LIFE IN A GERMAN OFFICE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 529, 28 December 1912, Page 2

LIFE IN A GERMAN OFFICE.

In an interesting article on the "German at Home" in a recent number of the "World's Work," Mr. J. H. Collins remark si that ths "German business man works abominably long hours. Hs and his clerks art on hand at eight in the morning after a cup of coilee at home. At 9.3 C everybody stops fifteen minutes tc eat a bit of bread and butter, brought in the pocket. At noon, two hours are allowr.d to go bacli home for a hearty dinner. In the afternoon another stop for tea or coSee, alter which everybody works through till eight in the evening ; so that the German business people are catching trams for home and supper about the time English people are going to the theatres. Even in retail shops and in factories, the pause, oi "powza" as it is pronounced in German, is rigidly observed. Workmen stop in the morning and afternoon for bread and beer, served from their canteens, and every retail shop, largf or small, has a place where clerks can warm and eat food. At noon, many of the employees find time for a snap at home, and the "boss" almost invariably takes a snooze of ar hour or so on the sofa, which is a fixture in every private office. This habit is so ingrained that in many cases, especially outside of Berlin, Business men will halt a transaction at the sacred dinnerhour. end resume after they have eaten and slept. The German has a vast assortment of quaint belief about his stomach. Food must be put into it cautiously six oi more times a day, and his strict ideas as to what may be done to the stomach and what may not lead him to condemn our three simple meals. His stomach guides him in selecting a wife, and its general state after marriage is the latter's rating of efficiency. Stomach governs German business ways, too; for, just cs he and his staff are getting on with the day's work under a good head of steam, the whole machine is stopped for a "powza" and laboriously steamed up again after each snack, with the outcome that no more real work is done usually than in our shorter day. Five years a'tcr a German clerk is hired he will appear before his employer, click his bac's together, bow deeply, and call attention to the fact that he has been there five years. Does he expect an increase in salary ? Not at all ! This is merely the German respect for length of service. By doing so, he politely intimates that he thinks he muiit be of some use around the place or he v. o sldn't be there. At the end of ten years, lc years, and 20 years the samo rsniin der is given ; until when the 2Jth rn niversary comes round, iho "boss' is looked to for a handsome jubilee din ner.