"Wonders of America": Towels and Work Mentality

Let’s start with something trivial: Why are regular American towels smaller than German ones and cannot be wrapped around the head when having washed your hair? Is it because Amerians don’t wrap towels around their heads? Or don’t they care because most go regularly to the hairdresser anyway (like they always have manicures and pedicures instead of doing their own nails)? And, why are wash clothes like tiny little towels and not like the gloves we Germans use? By the way: We use American wash clothes for cleaning shoes or suitcases …

More serious topic: work mentality and exploitation. A guy by name Robert Propst, a designer for the Herman Miller furniture company out of Michigan invented the cubicle in the 1960s, a partly enclosed tiny workspace. What a revolution! Penning up much more employees in one large room was possible now. I am not sure who and when "teamwork" was invented, but I’d like to say that it’s an American invention as well as job sharing or part-time work.

America was and is very progressive when it comes to work efficiency. Not always for the benefit of employees. Still today exploitation in jobs is obvious, at least in the eyes of a German. Let’s state facts first: in Germany minimum vacation is 24 days (once you are at least six months on the job) and it increases with age and duration of the job, up to 30 days – which amounts to six full weeks of vacation! In addition, there are around 15 additional legal, paid holidays. No wonder, "Brueckentage" ("bridge days") is a German word invention for cleverly managing to get a lot of vacation time by using holidays and paid vacation days in combination. In Sweden and the Netherlands they get even more vacation days, by the way.

In the U.S. usually, at least for the first decade or so in the job, it’s an average of two weeks of paid vacation time. It may add up to a maximum of three or four weeks someone is at the same company for a long time and climbed up the career ladder. Hierarchy and titles are important, though everybody is on a pseudo-collegial basis.

As a German, figure out the following situation: It’s mid-August, kids on school vacation and you would like to take off for two weeks as well… Forget about it, you will most probably draw a blank in the U.S. Two weeks at once? No way. In summer? How long are you with the company already? Well, are you still wondering why Americans usually go on a 10-day-whirlwind-trip all over Europe?

Overtime in general isn’t paid for, if you are lucky you can be reimbursed with "free time". But no tourism rep would mind spending a Saturday or Sunday with a journalist, if necessary, or to have dinner late at night, though they won’t even get reimbursed for the time spent sometimes, just get a free meal as a pay. In Germany? Preferably no meetings after 5 pm and not on weekends. If inevitable, only grudgingly, not with a smiling face. Weekends are a sacred cow, 9-to-5 worktime a verse in the bible and more than 10 minutes of overtime will be documented.

"Personal days" (or "PTO" - personal time off) in America are days you either get paid for or not (depending on the employer), unlike sick days, and like vacation, they usually must be planned in advance. It could be it for appointments or to deal with a personal matter. Paid personal days - usually two a year – are like sick leave an employment benefit and optional. Americans have a certain number of sick days being paid, depending on state, city, company, boss … Meaning, you can’t just call in sick whenever you feel like it (like in Germany) and stay home, fully paid. The U.S. does currently not require that employees have access to paid sick days. Maybe that’s the reason, productivity in America has been rising constantly for the last decades …

The United States is the only advanced economy that does not require employers to provide paid vacation time. Many employees do not receive any paid vacation or paid holidays at all, especially low-wage, part-time and small businesses are concerned. Also, paid legal holidays also are not naturally granted. Are you still wondering why "burnout" also is an American invention?

I am wondering why birth rates are still higher in the U.S. than in Germany. Life is not at all easy for pregnant and new mothers in America. Paid "maternity leave" is unusual in the United States. Though most companies allow their employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave time after child birth, the average is 2-3 weeks of unpaid leave, Many women technically aren't even eligible for unpaid time off. They can apply for short-term disability (wow, didn’t think becoming a mother is a "disability" - what about political correctness here?) to cover a portion of the salary— but nevertheless… In Germany women get their full salary from six weeks before giving birth to eight weeks after. Then they receive "Elterngeld", 300-1800 Euro depending on income, for a maximum of three years. After this time, a comeback in the same company is guaranteed (not necessarily exactly the same job, but equivalent).

America is the cradle of democracy, the birthplace of social changes and political correctness, but why, please, are work conditions still handled this haphazardly and differently? For Germany: Why, please, is everybody complaining about having to work so hard considering vacation time and other benefits?