Sebastian Matthes is Editor-in-Chief of the Handelsblatt.
Year after year, a bizarre spectacle takes place in German companies. Millions of employees are asked by their HR departments to answer questions about safety at work in digital portals. It’s called “instruction on occupational safety”. And who can say anything against safety at work!
For example, last year I had to solve the following task: “A component with the F90 marking can withstand fire for 90 minutes. What does a T instead of the letter F indicate?” Since I found out that the T is about doors, the Handelsblatt editorial office has become a safer place.
You have to know that these training courses can differ depending on the industry and company. Anyone who thinks they can simply ignore the friendly invitation to the virtual safety course in their email inbox is wrong: if too few colleagues take part, the entire company may have to complete face-to-face training followed by a test.
If you resist, you will be fined
If there is still resistance, there is a risk of a fine. Incidentally, the nice people in the HR departments can’t do anything about it, all of this is required by law – and is controlled by professional associations.
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For a long time I thought that it was particularly important for scaffolders and roofers to think about safety at work, because the number of fatal accidents in construction has even increased slightly in recent years.
But the dangers for office workers are almost everywhere, even in the home office, as I learned in the training course for occupational safety: “To signal your subconscious that work is about to begin, keeping on your pajamas is of little use.”
Germany is slowed down by regulations.
For years, federal governments have been promising that they do not want to complicate the lives of citizens with new rules and regulations. Nevertheless, new and crazier rules are constantly being added, some of which are made by people who have little to do with economic reality. Step by step we bureaucratize ourselves in pajamas.
The new obligation to record time, for example. After a whole generation of employees had demanded more flexibility and freedom, many companies have actually gotten involved in the past few years, keywords home office and trust-based working hours. Now the time clock returns.
All companies have recently had to set up a time recording system and record the working hours of their employees – without gaps. The world keeps turning, the clocks in the administration turn back.
>> Read here: These rules will apply to the recording of working hours in the future
The revision of the property tax is also such a case. Citizens have to enter data in forms that have long been available to the authorities elsewhere.
There are new rules everywhere. For supply chains, sustainability, yes, even for packaging. Much of this is well intentioned, but makes life increasingly complicated.
All of this at a time when the country is suffering from high energy prices, inflation and supply chain problems, and a historic shortage of skilled workers. Irrespective of this, government agencies will probably have to create new jobs again in order to check whether in future anyone who thinks about the tricky questions from the last occupational safety training course while jogging is also booking this as working time.
>> Read here: The economy loses 100 billion euros because it cannot fill two million jobs
While we should be properly clocked in on our actual work, we instead answer questions like this: “When you’re out of breath and unable to concentrate, spend the rest of the day resting so you can get to work the next day with a fresh head.” ” Right or wrong?
With all this madness, one is no longer so sure whether occupational safety and health actually thinks that the early end of the day is the right remedy for a small lack of concentration. But thank god it’s not the right answer.
There is currently a lot of talk in the federal government about relief for people and companies. The issue of bureaucracy is all too often neglected. A moratorium on bureaucracy would be more effective than many an economic stimulus package. But that’s the end of it! I need to clock out urgently.
More: Germany is stuck in the complexity trap