Category Archives: Heconomy

Saving on vacation?

January 21, 2009 By in Heconomy Tags: Leave a comment

From the folks here at vacation nation? I have my doubts, really. I mean, I’m doing my best to deny what’s going on out there as well as the rest of you out there are. I’m really trying to pretend that this financial crisis thing won’t be the financial crisis thing that we are being led to believe it is. But, well, when Germans start saying that they are ready to begin skimping on vacations, that’s when the alarm bells start going off with me.

  

 The cheaper the better.

 

Perennial vacation masters of the world, word is out that “vacation travel cannot escape the economic crisis”, not even German vacation travel, and a survey now indicates that Germans themselves may actually be prepared to spend even less money than they already do when it comes to escaping their country for a few weeks several times each year. Some are even said to be prepared to consider maybe even to start perhaps thinking about maybe spending part of their vacation time, gulp, here. That’s right, here, as in Germany. We’re talking crisis now, people.

 

So now one of the few options left open for many a panicked German vacationer is to go vacationing in REALLY Billigländer (el cheapo countries) like the US of A, or US-Amerika if you prefer. This has something to do with the strong euro or the weak dollar or something, I forget (it’s not the yen, though).

 

And if you look carefully at that picture of New York up there, really carefully, you can see a few of them there Germans right now. No, not there, more towards Fifth Avenue. Higher, up there, that group bargaining with the hot dog vendor.

 

„Doch der heilige Haupturlaub ist noch nicht bedroht.“

I quit sort of!

January 15, 2009 By in Heconomy Tags: 1 Comment

Known for never ever giving up no matter what or at least not until the Frührente comes in, Germans everywhere were shocked to discover yesterday that the other Germans everywhere all around them have just as lousy an attitude about work as they do. At least when it comes to “motivation” they do, whatever that is.

Help me man, I'm sick.

 According to the latest Gallup poll, and there’s always a latest Gallup poll, nearly 90 percent of German employees asked don’t feel any particular obligation to the company they work for. The “Engagement Index 2008” indicates that only about 13 percent of those employed are still highly motivated whereas 67 percent prefer the tried and true Dienst nach Vorschrift (working to the rule, the minimum and no more) employee model. Every fifth German has already “quit inside”, although physically still present at work, in a way. Damn. Could this be a variation of what the Germans used to call “internal exile” during World War II, only different? Some things never change, I guess.

 

This phenomenon presents problems for companies we are told (duh). Less motivated employees tend to call in sick more often and, heaven forbid, even leave the company for another company where they can call in sick at. Unfortunately, with times being what they are, there aren’t that many companies willing or even able to hire these poorly motivated types anymore so they have to stay put and it’s just a vicious circle I tell you and very demotivating which does very little in terms of motivation.

 

And the real Hammer (doozie)? Experts say it actually makes no difference whether the economy is booming or in decline, it appears that Germans don’t like their work because they don’t like who they are working for. They don’t like working for other Germans, in other words. They’re not motivated enough or something, I guess.

 

 „Die geringe emotionale Bindung der Arbeitnehmer in Deutschland ist nicht neu. Bereits seit Jahren seien die schlechten Werte stabil.“

Money for nothin’

January 14, 2009 By in Heconomy Tags: Leave a comment

Talk about your gross domestic product. Germans are apparently so grossed out about the lack of theirs, relative to China’s which overtook Germany as the world’s third largest economy (BACK IN 2007), that German press agencies don’t even want to report about the matter. Well I can’t find any reports anyway. I don’t blame them really. After all, there are more pressing matters to report about out here these days.


Fast money. Hot, too.

 

Meanwhile, the Mother of all Chancellors is defending the country’s biggest economic stimulus program since the Second World War (which wasn’t really all that stimulating in the end if you stop and think about it, at least not for Germany). Angela Merkel told reports that Berlin’s 50 billion euro program was “just what the country needed” so shut the freak up and go out there and buy something already.

 

Reliable sources (and you know how reliable they can be) tell me that other than the big infrastructure projects planned with the plan, tax cuts alone will amount to about two to four hundred euros per family (of four), per year, for, uh, two years. Why, that’s a lot. Well it is if you’re living in certain areas of Africa, OK?

 

But as you can see by reading this, nobody is ever happy about anything the government does here. So I say Angie, you go girl. And go out there and buy yourself a new toaster with that money while you’re at it.*

 

* She may be the Mother of all Chancellors but she doesn’t have any kids herself, so she gets even less.

 

“Unemployment now stands at more than three million and economists fear one in 10 workers will be out of a job by the time of the general election in September.”