healthy work-life balance and less obligated to chain myself to work 24/7.
I get why, at the end of the day, many of my colleagues close their inboxes and mean it when they say, “Schönen feierabend,” or “Have a nice evening.”
