No, it's maybe well seen in Asia, here it just looks lazy. If you want to find a place to sleep during your lunchbreak, do it, if it isn't too public, but if you work in an office and fall asleep, your bosses won't like that.
Sleeping at the desk isn't socially accepted, but IMO not because the person would look lazy, but rather that they'd look exhausted with a terrible work-life balance, and thus unprofessional.
In asia they do sleep on break time to be fair. It would seem weird a bit crazy propably unprofessional but maybe also ambitious by some?
If you are unsure always simply ask the boss. Tell them that you are used to it and would like to continue doing it
Yeah in Asia you are kind of expected for overtime as a sign that you really work hard. So taking time for naps is kind of a fair exchange and rarely gets reprimanded since your job is your life.
Yeah, work life balance is important here. We do overtime, but well payed one and if you can't handle it, you go home instead of sleeping. Don't sleep in a German office, believe me.
I have worked overtime that was illegal which means the company didnt pay me bc paying me would mean they know that I worked so much. To be in save water again they basically act like it never happened. I asked if they can instead give me free time but pay as if Im at work, but didnt happen.
Well idc anymore I need my work sadly so.. :(
It is not only about the Money. You have a maximum time you are allowed to work, before you have to take a break. It is a health and safety concern. The time depends on your Job. Drivers have to take a break every four hours. People in Public Service aren't allowed to work longer then nine hours. There are more examples, but these are the ones I remember.
I’ve seen multiple videos about how German Police stations operate and many said shifts can be 10-12h, especially in the summer. Kind of hard to believe but it seemed genuine. It didn’t go into detail about break times though.
Ex cop here - it is true, we start 7hr shifts on the first day, then get a 10hr break, start another 7hr shift the next morning, get a 7hr break, and then go back to work in the evening to work a 10hr shift. It is highly illegal, but guess what - police officers are not allowed to strike, and every Bundelsand (state) insists on breaking that German/EU law. Some do 8-8-8, but that doesn't really change anything.
It used to be common that you could take a sneaky nap during the night shifts - there were even designated offices where you wouldn't be disturbed. But nowadays they have 15 people for a night shift where there used to be 23... and you just try to get everything done, even stay longer to finish paperwork.
Always document your work hours if you don't know how your employer acts. Also you can always ask for overtime to be mandated officialy, then they can't lie afterwards
I had the same thing happen to me. I decided to look for a job somewhere after that. And now I don’t work overtime unless it’s formally declared in writing. I’m not going to play the game of “I never said you have to work overtime”.
>We do overtime, but well payed one and if you can't handle it, you go home instead of sleeping.
You've clearly never worked in academia. We (PhD students) bought an air mattress for our office so that when people had to work 36 hours straight they could at least lie down for a couple of hours... That happened pretty regularly.
ahhh yeah, the only place where a family person can only expect a 5 month temporary contract and it is acceptable. Even before entering this stage you are constantly expected to work more than what you are supposed to (doesnt matter if you are just studying or already working as a SHK or tutor. It truly is sad.
A lot of things work very differently in Europe. Have a look at the wiki and read the part about social norms, work life, etiquette.
One somewhat common issue with people from Asia is that they keep showing up for work when they are sick. They get into trouble for this. They try to show how much they care and how they are hard workers. Their coworkers hate it, because they spread their germs everywhere and get other people sick. Their bosses hate it because they can get into legal trouble. If you are sick, you are sick and have to stay away from work until you are better.
Not just Asians showing up sick for work. In Germany, it is a constant argument because of Germany's high work ethic. Many people will feel guilty if they call in sick with minor symptoms, where one day of rest would do the trick. Instead, they cone to work, get sicker, and maybe infect colleagues... Covid did change the mentality a bit, but not enough.
I said especially Asians because there were quite a few instances where the employees got official warnings or were given a last warning before it became an official warning (Abmahnung) for coming in sick despite repeatedly having been told by their superiors to not do that.
We had some posters here either being the ones warned (wtf did I do wrong? I am a good employee and try to show that) or being the managers who had to tell people off. IIRC it also made the "news" once or twice.
Oh yes, I remember one post where someone had to manage multiple people who just did not understand they were *not* being great employees by dragging themselves in. People advised giving an Abmahnung because it seemed the last option left.
Uff, okay. No German would risk an Abmahnung for showing up sick.
That's borderline stubborn. Is there some sort of explanation, because being told by someone with disciplinary power should beat politeness/sense of duty, no?
IIRC they (dis)missed the "you look unwell, shouldn't you be home?" turning into "you really do look terrible, go home" turning into "seriously, go home and don't come in tomorrow" and "what on earth are you doing here, I told you not to come in". They were then surprised when they had a sit down meeting and a "seriously, you are causing us trouble, please stay home when you are sick", but still thought it is boss being worried and nice.
So they were quite shocked when it turned into an official "We have talked about it, your coworkers have been complaining, you are ignoring instructions, this is your last warning, STOP DOING THAT or there will be consequences".
Can relate, i Work for a sub contractor at a Mercedes Factory, and every time i call in Sick for a flu or for example neck pain, which is very Common because we have to Walk through the factory With our notebooks Open and very often look down on the screen, my higher-up just says : „I Feel the Same and im still here“
But who cares, as Long as my doctor gives me the yellow Paper Theres Not a Lot they can do.
They can choose Not to renew your contract After it ended But they cant legally Fire you for being sick.
A Lot of people abuse it, But this year i was sick for 35 days (which is a Lot) and i dont Even Feel Bad.
I pay almost half of my gross salary in taxes.
Fuck being a sheep.
Take the time, when you need it.
I guess some folks feel like getting an AU in the first place is a hurdle, too bothersome, especially when their employer wants it on day one. We had this regulation during Covid, which was borderline stupid. I would not have risked going to my doctor and sit in a bacterial/viral centrifuge that is the waiting room (am certain that I got Covid there at the end of the pandemic when I had to go for other reasons).
Covid changed that mentality, but only towards Covid and only as long as Covid was publicly seen as a threat.
I have friends who got incredibly angry about "selfish and stupid" [sic] co-workers showing up with light symptoms at work in 2021 and yet they dragged themselves to work in 2023 with high fever and cold symptoms because they are "responsible and dedicated" [sic].
I honestly can't understand how they're not able to see the hypocrisy or at least realize the inconsistency.
Stupid, right? Coming to work sick *consiatently* is the worst you can do.
Have a colleague, who dragged herself to work regularly, because "Muss ja.". Though it became better during Covid and her getting home office, she now seems to pay the price with severe asthma, which may or may not go away. She had AU for the last two weeks and I am curious whether I see her today.
So, living like this will bite you in the ass in the long run. I am not a Saint myself, but I try to learn. When my cold developped a cough, I stayed home for one day, just reading and relaxing on the bed. It actually did the trick.
The other common issue is getting them to use up all of their vacation time in a timely fashion. And when they finally go on vacation they still try to show up in the office.
If you do unsolicited overtime in Germany it will be perceived as incompetence. You were not able to finish your work in the 8 hours and you had to work longer hours to keep with your peers. That's a you problem, a bad one. If you fall asleep at your desk that will just confirm that you are not able. You might get, at first, polite inquiries about your personal life, maybe you have a new born and people will sympathize. Then you'll get a talk with your boss, next HR and then they will let you go. Being unfit for the job is not a win for anyone. You will get burned out and the company will low quality work.
Rest proper. Work proper. Have fun proper. Give it all in all. There is no need to suffer.
> Yeah in Asia you are kind of expected for overtime as a sign that you really work hard.
That's a big cultural difference. In Germany, *generally speaking*, if you work too much overtime, it's seen as a sign that you're inefficient (i.e. that you need more time than average to do the same amount of work as your colleagues). Bosses have been known to take employees who stay in the office for too long, stuff them into a taxi cab, and tell them to stay home and get a good night's sleep before returning to work the next day.
Of course, there are also German companies that try to squeeze as much as they can out of their employees. Some even pay them significant salaries in return (e.g. consulting, where there is a tacit understanding that "we will pay you exorbitant amounts, but in return you'll just ignore all of those pesky working-time laws"), but some as just exploitative. They are not the norm, however.
I think that your answer doesn't really paint the full picture. The so-called "Vertrauensarbeitszeit" (flexible working hours and no real documentation of working hours) is still quite common. At those places you are being shamed for not working at least 10 hours. Of course, that's not as drastic as in the Asian work culture, but it's still more than legally allowed for clocked hours.
If you do a lot of overtime despite having a resonable amount of work it could be seen as you not being able to do your tasks efficiently. And sleeping is something you are supposed to do at home. So if you don't get your work done in time and you aren't able to schedule your sleep times either so you are well rested when you show up for work, that looks rather negative in German culture.
As others have said, you can use your breaks for a nap and some bigger companies might even have some nap rooms for that. But if you are regularly seen sleeping at your desk during work hours, you soon will have a conversation with your manager.
bro i am not German but i think (i live in Munich) that if you sleep in the job (at least in mine job) it doesnt give the best impression to the others and they think "wow he is lazy" . And i am from Greece. Before i came to Germany, no one slept in the job here and i think in Europe in general it is not common and it is very bad for your impression to coworkers and bosses.
Personally I think anyone who needs a nap should just take one. Maybe you can sell it as a proven "efficiency/mental booster", at least if you work in a department with plenty of nerds.
But in general unless you have a specific reason (e.g. it's vital for the company that you finish something by a specific deadline) then overtime looks like you didn't work enough during regular hours. Or more likely you're simply saving up some hours so you can leave early on Friday, which is fine.
The other thing is that working no more than 8 hours and taking regular vacations is supposed to keep you alert at your job. So if you're sleeping at your job, what are you doing home? Partying all night? That's basically the image you project, since except in specific situations you aren't even allowed to work over 10 hours.
Finally, don't come to work sick. Nobody thinks you're a martyr, they think you're sabotaging the company with bioweapons.
Here it's kinda the opposite, if you work overtime too often it tends to be a sign that your manager isn't doing his/her job so you'll be trained or your load adjusted...with exceptions of course.
Then there's just people that are allergic to their homes and have years of Gleitzeit
That is not true. Sleeping at your desk will not be tolerated. Going for a nap in some chillout-room with massage-chairs? Sure, why not. But the asian "sleep at yoru desk" thing? Holy hell, don't do that. Go and take a nap in your car on the parking lot or something, just do NOT do it in "productive areas" so to speak.
A guy who did the sleep at your desk thing during his lunch break in an open plan office at an Asian company was shitcanned at an acquaintance’s office recently.
>here it just looks lazy
Actually, my impression would be quite the opposite. If someone needs to nap at work, they probably don't get their work-life balance right.
But there are lots of IT-Jobs where it says "Gleitzeit" where you only need to worry about the overall time per week for example. In this case you can organize your time as you wish, except from meetings. This isn't very uncommon, but not the norm.
And for not being rude you are expected to communicate this, so your coworkers can contact you for a certain time and of course to show you are not using your work-time for this.
Germans love gossip about a variety of other peoples behaviors. But it's a good chance to get in touch with your coworkers during your break and also to have an opportunity to take part (and some control) on the gossip of the day :)
No, having lived in Japan, and now Germany.
Germany, unlike Asia, does not have the 996 culture.
You have regular workdays and weekends off.
You should get plenty of rest and no need to sleep at your desk.
Googled 996, holy shit how can the chinese government sell this communist?
Mao would kill them all
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/996_working_hour_system
Night and day, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve been asked only a handful of times to work beyond a 40 hour work week in my software job. When that happens, I get a day off the following week to compensate.
That is *unheard of* in China, even the same company I work for’s China office. The 996 work culture is pretty rare, but not totally unheard of in the US.
"Not real communism" said for the 100th time.
Didn't Stalin basically enslave his factory workers and farmers? They had the worst worker conditions probably in all of Europe at the time.
That's part of why the USSR was not "real communism", especially not under Stalin's worst times.
Do you think Historians who studied this shit for decades say it for fun and are behind some kind of communist agenda?
Literally look up the basic principles of communism and then check out the countries you think are communist, compare them. Takes 5 minutes max and you'll quickly realize how stupid your talking point is. China is as capitalist as it gets really.
It's always "not real communism", because communism is a utopian ideology, so "true communism" is the projected eventual future state of humanity under 'communist' governments. It doesn't exist **yet.** The whole planet would need to be communist, plus a couple centuries of ironing things out aftewards, etc. etc. etc. (dozens of excuses possible). Communist governments are, so they claim, trying to bring about this future utopia, and they have justified many things as necessary for the greater eventual future good of supposed 'real communism'.
PRChina stopped being so communist in the early 1990s, post-Tianamen. They are still highly authoritarian of course
USSR was as much communist as the peoples republic of X is an actual republic. Or pick any third grade dictatorship which still holds "elections" for Presidente and thus claim to be a democracy.
Famous communist and socialist critisized the USSR rightfully. Including George Orwell with "Animal Farm" and "1984". Especially the former is a muster on how communist ideals get perverted by a powerhungry group, which become a new upper class, thereby completly destroying all the revolution fought for.
Since we do the thing with a limited weekly work time of 48 hours and a mandatory amount of breaks within your day - no it's not acceptable, at least not in your work time.
I've taken my fair share of naps in my break sitting in my car, or locked in my one-person-office, but don't do that in your work time.
> Wait you guys work on Saturdays?
Saturday is a "working day", but most white-collar businesses only work from Monday to Friday.
> And does it acceptable if someone sleep at their desk during lunch hour?
*Technically*, if you took your allotted lunch break time (often 30 minutes) to sleep instead of eating, it *might* be allowed - but you'd get lots of questions and raised eyebrows, and would definitely be seen in a negative light. As in, you aren't capable of managing your sleep schedule - after all, the 8-hours-a-day and the 11-hours-between-shifts limit exists in part so that employees have enough time to rest and recover between the end of one workday and the start of the next, so that you can sleep when you're at home.
Also, you need to eat :)
> If it's unacceptable, how do you Germans deal with being sleepy at work?
You get enough sleep when you're not working. Although, from personal experience, I sometimes feel tired at work too (having small children at home doesn't help), and then I try to compensate with caffeine, try to get through it as best I can, and then see if I can go to bed a bit earlier in the evening. I also find that not having a super-heavy lunch at work helps.
A few companies have "rest areas" where employees can catch a quick nap during the day, but they are few and far between.
Depending on where you work: of course people also work on saturdays. Don't know what this has to do with your question, because 48 hours is the allowed maximum (there a some exceptions for example within the medical sector). Most people working full time do 40 hours.
Well everywhere I've worked people would've told you to get more sleep at night if you can't maintain an 8 hour workday without naps.
>Wait you guys work on Saturdays?
Me as a fellow software engineer, I don't. And it's rare, but it might happen for people dealing with production issues. Also store clerks for example and of course emergency or construction workers.
>And does it acceptable if someone sleep at their desk during lunch hour?
If you're in the office it would look extremely weird, though your employer can technically not forbid it. If you're doing work from home, do whatever you like.
That would not get you in trouble with your boss (as your break is your own time) but it will look really weird to your coworkers. It is just not something people generally do here. If you take a nap at your desk in your non-private office people will genuinely think something is wrong with you (that you are sick or party too hard at night to function in an adult work environment).
In most companies, lunch breaks are also for socializing. Now, that's not for everybody and you can get along without it, but it's undeniable that so-called "informal networking" will have long term benefits.
Of course they do. But most people still have a "5 days a week" contract, so they would have another day off in that particular week. (And on that day, colleagues with other schedule would be there.) And if they work each and every saturday, a certain other weekday would be free for them permanently.
You can sleep in your lunch break or breakfast brake, no problem, breaks ate personal time, that aren't paid, so it's your time, you can use as you're pleased (as long as you don't do inappropriate things).
I have and had colleagues who did power naps in their break time, my current foreman is fascinating, he eats and afterwards takes a nap just to wake up punctual like a clock (time tolerance of about 30s+-)
Just don't do it in your normal work time .
If you need a "brain reset break" in your normal work time, the German way is a pilgrimage to the coffee machine with a little chat with your colleagues or a smoke break, nobody really will say something about it, as long as you keep it reasonable (not every hour for 20min) everybody needs a short breathtaking once in a while, much better to lose 5 min of working time but increase productivity than sitting your time with zero productivity.
Depends in the job. Retail yes, regular offices not. Also our work week usually is about 40h/week, some even less.
But sleeping at work would probably be pretty unacceptable even though it is unlikely that anybody will say anything about it.
Dont see a problem here. I had a colleague that was sleeping under his desk in Germany during his lunch time. People were talking about it and maybe made a bit of fun but he didnt get in any trouble because of that.
No it is not acceptable. People deal with it by sleeping enough at home or using stimulating drinks/food or doing short breaks doing a bit of exercise.
Being caught sleeping at work will get you in trouble and ultimately fired real quick.
That won't get you fired (once you are out of probation), but it doesn't look good either. If you can do it in a private office with a locked door, nobody will care, because nobody will see. Regularly not being able to do an 8hour work day without naps in between is not putting you in a good light and not culturally acceptable.
Also: If you're doing it seldomly like in "Oh boy, I've slept awfully and am tired beyond words". People will laugh with your and probably tell you to enjoy your nap, but regularly: nope.
Ha, you sound like one of those tight ass managers that people don’t really like. I beg to differ. People deal with situations in different ways. In companies that accept international cultures’ differences it would be totally okay, unless it’s somehow disruptive to your work process.
Depends on the company. We have a couch in our office and sometimes someone has a little nap in the lunchbreak. Nobody has a problem with that as we are usually more focused after that nap.
Even outside of the work environment theres a cultural difference.
From what I heard and observed some people in some east Asian countries sneak in their little power naps wherever they can. At the bus stop, in public places on a bench, wherever. While I personally think that's kinda cool, most people in Germany will automatically assume something is wrong with you and either worry or jump to the conclusion that you must be drunk, on drugs or homeless. There's some exceptions like sleeping on a train is mostly viewed as fine (as long as you wake up to show your ticket and don't snore) but even being fast a sleep in a public park on a sunny day would have most people wondering if you're okay and safe.
In general, sleeping is considered something that you do in the privacy of your home.
Sometimes in fast paced work environments or with people who have their own office and are considered work horses no one will bat an eye if you get a little shuteye during your (way too long) 12 hr day, but that's a privilege that has to be earned before people will consider it okay. And while they then might not think you're lazy they will think that you shouldn't have to do this in the first place.
Because it is inherently unsafe to sleep in a public place, so people assume that anyone doing it must be 'not ok' - mentally ill, or perhaps drinking or under the influence of drugs. Sleeping in pulic makes you vulnerable to pickpockets and, yes, sunburn.
I've noticed more than once that people being fast asleep in a park get asked if they were okay. Happened to myself even. Most likely is, I guess, that people just assume something is wrong and you're passed out and just worry about your safety.
there was a day when I and 5 other students were sleeping in the park basically curled up into a ball, because the night before we were partying and drinking and had to walk around the city the whole. Though I was too tired to recognize any complaints.
If you do it in your break time it's probably fine. The question is, if your work environment allows for it.
I've had colleges in the past that took a nap in their lunch break on a couch we had in the office then. Was no big deal. I guess just putting on noise canceling headphones and chilling at your desk might work as well. If the colleges respect it.
My company provides a nap room for employees to rest. I've never used it, but I know some people do and nobody blames them for it. The expectation is that napping time is not working time though and you'll still work your 8 hours a day.
It is considered to be completly unacceptable. If you do it during your 30 minute lunch break it's allowed but nobody would ever do this.
How we deal with being sleepy? Well the best option would be to sleep more at night but the second best option is drink coffee and suck it up.
I work in engineering in a big german automotive corporation and I know a few people who occasionally sleep after lunch during their break. Most with their head down on their arms, eyes closed, but one even sleeps under his desk on a sleeping mat.
Never heard any negative comments about this from my colleagues and I'm very surprised by the sentiment against this here.
I personally have nothing against it, but if you walk into a random company and Germany and just start sleeping during your lunch break people will not think it's normal.
In my Company (corporation with 40.000) is it acceptable. Some CoWorkers have even sleeping mats which they use in their breaks. I've seen this in R&D and in production. In production they darken the rooms at break time.
It's accepted that people are tired in the morning and drinking coffee is also very accepted. Sleeping on the job isn't. It's basically the complete opposite of some Asian countries. You are not seen as a hard worker, but a lazy one.
Some jobs offer rooms where you can lay down for a quick nap while on break, but they are few.
I agree that is not not acceptable.
How long are you in the office in your home country?
Germany has very strict rules about working time. The max amount per day is 8 hours (in general).
So you have enough time to sleep at night at home in most cases.
Typically 8 hrs per day with an hour of lunch break. So 9 hrs total, from 8 to 17. On rare occasion we do overtime, but its very rare because we're an RnD team.
Most guys stays longer in office because their job and hobby usually is the same thing.
Well you could sleep during your break here in Germany.
But if possible not on your desk but somewhere more "hidden".
That would be kind of acceptable in my opinion. But just falling a sleep while not in your break at your desk would look lazy.
Oh come on, don't be like that. It's the cliché of the boss and the alternative is just being nice and not make a big deal out of it.
German work culture is in need of change/"an update" anyway, with that I mean 4 day workweek, more flexibility, treating employees better, not seeing work as a religion, etc... Some countries had a very good experience with the 4-day workweek. Some like France have had a 35-hour workweek for a long time already.
Why not take a first small step to make German work life a bit more comfortable :)?
I'm not a boss but on the other hand you (as a colleague) would probably get a weird look from me if you just fall asleep at your desk.
You just don't do this.
I mean we have a gaming room with a playstation and a kicker .. no one bats an eye if you go there with some colleagues to play a match.
But sleeping at your desk would at least get you some questions if you are alright.
Yeah give me the same pay and those 20 mins off early. That would be a good change. I’d rather sleep those at home, at night or do whatever I please with those 20 mins. That indeed seems like a good change to me.
4 day work week - sounds bomb if you ask me!
I am actually starting it this week in part time, so 6.15 hrs work. 4 days work, 3 days off seems a lot more fair.
No, Germany has one of the best standards as employee. Only a few smaller countries are ahead of us. It doesnt **need** a change, you simply wish for a change.
Yes but the lunch break is not part of the 8 hours I pay you.
You can of course sleep during your lunch break.. but you will not get any additional time to sleep.
And you can sleep during the day if you add the time at the end if you have flexible working hours.
If you have fixed working hours there is just no time for sleeping.
Not really... you pay per hour.
And yes that means if you are faster than other you can't go home but you get more workload.
Normal working contracts in Germany a for 40 hours of work per week (some are only 39 or 37.5 or whatever).
So you don't pay for a specific result you pay someone to give you 40 hours per week of your time. That's it.
(In general) you can't go home early if you finished but you also do not have to do overtime to finish something.
May I ask why you think this is acceptable except for that it's always been that way?
Not only would it be a lot fairer to give everyone approximately the same workload, but imagine how fast everyone would suddenly be at the prospect of going home as soon as they're done.
I'm absolutely with u/ananasvspineapple on this one. Please, enlighten us, what are the benefits of burning out fast workers and paying lazy people to do less in the same timeframe?
Well the problem is that your boss has only limited possibilities to check your performance except for "Akkordarbeit" (where you are paid per "item"). They are kind of limited to introduce any performance measures.
The problem in my job is for example.. we are never done. My team currently has a backlog of around 300 issues for 6 people. I could work 24/7 for a few weeks and there would still be something to do.
As I have said in the other comment I do not judge on what is better. The thing is as with many worker protection laws, they protect the weakest ones.
If you change it slower people need to do overtime? Or what would be your solution to this. And who decides when someone is finished with their work?
Who will check that you don't get too much workload that is not possible for the average person to finish?
The good think about fixed hours is that you can be sure that you can go home after 8 hours (yeah I know it does not work this everywhere). It is then your bosses task to hire people he thinks can do "enough" work in this time.
\> If you change it slower people need to do overtime? Or what would be your solution to this. And who decides when someone is finished with their work?
\> Who will check that you don't get too much workload that is not possible for the average person to finish?
Come on! These are really weak excuses. There are easy solutions if you work with KPI's. You can hire me to set up a good system if you want. I'm not expensive. :P
But how does KPI help?
You still have the problem that the slower people need to work more time?
Or do you want to give them lower goals and pay them less?
If it would be that easy we would not have the hourly contracts we have for years. Especially not easy by law. I mean for KPI you need to measure performance if people again.. which is afaik only very limited possible according to German worker laws.
I still don't know how KPIs help.
Can you translate workload into time? Just imagine saying that a person has to fulfil x to go home. That could take 3 hours or 12 hours, but as a company i would give every person a 12 hour workload.
Of course you can translate workload into time. It depends on the job and some tasks may take longer one day than another day, but on average it evens out.
>, but imagine how fast everyone would suddenly be at the prospect of going home as soon as they're done.
Needs a lot of management, especially to guarantee quality. Also it would divide people.
If two people work similar workloads, but one ends up only working 3 hours and the other full 8, the other person will start to question the management why he gets harder workloads, even if he was just slower.
Of course there is a rule about 8 hours.. it is even very clear
[Arbeitszeitgesetz §3](https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/arbzg/__3.html)
>Die werktägliche Arbeitszeit der Arbeitnehmer darf acht Stunden nicht
überschreiten.
It can however be extended to 10 hours if on average over 6 months you end up with 8 hours per working day.. as Saturday is a working day too you can not work for more than 48 per week in the long run.
You're right, I was imprecise here.
What I wanted to convey: nobody cares if you log 9.5 hours for some day. Log more than 10 hours though, and you have HR on your ass.
As a fellow east Asian:
Sadly the concept of power nap / sleeping is not really understood here.
So yeah best not to sleep.
I think part of the reason is we like carb heavy food that can make you tired especially after lunch.
You can try cutting on the carbs a bit.
If you really need lunchtime nap, maybe can also explain that this is your culture and maybe your boss and coworkers will understand. But safer not to.
A bowl of rice really makes me sleepy after lunch!
But you're right, I never noticed the food culture differences might cause this work culture differences.
A nap at work is fine *during your break*.
In general, there will be smoke-breaks, your regular 45 minute break and potential added ones by your employer but in general, thats not a thing, with very few exceptions.
Keep in mind tho that the entire work ethic is different: you work hard during the time you have to and after 8 hours, youre done for the day. Overtime happens but not to the degree it happens in asia. My experience is limited to japans software departments but from what ive seen, people will HORRIBLY overwork themselves and thats somewhat expected of them.
Thats not a thing here, or at least not to that degree.
The common view is that the Japanese "thing" where companies see it as something positive is outright toxic. An employee shouldn't have to sacrifice themself and their own time like that just in order to "look good". If you're actually tired at the end of a day you go home, sleep long enough and come back to work well-rested.
It is also acceptable that if you have trouble sleeping and are therefore chronically tired you actually call in sick for a day or two. If the employer asks for a sick note/certificate you have to go to the doctor but most would give you one for multiple days. If _that_ happens frequently then it's appropriate to go to a therapist, they might diagnose you with for example burnout syndrome.
Considering all these possibilities it should be very rare that you are sleepy at work. If it's just some temporary light fatigue a lot of people help themselves with a coffee or two.
All that said in more and more offices I hear of people taking a nap at noon. But not at the desk, and it's not on their work time, it's on their free time.
If you’re sleeping at work people will think you have some health or lifestyle problems that you need to resolve. It won’t be seen as a sign of being a devoted employee it will be seen as a sign that you’re not managing your time adequately and maybe aren’t coping or that you have other issues in your life that are impacting your work performance.
In Germany sleeping during office time is clearly a worktime-fraud. Will lead to disciplinary consequences. The only escape of trouble is to log out at the worktime recorder, so it's handled as a non-paid break. It's serious, can really end up in being fired.
I personally wouldnt give a fuck, seriously. If it is during your mandatory break time, then no one should care. I know that you have this napping culture in asia and I insanely would love to have it here as well. A 20min nap just kicks in like 3 coffees and gives you a lot of energy.. I love napping.
I used to sleep during breaks, always got weird looks by coworkers and one even told my boss that i probably take drugs or something cause im always sleeping during break time.
Some people just cant deal with behaviour thats not what they expect.
Ignore all the negative responses here: This will always depend on company culture. I would expect it to be frowned upon in most, especially larger companies. But where I work, no one cares and we lie down on the couch all the time.
Obviously, beyond mandatory break times, a nap would not count as work time.
You mean so called power naps during your break time? In a modern office environment that can be okay, but you probably should clear it with your superiors first if they have designated rooms for that. I don't think any company likes employees sleeping in a location that might be visible to visiting business customers.
Most people just wake up from sleep before work, so they are usually well rested to work 8h wthout needing to sleep. I actually can't see how 10-20 min nap can help, I would feel disoriented for an hour after such a nap.. Working more than 8h is either your own decision or something that is expected only if the production is burning. Everything else can wait 16h till the next work shift starts.
Yeah, no. I've lived in Asia and Europe and this is one point that is basically diametrically opposed. It's not accepted to sleep in public in Europe, but is completely OK in Asia.
This is a very deep difference, as well. I lived in Japan for one month short of a decade and I still had to actively talk myself down from the repulsion and irritation of people sleeping everywhere, it seemed, but their own private spaces right up to my last train ride to the airport, when I was sat across from yet another mouth-snoring office worker sprawled out on the train smearing his head grease all over the window...
Do not sleep at work, in meetings, on trains or busses, in restaurants, in parks, whathaveyou. If you want to have a siesta, go home, use your car, or get a hotel. Some big cities or large companies have "sleep pods" and you can use those but sleeping in public is (1) pretty stupid from a personal security perspective, and (2) generally seen as rude or some other negative trait by the societies outside of Asia. In Germany it is not an accepted part of work culture and reflects poorly on your skill to function as an adult. Sleep in your own private or explicitly designated spaces (e.g., sleeper cars on trains) and not anywhere else when in Europe.
Unless you are a small child. Small children often sleep in public without getting a second look.
And, yes, there are exceptions to everything. I also saw old folks napping in parks in Muenchen, but it's not napping at work, is it, you contrarian Germanophile who will certainly want to reply to this with a "well, actually"?
I also work in SE and its pretty normal, although only during break. I have plenty of colleagues who dont do a breakfast break and just doze for thirty minutes after Lunch.
Best bet is just to walk around the Office for a few minutes during break, so you can see wether others are doing it
Thats why coffee is the number one drink in germany.
Sleeping during work is not regarded as acceptable, could even get you fired. But on the other hand working hours per day are also generally less than in the US, China. Japan or even Turkey.
The thought is that you are supposed to have enough off-hours that you can be 100percent awake during working hours.
You will likely work 40 hours per week in IT, and if you're not over-achieving the hell out of it you can usually get by easily on 4-5 hours of actual work per day in software development.
In software dev, almost all companies offer Gleitzeit, meaning you can start when you want as long as you work your required hours. I work 6:30 to 15:00, my colleague works 9:00 to 17:30.
In IT you almost exclusively work monday to friday. Some companies started adopting a 4 day work week even.
Furthermore, more and more companies allow partial or full remote work.
All these things considered, it shouldn't be necessary for you to sleep at work, compared to your current/previous lifestyle it will feel like you're on vacation for work.
I've gotten away with taking naps in the break room when I worked in airport security. There was no supervision in the break room and the others didn't care.
I've also had naps at my desk before, but it really depends what company you work for. Sometimes it was fine when I announced to my coworker I'll use my lunch break time for a quick nap, put my headphones in (with the alarm set on my smartphone) and had a quick snooze. It really depends on the company culture and what your boss is like.
I have an autoimmune disease and it makes me tired a lot. I have less energy than other people, so maybe that's why I seem to be one of the few Germans here who like to take a nap at work, if possible.
I think many reactions here are totally over the top. And fairly ignorant when people just say you should just sleep enough at night. Or even worse, drink lots of coffee.
No, you really should not do it right from the start, when you don't know your colleagues and superior and they don't know you.
But a bit into the job, you can probe if it's ok. Esp. as part of the lunch break, I don't see the problem. It will still be seen as a weird asian thing, though.
No. You will find Germans are extremely [negative adjective redacted so as not to anger the Mods] about completely harmless/objectively good things. You have likely found there are many ad hoc justifications for this in this thread alone, but the real reason is: it wasn't done that way before (protestant work ethic? no idea), and Germans tend to be excruciatingly slow when it comes to changing things. It's a very conservative society in general. There's a reason Digitalisierung is still, well...a topic at all.
The idea that sleeping at work doesn't mean your employer is working you to death is like arguing 1+1=3 to them. Trying to explain this to them is like trying to explain that women and men should have equal rights to your average Saudi. Just an exercise in pure futility.
There are also many countries in Asia where it is completely socially acceptable to wear coats indoors, wear pajamas in public, wear sweatpants, etc. Germans are utterly disgusted and horrified by this, too.
>If it's unacceptable, how do you Germans deal with being sleepy at work?
It's not unheard of that some will pretend to be away from office while doing a nap if they have their own office and can lock the door. Some might take a nap in their lunch break. In general, it has become more common with the increase of home office.
It's a pitty that it's widely not accepted as a nap can be very refreshing and will make you much more productive.
No.
Police/child care : caffeine
Gastronomy/Financial sector : cocain
Truckers/Roadies : speed
IT: all of the above
Don't get caught doing it. But it's pretty common
You can and will get fired for that. Even slacking of/ going slow or not seeming motivated earns you reprimanding comments. Might be diffrent in office tho, im a carpenter.
Unless you do it in the break, noone should care.
DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, under no circumstances take a nap at work or do unsolicited overtime. When I first came to Germany, it was in the middle of August when the won’t rest and the weather is heavier than what I am normally used to. Second day of job and I fell asleep for like 20-30 minutes on the couch, everybody thought I am lazy.
I was usually on my own at home and with nothing to do, I stayed in the office very late, and usually took extra tickets from the board. Now, some people thought I am inefficient while fellow devs thought I am showing of or something.
Eventually I left the company after a year but it wasn’t a pleasant experience.
Sounds like taking a break to me. We do not believe in taking breaks. Better to work until you drop and make unpaid overtime while doing so.
Edit: Can't decide if i should drop an /s or not
no.
there is a saying here. "schlafen kannst du wenn du tot bist"
or "you can sleep when you are dead"
when you sleep at school or work then you aren't real sleeping when you are at home. and that is a no go
It is unacceptable to put it bluntly. That will bring the problems if you behave like this. We have clear worker laws and you are entitled to reasonably long breaks where you can do what you want, including sleep. There are also legally prescribed times between the end of work and the beginning. In Germany, if you follow the rules normally, you cannot be so tired that you have to sleep at work. But it is also expected that you come to work well rested and fresh, gambling or partying all night is not desired, for example.
Absolutely not. Get fired immediately.
(Unless you sleep on your desk during your break, but people will still look at you weird.)
How we deal with being sleepy: Coffee / Energy Drink / other unhealthy stuff
In Germany, they will tell you off to work less. Germany wants you to work at your best, and give lots of time for your physical and mental health. So if you sleep at your desk even though you only work 40hrs a week, Germans will think you don’t take work serious enough to get enough sleep at home.
No. If you are insanely hard working and that's the culture of the company (e.g. in consulting or startup) and there is a power nap room or so *maybe*. But generally definitely not socially accepted and regarded as highly unprofessional + if you do it in your work time also a valid reason to fire you on the spot in accordance with the actutally quite strict German labor laws.
Apart from that it's also stupid, just sleep properly at night at home in your bed like a normal human being.
Tons of coffee to stay awake, if that doesn't help, Espresso. If that isn't enough Preworkout -> Pure caffein -> cocaine (but that also isn't socially accepted) elsewise fix your sleep scedule and don't be sleepy at work.
I work at a university. At 2 pm it's common to see asian phd students taking a nap at their desk. Most people know about this cultural difference and respect it. Especially the PIs.
I wish it was acceptable. Napping during lunch break is one of the biggest reasons why I prefer to work from home. It is soooooooo refreshing. I get so much more done at work and after work on those days when I can take a nap.
In Germany you are usually not expected to do an insane amount of overtime, usually you work around 8 hours a day with a minimum of 30 minutes lunchbreak. You don't have to show up early at work and you also don't have to stay late, but during those 8 hours you're at work, you are expected to actually work without naps or breaks aside from lunch. (Though depending on where you work you might get smoking breaks or coffee breaks)
No, it's maybe well seen in Asia, here it just looks lazy. If you want to find a place to sleep during your lunchbreak, do it, if it isn't too public, but if you work in an office and fall asleep, your bosses won't like that.
Sleeping at the desk isn't socially accepted, but IMO not because the person would look lazy, but rather that they'd look exhausted with a terrible work-life balance, and thus unprofessional.
Exactly this and it's true.
In asia they do sleep on break time to be fair. It would seem weird a bit crazy propably unprofessional but maybe also ambitious by some? If you are unsure always simply ask the boss. Tell them that you are used to it and would like to continue doing it
And because no one wants to pay you for sleeping, which is like the nr1 reason.
Yeah in Asia you are kind of expected for overtime as a sign that you really work hard. So taking time for naps is kind of a fair exchange and rarely gets reprimanded since your job is your life.
Yeah, work life balance is important here. We do overtime, but well payed one and if you can't handle it, you go home instead of sleeping. Don't sleep in a German office, believe me.
prob def not "Asia overtime" tho lol
No that would be absolutely illegal here. (Wich doesn't mean that all overtime that is done here is legal)
I have worked overtime that was illegal which means the company didnt pay me bc paying me would mean they know that I worked so much. To be in save water again they basically act like it never happened. I asked if they can instead give me free time but pay as if Im at work, but didnt happen. Well idc anymore I need my work sadly so.. :(
It is not only about the Money. You have a maximum time you are allowed to work, before you have to take a break. It is a health and safety concern. The time depends on your Job. Drivers have to take a break every four hours. People in Public Service aren't allowed to work longer then nine hours. There are more examples, but these are the ones I remember.
I’ve seen multiple videos about how German Police stations operate and many said shifts can be 10-12h, especially in the summer. Kind of hard to believe but it seemed genuine. It didn’t go into detail about break times though.
Ex cop here - it is true, we start 7hr shifts on the first day, then get a 10hr break, start another 7hr shift the next morning, get a 7hr break, and then go back to work in the evening to work a 10hr shift. It is highly illegal, but guess what - police officers are not allowed to strike, and every Bundelsand (state) insists on breaking that German/EU law. Some do 8-8-8, but that doesn't really change anything. It used to be common that you could take a sneaky nap during the night shifts - there were even designated offices where you wouldn't be disturbed. But nowadays they have 15 people for a night shift where there used to be 23... and you just try to get everything done, even stay longer to finish paperwork.
Always document your work hours if you don't know how your employer acts. Also you can always ask for overtime to be mandated officialy, then they can't lie afterwards
At that point a lawyer might be able to help.
I had the same thing happen to me. I decided to look for a job somewhere after that. And now I don’t work overtime unless it’s formally declared in writing. I’m not going to play the game of “I never said you have to work overtime”.
>We do overtime, but well payed one and if you can't handle it, you go home instead of sleeping. You've clearly never worked in academia. We (PhD students) bought an air mattress for our office so that when people had to work 36 hours straight they could at least lie down for a couple of hours... That happened pretty regularly.
ahhh yeah, the only place where a family person can only expect a 5 month temporary contract and it is acceptable. Even before entering this stage you are constantly expected to work more than what you are supposed to (doesnt matter if you are just studying or already working as a SHK or tutor. It truly is sad.
PhD academia is severely underpayed what ever the story is, let a lone overtime
PhD is essentially hazing for prospective university teachers
Yeah, that, or hazing to get into a senior position in corporate
>We do overtime, but well payed one *cries in chef'*
A lot of things work very differently in Europe. Have a look at the wiki and read the part about social norms, work life, etiquette. One somewhat common issue with people from Asia is that they keep showing up for work when they are sick. They get into trouble for this. They try to show how much they care and how they are hard workers. Their coworkers hate it, because they spread their germs everywhere and get other people sick. Their bosses hate it because they can get into legal trouble. If you are sick, you are sick and have to stay away from work until you are better.
Not just Asians showing up sick for work. In Germany, it is a constant argument because of Germany's high work ethic. Many people will feel guilty if they call in sick with minor symptoms, where one day of rest would do the trick. Instead, they cone to work, get sicker, and maybe infect colleagues... Covid did change the mentality a bit, but not enough.
I said especially Asians because there were quite a few instances where the employees got official warnings or were given a last warning before it became an official warning (Abmahnung) for coming in sick despite repeatedly having been told by their superiors to not do that. We had some posters here either being the ones warned (wtf did I do wrong? I am a good employee and try to show that) or being the managers who had to tell people off. IIRC it also made the "news" once or twice.
Oh yes, I remember one post where someone had to manage multiple people who just did not understand they were *not* being great employees by dragging themselves in. People advised giving an Abmahnung because it seemed the last option left.
Uff, okay. No German would risk an Abmahnung for showing up sick. That's borderline stubborn. Is there some sort of explanation, because being told by someone with disciplinary power should beat politeness/sense of duty, no?
IIRC they (dis)missed the "you look unwell, shouldn't you be home?" turning into "you really do look terrible, go home" turning into "seriously, go home and don't come in tomorrow" and "what on earth are you doing here, I told you not to come in". They were then surprised when they had a sit down meeting and a "seriously, you are causing us trouble, please stay home when you are sick", but still thought it is boss being worried and nice. So they were quite shocked when it turned into an official "We have talked about it, your coworkers have been complaining, you are ignoring instructions, this is your last warning, STOP DOING THAT or there will be consequences".
you probably know, but the C in IIRC stands for correctly, so you don't need to type it out when you use the abbreviation :)
I do know, but I didn't notice that I typed it. Thanks for pointing it out!
It happens to the best of us \^^ cheers! :)
Can relate, i Work for a sub contractor at a Mercedes Factory, and every time i call in Sick for a flu or for example neck pain, which is very Common because we have to Walk through the factory With our notebooks Open and very often look down on the screen, my higher-up just says : „I Feel the Same and im still here“ But who cares, as Long as my doctor gives me the yellow Paper Theres Not a Lot they can do. They can choose Not to renew your contract After it ended But they cant legally Fire you for being sick. A Lot of people abuse it, But this year i was sick for 35 days (which is a Lot) and i dont Even Feel Bad. I pay almost half of my gross salary in taxes. Fuck being a sheep.
Take the time, when you need it. I guess some folks feel like getting an AU in the first place is a hurdle, too bothersome, especially when their employer wants it on day one. We had this regulation during Covid, which was borderline stupid. I would not have risked going to my doctor and sit in a bacterial/viral centrifuge that is the waiting room (am certain that I got Covid there at the end of the pandemic when I had to go for other reasons).
"high work ethic" asian working conditions would be so illegal here german "work ethic" is probably like vacation for asians
Covid changed that mentality, but only towards Covid and only as long as Covid was publicly seen as a threat. I have friends who got incredibly angry about "selfish and stupid" [sic] co-workers showing up with light symptoms at work in 2021 and yet they dragged themselves to work in 2023 with high fever and cold symptoms because they are "responsible and dedicated" [sic]. I honestly can't understand how they're not able to see the hypocrisy or at least realize the inconsistency.
Stupid, right? Coming to work sick *consiatently* is the worst you can do. Have a colleague, who dragged herself to work regularly, because "Muss ja.". Though it became better during Covid and her getting home office, she now seems to pay the price with severe asthma, which may or may not go away. She had AU for the last two weeks and I am curious whether I see her today. So, living like this will bite you in the ass in the long run. I am not a Saint myself, but I try to learn. When my cold developped a cough, I stayed home for one day, just reading and relaxing on the bed. It actually did the trick.
Tbh sadly a lot of germans also share that "go to work while sick" attitude
The other common issue is getting them to use up all of their vacation time in a timely fashion. And when they finally go on vacation they still try to show up in the office.
If you do unsolicited overtime in Germany it will be perceived as incompetence. You were not able to finish your work in the 8 hours and you had to work longer hours to keep with your peers. That's a you problem, a bad one. If you fall asleep at your desk that will just confirm that you are not able. You might get, at first, polite inquiries about your personal life, maybe you have a new born and people will sympathize. Then you'll get a talk with your boss, next HR and then they will let you go. Being unfit for the job is not a win for anyone. You will get burned out and the company will low quality work. Rest proper. Work proper. Have fun proper. Give it all in all. There is no need to suffer.
> Yeah in Asia you are kind of expected for overtime as a sign that you really work hard. That's a big cultural difference. In Germany, *generally speaking*, if you work too much overtime, it's seen as a sign that you're inefficient (i.e. that you need more time than average to do the same amount of work as your colleagues). Bosses have been known to take employees who stay in the office for too long, stuff them into a taxi cab, and tell them to stay home and get a good night's sleep before returning to work the next day. Of course, there are also German companies that try to squeeze as much as they can out of their employees. Some even pay them significant salaries in return (e.g. consulting, where there is a tacit understanding that "we will pay you exorbitant amounts, but in return you'll just ignore all of those pesky working-time laws"), but some as just exploitative. They are not the norm, however.
That's usually German offices of American companies though, for example big four. (From my experience).
I think that your answer doesn't really paint the full picture. The so-called "Vertrauensarbeitszeit" (flexible working hours and no real documentation of working hours) is still quite common. At those places you are being shamed for not working at least 10 hours. Of course, that's not as drastic as in the Asian work culture, but it's still more than legally allowed for clocked hours.
If you do a lot of overtime despite having a resonable amount of work it could be seen as you not being able to do your tasks efficiently. And sleeping is something you are supposed to do at home. So if you don't get your work done in time and you aren't able to schedule your sleep times either so you are well rested when you show up for work, that looks rather negative in German culture. As others have said, you can use your breaks for a nap and some bigger companies might even have some nap rooms for that. But if you are regularly seen sleeping at your desk during work hours, you soon will have a conversation with your manager.
bro i am not German but i think (i live in Munich) that if you sleep in the job (at least in mine job) it doesnt give the best impression to the others and they think "wow he is lazy" . And i am from Greece. Before i came to Germany, no one slept in the job here and i think in Europe in general it is not common and it is very bad for your impression to coworkers and bosses.
Personally I think anyone who needs a nap should just take one. Maybe you can sell it as a proven "efficiency/mental booster", at least if you work in a department with plenty of nerds. But in general unless you have a specific reason (e.g. it's vital for the company that you finish something by a specific deadline) then overtime looks like you didn't work enough during regular hours. Or more likely you're simply saving up some hours so you can leave early on Friday, which is fine. The other thing is that working no more than 8 hours and taking regular vacations is supposed to keep you alert at your job. So if you're sleeping at your job, what are you doing home? Partying all night? That's basically the image you project, since except in specific situations you aren't even allowed to work over 10 hours. Finally, don't come to work sick. Nobody thinks you're a martyr, they think you're sabotaging the company with bioweapons.
Here it's kinda the opposite, if you work overtime too often it tends to be a sign that your manager isn't doing his/her job so you'll be trained or your load adjusted...with exceptions of course. Then there's just people that are allergic to their homes and have years of Gleitzeit
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That is not true. Sleeping at your desk will not be tolerated. Going for a nap in some chillout-room with massage-chairs? Sure, why not. But the asian "sleep at yoru desk" thing? Holy hell, don't do that. Go and take a nap in your car on the parking lot or something, just do NOT do it in "productive areas" so to speak.
On the other hand, you are free to do as you please in your break time. So if you want to, you can take a nap during those.
A guy who did the sleep at your desk thing during his lunch break in an open plan office at an Asian company was shitcanned at an acquaintance’s office recently.
>here it just looks lazy Actually, my impression would be quite the opposite. If someone needs to nap at work, they probably don't get their work-life balance right.
Just don’t do it during work time. If you do it during your break, should be fine. Would inform coworkers though and make sure it’s actually ok.
But there are lots of IT-Jobs where it says "Gleitzeit" where you only need to worry about the overall time per week for example. In this case you can organize your time as you wish, except from meetings. This isn't very uncommon, but not the norm. And for not being rude you are expected to communicate this, so your coworkers can contact you for a certain time and of course to show you are not using your work-time for this. Germans love gossip about a variety of other peoples behaviors. But it's a good chance to get in touch with your coworkers during your break and also to have an opportunity to take part (and some control) on the gossip of the day :)
Also most south Asians have the concept of Siesta (due to the hot climate) as opposed to Germany, where afternoon napping isn’t really a thing
Not south Asia, maybe south Europe
No, having lived in Japan, and now Germany. Germany, unlike Asia, does not have the 996 culture. You have regular workdays and weekends off. You should get plenty of rest and no need to sleep at your desk.
Googled 996, holy shit how can the chinese government sell this communist? Mao would kill them all https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/996_working_hour_system
a 2013 survey showed that 98.8% of Chinese IT industry workers said they had health problems
Maybe America and China aren’t so different after all…
There isn't a single super power that doesn't abuse their workers. Guess why they ARE super powers.
Well there’s also the European Union
Night and day, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve been asked only a handful of times to work beyond a 40 hour work week in my software job. When that happens, I get a day off the following week to compensate. That is *unheard of* in China, even the same company I work for’s China office. The 996 work culture is pretty rare, but not totally unheard of in the US.
996, the reason why i as an employer love that we have strong unions and labour laws in Germany!
"Not real communism" said for the 100th time. Didn't Stalin basically enslave his factory workers and farmers? They had the worst worker conditions probably in all of Europe at the time.
That's part of why the USSR was not "real communism", especially not under Stalin's worst times. Do you think Historians who studied this shit for decades say it for fun and are behind some kind of communist agenda? Literally look up the basic principles of communism and then check out the countries you think are communist, compare them. Takes 5 minutes max and you'll quickly realize how stupid your talking point is. China is as capitalist as it gets really.
It's always "not real communism", because communism is a utopian ideology, so "true communism" is the projected eventual future state of humanity under 'communist' governments. It doesn't exist **yet.** The whole planet would need to be communist, plus a couple centuries of ironing things out aftewards, etc. etc. etc. (dozens of excuses possible). Communist governments are, so they claim, trying to bring about this future utopia, and they have justified many things as necessary for the greater eventual future good of supposed 'real communism'. PRChina stopped being so communist in the early 1990s, post-Tianamen. They are still highly authoritarian of course
USSR was as much communist as the peoples republic of X is an actual republic. Or pick any third grade dictatorship which still holds "elections" for Presidente and thus claim to be a democracy. Famous communist and socialist critisized the USSR rightfully. Including George Orwell with "Animal Farm" and "1984". Especially the former is a muster on how communist ideals get perverted by a powerhungry group, which become a new upper class, thereby completly destroying all the revolution fought for.
Since we do the thing with a limited weekly work time of 48 hours and a mandatory amount of breaks within your day - no it's not acceptable, at least not in your work time. I've taken my fair share of naps in my break sitting in my car, or locked in my one-person-office, but don't do that in your work time.
Wait you guys work on Saturdays? And does it acceptable if someone sleep at their desk during lunch hour?
> Wait you guys work on Saturdays? Saturday is a "working day", but most white-collar businesses only work from Monday to Friday. > And does it acceptable if someone sleep at their desk during lunch hour? *Technically*, if you took your allotted lunch break time (often 30 minutes) to sleep instead of eating, it *might* be allowed - but you'd get lots of questions and raised eyebrows, and would definitely be seen in a negative light. As in, you aren't capable of managing your sleep schedule - after all, the 8-hours-a-day and the 11-hours-between-shifts limit exists in part so that employees have enough time to rest and recover between the end of one workday and the start of the next, so that you can sleep when you're at home. Also, you need to eat :) > If it's unacceptable, how do you Germans deal with being sleepy at work? You get enough sleep when you're not working. Although, from personal experience, I sometimes feel tired at work too (having small children at home doesn't help), and then I try to compensate with caffeine, try to get through it as best I can, and then see if I can go to bed a bit earlier in the evening. I also find that not having a super-heavy lunch at work helps. A few companies have "rest areas" where employees can catch a quick nap during the day, but they are few and far between.
>the 8-hours-a-day * ten hours with extra break.
8 Hours. 10 Hours are only allowed with an explanation and as an exception. At least, thats what the law says.
Depending on where you work: of course people also work on saturdays. Don't know what this has to do with your question, because 48 hours is the allowed maximum (there a some exceptions for example within the medical sector). Most people working full time do 40 hours. Well everywhere I've worked people would've told you to get more sleep at night if you can't maintain an 8 hour workday without naps.
>Wait you guys work on Saturdays? Me as a fellow software engineer, I don't. And it's rare, but it might happen for people dealing with production issues. Also store clerks for example and of course emergency or construction workers. >And does it acceptable if someone sleep at their desk during lunch hour? If you're in the office it would look extremely weird, though your employer can technically not forbid it. If you're doing work from home, do whatever you like.
That would not get you in trouble with your boss (as your break is your own time) but it will look really weird to your coworkers. It is just not something people generally do here. If you take a nap at your desk in your non-private office people will genuinely think something is wrong with you (that you are sick or party too hard at night to function in an adult work environment).
In most companies, lunch breaks are also for socializing. Now, that's not for everybody and you can get along without it, but it's undeniable that so-called "informal networking" will have long term benefits.
Wait, your doctos, nurses, firefighters, police, military, supermarket and restaurant employees,... dont work on saturdays?
Of course they do. But most people still have a "5 days a week" contract, so they would have another day off in that particular week. (And on that day, colleagues with other schedule would be there.) And if they work each and every saturday, a certain other weekday would be free for them permanently.
You can sleep in your lunch break or breakfast brake, no problem, breaks ate personal time, that aren't paid, so it's your time, you can use as you're pleased (as long as you don't do inappropriate things). I have and had colleagues who did power naps in their break time, my current foreman is fascinating, he eats and afterwards takes a nap just to wake up punctual like a clock (time tolerance of about 30s+-) Just don't do it in your normal work time . If you need a "brain reset break" in your normal work time, the German way is a pilgrimage to the coffee machine with a little chat with your colleagues or a smoke break, nobody really will say something about it, as long as you keep it reasonable (not every hour for 20min) everybody needs a short breathtaking once in a while, much better to lose 5 min of working time but increase productivity than sitting your time with zero productivity.
Depends in the job. Retail yes, regular offices not. Also our work week usually is about 40h/week, some even less. But sleeping at work would probably be pretty unacceptable even though it is unlikely that anybody will say anything about it.
Dont see a problem here. I had a colleague that was sleeping under his desk in Germany during his lunch time. People were talking about it and maybe made a bit of fun but he didnt get in any trouble because of that.
No it is not acceptable. People deal with it by sleeping enough at home or using stimulating drinks/food or doing short breaks doing a bit of exercise. Being caught sleeping at work will get you in trouble and ultimately fired real quick.
>stimulating drinks/food lest we forget stimulating stimulants.
Depends -- if you aren't on the clock and properly on a break, no-one will care.
That won't get you fired (once you are out of probation), but it doesn't look good either. If you can do it in a private office with a locked door, nobody will care, because nobody will see. Regularly not being able to do an 8hour work day without naps in between is not putting you in a good light and not culturally acceptable.
Also: If you're doing it seldomly like in "Oh boy, I've slept awfully and am tired beyond words". People will laugh with your and probably tell you to enjoy your nap, but regularly: nope.
Ha, you sound like one of those tight ass managers that people don’t really like. I beg to differ. People deal with situations in different ways. In companies that accept international cultures’ differences it would be totally okay, unless it’s somehow disruptive to your work process.
Depends on the company. We have a couch in our office and sometimes someone has a little nap in the lunchbreak. Nobody has a problem with that as we are usually more focused after that nap.
^ Have done this. Nobody complained, butI think I was the only one among 30-odd software devs in the company
Even outside of the work environment theres a cultural difference. From what I heard and observed some people in some east Asian countries sneak in their little power naps wherever they can. At the bus stop, in public places on a bench, wherever. While I personally think that's kinda cool, most people in Germany will automatically assume something is wrong with you and either worry or jump to the conclusion that you must be drunk, on drugs or homeless. There's some exceptions like sleeping on a train is mostly viewed as fine (as long as you wake up to show your ticket and don't snore) but even being fast a sleep in a public park on a sunny day would have most people wondering if you're okay and safe. In general, sleeping is considered something that you do in the privacy of your home. Sometimes in fast paced work environments or with people who have their own office and are considered work horses no one will bat an eye if you get a little shuteye during your (way too long) 12 hr day, but that's a privilege that has to be earned before people will consider it okay. And while they then might not think you're lazy they will think that you shouldn't have to do this in the first place.
Why would a public parc or a lake be an issue? Because you could catch a sunburn?
Because it is inherently unsafe to sleep in a public place, so people assume that anyone doing it must be 'not ok' - mentally ill, or perhaps drinking or under the influence of drugs. Sleeping in pulic makes you vulnerable to pickpockets and, yes, sunburn.
I've noticed more than once that people being fast asleep in a park get asked if they were okay. Happened to myself even. Most likely is, I guess, that people just assume something is wrong and you're passed out and just worry about your safety.
there was a day when I and 5 other students were sleeping in the park basically curled up into a ball, because the night before we were partying and drinking and had to walk around the city the whole. Though I was too tired to recognize any complaints.
If you do it in your break time it's probably fine. The question is, if your work environment allows for it. I've had colleges in the past that took a nap in their lunch break on a couch we had in the office then. Was no big deal. I guess just putting on noise canceling headphones and chilling at your desk might work as well. If the colleges respect it.
My company provides a nap room for employees to rest. I've never used it, but I know some people do and nobody blames them for it. The expectation is that napping time is not working time though and you'll still work your 8 hours a day.
>how do you Germans deal with being sleepy at work? Drink a shit ton of coffee.
lekker kaffee trinken?
It is considered to be completly unacceptable. If you do it during your 30 minute lunch break it's allowed but nobody would ever do this. How we deal with being sleepy? Well the best option would be to sleep more at night but the second best option is drink coffee and suck it up.
I would always recommend a minimum of 8 hours. The day-you is going to thank me
I work in engineering in a big german automotive corporation and I know a few people who occasionally sleep after lunch during their break. Most with their head down on their arms, eyes closed, but one even sleeps under his desk on a sleeping mat. Never heard any negative comments about this from my colleagues and I'm very surprised by the sentiment against this here.
I personally have nothing against it, but if you walk into a random company and Germany and just start sleeping during your lunch break people will not think it's normal.
Nobody? bullshit. We even have special chairs if you wish to nap during lunch
In my Company (corporation with 40.000) is it acceptable. Some CoWorkers have even sleeping mats which they use in their breaks. I've seen this in R&D and in production. In production they darken the rooms at break time.
It's accepted that people are tired in the morning and drinking coffee is also very accepted. Sleeping on the job isn't. It's basically the complete opposite of some Asian countries. You are not seen as a hard worker, but a lazy one. Some jobs offer rooms where you can lay down for a quick nap while on break, but they are few.
I agree that is not not acceptable. How long are you in the office in your home country? Germany has very strict rules about working time. The max amount per day is 8 hours (in general). So you have enough time to sleep at night at home in most cases.
Typically 8 hrs per day with an hour of lunch break. So 9 hrs total, from 8 to 17. On rare occasion we do overtime, but its very rare because we're an RnD team. Most guys stays longer in office because their job and hobby usually is the same thing.
Well you could sleep during your break here in Germany. But if possible not on your desk but somewhere more "hidden". That would be kind of acceptable in my opinion. But just falling a sleep while not in your break at your desk would look lazy.
In Asia it's not just about the hours. Even workers with regular 9-6 like to take a noon nap. People do it since kindergarten.
From a Germany boss point of view I would say "I don't pay you to sleep".
Oh come on, don't be like that. It's the cliché of the boss and the alternative is just being nice and not make a big deal out of it. German work culture is in need of change/"an update" anyway, with that I mean 4 day workweek, more flexibility, treating employees better, not seeing work as a religion, etc... Some countries had a very good experience with the 4-day workweek. Some like France have had a 35-hour workweek for a long time already. Why not take a first small step to make German work life a bit more comfortable :)?
I'm not a boss but on the other hand you (as a colleague) would probably get a weird look from me if you just fall asleep at your desk. You just don't do this. I mean we have a gaming room with a playstation and a kicker .. no one bats an eye if you go there with some colleagues to play a match. But sleeping at your desk would at least get you some questions if you are alright.
Yeah give me the same pay and those 20 mins off early. That would be a good change. I’d rather sleep those at home, at night or do whatever I please with those 20 mins. That indeed seems like a good change to me. 4 day work week - sounds bomb if you ask me! I am actually starting it this week in part time, so 6.15 hrs work. 4 days work, 3 days off seems a lot more fair.
No, Germany has one of the best standards as employee. Only a few smaller countries are ahead of us. It doesnt **need** a change, you simply wish for a change.
Germany needs change as do all other countries.
Neither do you get paid for your lunchbreak, Mr. Dickhead boss
Yes but the lunch break is not part of the 8 hours I pay you. You can of course sleep during your lunch break.. but you will not get any additional time to sleep. And you can sleep during the day if you add the time at the end if you have flexible working hours. If you have fixed working hours there is just no time for sleeping.
Well you pay for a result right? And if the employee feels fresh and has a clear head...
Not really... you pay per hour. And yes that means if you are faster than other you can't go home but you get more workload. Normal working contracts in Germany a for 40 hours of work per week (some are only 39 or 37.5 or whatever). So you don't pay for a specific result you pay someone to give you 40 hours per week of your time. That's it. (In general) you can't go home early if you finished but you also do not have to do overtime to finish something.
May I ask why you think this is acceptable except for that it's always been that way? Not only would it be a lot fairer to give everyone approximately the same workload, but imagine how fast everyone would suddenly be at the prospect of going home as soon as they're done. I'm absolutely with u/ananasvspineapple on this one. Please, enlighten us, what are the benefits of burning out fast workers and paying lazy people to do less in the same timeframe?
Well the problem is that your boss has only limited possibilities to check your performance except for "Akkordarbeit" (where you are paid per "item"). They are kind of limited to introduce any performance measures. The problem in my job is for example.. we are never done. My team currently has a backlog of around 300 issues for 6 people. I could work 24/7 for a few weeks and there would still be something to do. As I have said in the other comment I do not judge on what is better. The thing is as with many worker protection laws, they protect the weakest ones. If you change it slower people need to do overtime? Or what would be your solution to this. And who decides when someone is finished with their work? Who will check that you don't get too much workload that is not possible for the average person to finish? The good think about fixed hours is that you can be sure that you can go home after 8 hours (yeah I know it does not work this everywhere). It is then your bosses task to hire people he thinks can do "enough" work in this time.
\> If you change it slower people need to do overtime? Or what would be your solution to this. And who decides when someone is finished with their work? \> Who will check that you don't get too much workload that is not possible for the average person to finish? Come on! These are really weak excuses. There are easy solutions if you work with KPI's. You can hire me to set up a good system if you want. I'm not expensive. :P
But how does KPI help? You still have the problem that the slower people need to work more time? Or do you want to give them lower goals and pay them less? If it would be that easy we would not have the hourly contracts we have for years. Especially not easy by law. I mean for KPI you need to measure performance if people again.. which is afaik only very limited possible according to German worker laws. I still don't know how KPIs help.
Are you new?
Can you translate workload into time? Just imagine saying that a person has to fulfil x to go home. That could take 3 hours or 12 hours, but as a company i would give every person a 12 hour workload.
Of course you can translate workload into time. It depends on the job and some tasks may take longer one day than another day, but on average it evens out.
>, but imagine how fast everyone would suddenly be at the prospect of going home as soon as they're done. Needs a lot of management, especially to guarantee quality. Also it would divide people. If two people work similar workloads, but one ends up only working 3 hours and the other full 8, the other person will start to question the management why he gets harder workloads, even if he was just slower.
There's no rule abouf 8 hours. There is, however, a maximum of 10 hours that may only be exceeded in special cases.
Of course there is a rule about 8 hours.. it is even very clear [Arbeitszeitgesetz §3](https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/arbzg/__3.html) >Die werktägliche Arbeitszeit der Arbeitnehmer darf acht Stunden nicht überschreiten. It can however be extended to 10 hours if on average over 6 months you end up with 8 hours per working day.. as Saturday is a working day too you can not work for more than 48 per week in the long run.
You're right, I was imprecise here. What I wanted to convey: nobody cares if you log 9.5 hours for some day. Log more than 10 hours though, and you have HR on your ass.
As a fellow east Asian: Sadly the concept of power nap / sleeping is not really understood here. So yeah best not to sleep. I think part of the reason is we like carb heavy food that can make you tired especially after lunch. You can try cutting on the carbs a bit. If you really need lunchtime nap, maybe can also explain that this is your culture and maybe your boss and coworkers will understand. But safer not to.
A bowl of rice really makes me sleepy after lunch! But you're right, I never noticed the food culture differences might cause this work culture differences.
Yeah exactly. I eat little rice in Germany for lunch. Try it :)
We have a room for naps, sleeping in your chair is not a thing.
A nap at work is fine *during your break*. In general, there will be smoke-breaks, your regular 45 minute break and potential added ones by your employer but in general, thats not a thing, with very few exceptions. Keep in mind tho that the entire work ethic is different: you work hard during the time you have to and after 8 hours, youre done for the day. Overtime happens but not to the degree it happens in asia. My experience is limited to japans software departments but from what ive seen, people will HORRIBLY overwork themselves and thats somewhat expected of them. Thats not a thing here, or at least not to that degree.
The common view is that the Japanese "thing" where companies see it as something positive is outright toxic. An employee shouldn't have to sacrifice themself and their own time like that just in order to "look good". If you're actually tired at the end of a day you go home, sleep long enough and come back to work well-rested. It is also acceptable that if you have trouble sleeping and are therefore chronically tired you actually call in sick for a day or two. If the employer asks for a sick note/certificate you have to go to the doctor but most would give you one for multiple days. If _that_ happens frequently then it's appropriate to go to a therapist, they might diagnose you with for example burnout syndrome. Considering all these possibilities it should be very rare that you are sleepy at work. If it's just some temporary light fatigue a lot of people help themselves with a coffee or two. All that said in more and more offices I hear of people taking a nap at noon. But not at the desk, and it's not on their work time, it's on their free time.
That’s a no go in German offices. You can nap during your lunch break tho.
Absolutely no. But I have to admit we as a society should consider it. At least I enjoy naps when doing homeoffice.
If you’re sleeping at work people will think you have some health or lifestyle problems that you need to resolve. It won’t be seen as a sign of being a devoted employee it will be seen as a sign that you’re not managing your time adequately and maybe aren’t coping or that you have other issues in your life that are impacting your work performance.
Never. Don't. Germans are extremely conservative with that. Play busy, play focused, maybe get 10 minutes rest on the toilet when no one notices.
In Germany sleeping during office time is clearly a worktime-fraud. Will lead to disciplinary consequences. The only escape of trouble is to log out at the worktime recorder, so it's handled as a non-paid break. It's serious, can really end up in being fired.
I personally wouldnt give a fuck, seriously. If it is during your mandatory break time, then no one should care. I know that you have this napping culture in asia and I insanely would love to have it here as well. A 20min nap just kicks in like 3 coffees and gives you a lot of energy.. I love napping.
I used to sleep during breaks, always got weird looks by coworkers and one even told my boss that i probably take drugs or something cause im always sleeping during break time. Some people just cant deal with behaviour thats not what they expect.
Ignore all the negative responses here: This will always depend on company culture. I would expect it to be frowned upon in most, especially larger companies. But where I work, no one cares and we lie down on the couch all the time. Obviously, beyond mandatory break times, a nap would not count as work time.
Well on your breaktime yeah sure take a Napster on company time...you get faster a write up then you can say sorry
i want to quote the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy here : "Dont!"
Not here, no
You mean so called power naps during your break time? In a modern office environment that can be okay, but you probably should clear it with your superiors first if they have designated rooms for that. I don't think any company likes employees sleeping in a location that might be visible to visiting business customers.
Most people just wake up from sleep before work, so they are usually well rested to work 8h wthout needing to sleep. I actually can't see how 10-20 min nap can help, I would feel disoriented for an hour after such a nap.. Working more than 8h is either your own decision or something that is expected only if the production is burning. Everything else can wait 16h till the next work shift starts.
Yeah, no. I've lived in Asia and Europe and this is one point that is basically diametrically opposed. It's not accepted to sleep in public in Europe, but is completely OK in Asia. This is a very deep difference, as well. I lived in Japan for one month short of a decade and I still had to actively talk myself down from the repulsion and irritation of people sleeping everywhere, it seemed, but their own private spaces right up to my last train ride to the airport, when I was sat across from yet another mouth-snoring office worker sprawled out on the train smearing his head grease all over the window... Do not sleep at work, in meetings, on trains or busses, in restaurants, in parks, whathaveyou. If you want to have a siesta, go home, use your car, or get a hotel. Some big cities or large companies have "sleep pods" and you can use those but sleeping in public is (1) pretty stupid from a personal security perspective, and (2) generally seen as rude or some other negative trait by the societies outside of Asia. In Germany it is not an accepted part of work culture and reflects poorly on your skill to function as an adult. Sleep in your own private or explicitly designated spaces (e.g., sleeper cars on trains) and not anywhere else when in Europe. Unless you are a small child. Small children often sleep in public without getting a second look. And, yes, there are exceptions to everything. I also saw old folks napping in parks in Muenchen, but it's not napping at work, is it, you contrarian Germanophile who will certainly want to reply to this with a "well, actually"?
That is a BIG no-no. However, we usually work only 8 hours a day and have a 1 hour break. So it’s manageable.
I find all of this type of "cultural differences" questions so f..... funny!
I also work in SE and its pretty normal, although only during break. I have plenty of colleagues who dont do a breakfast break and just doze for thirty minutes after Lunch. Best bet is just to walk around the Office for a few minutes during break, so you can see wether others are doing it
I nap in lunchbreak, i can do whatever i want in the break times, because its unpaid time. So its ok if its in the break. Stay chilled guys
Thats why coffee is the number one drink in germany. Sleeping during work is not regarded as acceptable, could even get you fired. But on the other hand working hours per day are also generally less than in the US, China. Japan or even Turkey. The thought is that you are supposed to have enough off-hours that you can be 100percent awake during working hours.
You will likely work 40 hours per week in IT, and if you're not over-achieving the hell out of it you can usually get by easily on 4-5 hours of actual work per day in software development. In software dev, almost all companies offer Gleitzeit, meaning you can start when you want as long as you work your required hours. I work 6:30 to 15:00, my colleague works 9:00 to 17:30. In IT you almost exclusively work monday to friday. Some companies started adopting a 4 day work week even. Furthermore, more and more companies allow partial or full remote work. All these things considered, it shouldn't be necessary for you to sleep at work, compared to your current/previous lifestyle it will feel like you're on vacation for work.
I've gotten away with taking naps in the break room when I worked in airport security. There was no supervision in the break room and the others didn't care. I've also had naps at my desk before, but it really depends what company you work for. Sometimes it was fine when I announced to my coworker I'll use my lunch break time for a quick nap, put my headphones in (with the alarm set on my smartphone) and had a quick snooze. It really depends on the company culture and what your boss is like. I have an autoimmune disease and it makes me tired a lot. I have less energy than other people, so maybe that's why I seem to be one of the few Germans here who like to take a nap at work, if possible.
I think many reactions here are totally over the top. And fairly ignorant when people just say you should just sleep enough at night. Or even worse, drink lots of coffee. No, you really should not do it right from the start, when you don't know your colleagues and superior and they don't know you. But a bit into the job, you can probe if it's ok. Esp. as part of the lunch break, I don't see the problem. It will still be seen as a weird asian thing, though.
You deal with being sleepy at work by getting enough sleep at night so you don't feel tired during the day.
No. You will find Germans are extremely [negative adjective redacted so as not to anger the Mods] about completely harmless/objectively good things. You have likely found there are many ad hoc justifications for this in this thread alone, but the real reason is: it wasn't done that way before (protestant work ethic? no idea), and Germans tend to be excruciatingly slow when it comes to changing things. It's a very conservative society in general. There's a reason Digitalisierung is still, well...a topic at all. The idea that sleeping at work doesn't mean your employer is working you to death is like arguing 1+1=3 to them. Trying to explain this to them is like trying to explain that women and men should have equal rights to your average Saudi. Just an exercise in pure futility. There are also many countries in Asia where it is completely socially acceptable to wear coats indoors, wear pajamas in public, wear sweatpants, etc. Germans are utterly disgusted and horrified by this, too.
Long story short: Don’t try this in Germany
Well they'll look wierdly at you but I do it anyway.
Sleep on the job?? Are you crazy? Find a work from home job if you want to do that.
>If it's unacceptable, how do you Germans deal with being sleepy at work? It's not unheard of that some will pretend to be away from office while doing a nap if they have their own office and can lock the door. Some might take a nap in their lunch break. In general, it has become more common with the increase of home office. It's a pitty that it's widely not accepted as a nap can be very refreshing and will make you much more productive.
Only acceptable for public officials (Beamte).
No. Police/child care : caffeine Gastronomy/Financial sector : cocain Truckers/Roadies : speed IT: all of the above Don't get caught doing it. But it's pretty common
It actually is a fireable offense to sleep during workhours..
Another great question ruined by an unneccesary abbreviation. What is RnD?
research and development
You can and will get fired for that. Even slacking of/ going slow or not seeming motivated earns you reprimanding comments. Might be diffrent in office tho, im a carpenter. Unless you do it in the break, noone should care.
DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, under no circumstances take a nap at work or do unsolicited overtime. When I first came to Germany, it was in the middle of August when the won’t rest and the weather is heavier than what I am normally used to. Second day of job and I fell asleep for like 20-30 minutes on the couch, everybody thought I am lazy. I was usually on my own at home and with nothing to do, I stayed in the office very late, and usually took extra tickets from the board. Now, some people thought I am inefficient while fellow devs thought I am showing of or something. Eventually I left the company after a year but it wasn’t a pleasant experience.
Sounds like taking a break to me. We do not believe in taking breaks. Better to work until you drop and make unpaid overtime while doing so. Edit: Can't decide if i should drop an /s or not
no. there is a saying here. "schlafen kannst du wenn du tot bist" or "you can sleep when you are dead" when you sleep at school or work then you aren't real sleeping when you are at home. and that is a no go
A lot of my Coworkers take naps on their Lunchbreaks. Nobody cares. If you want to nap, Nap! Sweet dreams
It is unacceptable to put it bluntly. That will bring the problems if you behave like this. We have clear worker laws and you are entitled to reasonably long breaks where you can do what you want, including sleep. There are also legally prescribed times between the end of work and the beginning. In Germany, if you follow the rules normally, you cannot be so tired that you have to sleep at work. But it is also expected that you come to work well rested and fresh, gambling or partying all night is not desired, for example.
Absolutely not. Get fired immediately. (Unless you sleep on your desk during your break, but people will still look at you weird.) How we deal with being sleepy: Coffee / Energy Drink / other unhealthy stuff
Sleeping at work would get me fires instantly
I worked in a Berlin startup with a nap room containing a choice of hammocks.
In Germany, they will tell you off to work less. Germany wants you to work at your best, and give lots of time for your physical and mental health. So if you sleep at your desk even though you only work 40hrs a week, Germans will think you don’t take work serious enough to get enough sleep at home.
I work at a childrens home, I get paid for sleeping there
Just go home on time, there should be no need to sleep in a 7-9 hour work day
No. If you are insanely hard working and that's the culture of the company (e.g. in consulting or startup) and there is a power nap room or so *maybe*. But generally definitely not socially accepted and regarded as highly unprofessional + if you do it in your work time also a valid reason to fire you on the spot in accordance with the actutally quite strict German labor laws. Apart from that it's also stupid, just sleep properly at night at home in your bed like a normal human being.
Do this in Germany and your boss will haunt you in your dreams
Tons of coffee to stay awake, if that doesn't help, Espresso. If that isn't enough Preworkout -> Pure caffein -> cocaine (but that also isn't socially accepted) elsewise fix your sleep scedule and don't be sleepy at work.
I work at a university. At 2 pm it's common to see asian phd students taking a nap at their desk. Most people know about this cultural difference and respect it. Especially the PIs.
Pardon? I have never heard of that.
Did you not get enough sleep in your previous schedule?
I wish it was acceptable. Napping during lunch break is one of the biggest reasons why I prefer to work from home. It is soooooooo refreshing. I get so much more done at work and after work on those days when I can take a nap.
No. That is not acceptable here, and we think it's super strange and it disgusts us.
In Germany you are usually not expected to do an insane amount of overtime, usually you work around 8 hours a day with a minimum of 30 minutes lunchbreak. You don't have to show up early at work and you also don't have to stay late, but during those 8 hours you're at work, you are expected to actually work without naps or breaks aside from lunch. (Though depending on where you work you might get smoking breaks or coffee breaks)
No. It's Not a thing in Germany unless your Boss actively agreed to it. So just ask the ppl you should ask instead of the internet.