What makes your company tick? Do your managers expect you to give 100 percent every day, necessary no matter what condition you are in? And are you open to the four-day week – or do you get annoyed when you even hear this word? Employees have very different answers to these questions because opinions on these topics vary widely. Bosses are increasingly faced with a central decision: Do we continue to work as has been the case for decades – or does the satisfaction and productivity of the workforce not benefit from change?
The latter, for example, is suggested by the first results of the pilot test for the four-day week in. Our author Stefan Boes spoke to several managers from necessary various companies who have already implemented the model – and they reported positive experiences. “I can say that my colleagues are happy with it. “It has worked economically so far,” says Roland Walter, managing director of the Planwerkstatt architectural firm. Manuel Schmid, owner of a property management company, also emphasizes that some employees only initially worked overtime – but now hardly any.
Give 100 percent every day? This is completely unrealistic
Our satisfaction with the job doesn’t just depend on how much we work – the expectations of managers are also crucial. Many always demand 100 percent as soon as their employees show up at work. Due to her Long Covid symptoms, entrepreneur Martha Dudzinski realized that this was completely unrealistic – even for those who do not have the disease. “We can’t do the same thing every day. We may have slept badly. We may have gotten bad news,” she says in the interview . And there are other factors. If the manager necessary does not understand this, health offers in the company will not be of any use in protecting employees from exhaustion. In her book “Consistent 60 Percent,” Dudzinski believes: We can do more with less work.
Are you one of the many employees in who are longing for a change in their working life? There is hope for you: The pressure on employers to initiate change is necessary increasing. The more companies report positively about the four-day week, for example, the more attractive jobs that offer exactly that are likely to be for employees. “The number of applications has tripled,” explains Carola Weise, managing director of the Nuremberg Children’s Home, after she introduced a four-day week.
Incidentally, many Olympic necessary athletes are also longing for change – namely in the dress code for female athletes. You can read why US track and field athletes were recently outraged about this under “The Serious Sides of Life”.
Katrin Seyfert’s husband was only in his early 50s when he developed Alzheimer’s disease. As a result, she not only has to look after their three children alone, but also him. In her book “Lückenleben”, which my colleague Irene Habich (+) reports on , she tells how difficult and stressful it is to care for a loved one necessary who is seriously ill. “You can love someone even though they are disappearing more and more, even though you sometimes think, I can’t do it anymore,” says Seyfert.
A general problem in care is the social expectations that it is difficult to live up to: “Relatives have to wear a halo, you have to do everything with joy.” Seyfert ultimately had to make the difficult decision to take her husband to a care facility. Care at home was no longer possible. She expected that it would be the worst day of her life. Then something happened that she hadn’t expected at all: her husband immediately liked the home.
Praise and recognition, togetherness, helpfulness, tenderness and gifts that come from the heart are the “five languages of love”. At least that’s how Pastor Gary Chapman saw it in his world-famous book of the same name. However, scientists and couples therapists question Chapman’s necessary concept, as our author Simone Niemann reports . Psychologists Amy Muise and Emily Impett found no evidence for his claims in their evaluation. There is no evidence that people only prefer one love language – and that there are exactly five languages for measuring human affection.
Couples and sex therapist Ann-Marlene Henning agrees with the psychologists’ argument that the method is not scientifically based. From their point of view, however, one aspect is much more crucial: Does the concept of love languages help people – or not? Henning sometimes uses it necessary himself in therapy. For example, if she notices that two people’s love languages and their desires are very different, she recommends Chapman’s book and encourages people to study each other’s language more intensively. But “believing that you just have to crack each other’s code for everything to be okay is a myth,” she emphasizes.
Pia no longer wants to live with her mother. The 14-year-old has been growing up in a youth welfare group for five years. “For me, we are like family here,” she told my colleague Saskia Heinze (+) . She is not related to her siblings. But they share a similar experience. Her birth parents are no longer able to care for her. You are overwhelmed by this task. When she was nine years old, Pia decided that she no longer wanted to live with her mother. There were days that were relaxed. But there were also the days when she had to fear beatings.
It was then recorded by Christiane Drugs. She is the head of the privately owned residential group. Drugs and a team of educators are on duty there around the clock. Necessaryalso grew up in a home as a child. She knows what it can mean when children experience violence or arbitrariness at home. “I want to create a new home for my kids here,” says the 56-year-old. However, it is not a given to get a place in a residential group like Pia has. The need for places in child and youth welfare is higher than ever – but at the same time there is a shortage of staff.
Do necessary particularly like to teach their fellow human beings? According to moralism researcher Cord Schmelzle, it is unclear whether this is really a necessary quirk. In the interview he explained to me why some people teach others. “There are probably two psychological needs coming together here: recognition and dominance,” he said. People, on the other hand, do not like to be taught because moral instructions are particularly painful.
Sporting goods manufacturer Nike is currently having to put up with accusations of sexism, as my colleague Irene Habich reports . The company recently unveiled its clothing designs for the USA Olympic team. A pink bodysuit intended for American track and field athletes caused necessary outrage. It has an necessary extremely high cut on the legs and only barely covers the crotch in photos. “If this outfit was really conducive to good physical performance, men would wear it,” former professional athlete Lauren Fleshman commented on the outfit online.
Skimpy clothing for female athletes is still common in many sports and was often even required for a long time. For several years now, more and more women have been advocating for changing dress codes. The Norwegian beach handball team also rebelled in 2021. The Norwegians necessary exchanged the classic bikini briefs for short cycling shorts at a game during the European Championships to protest against this. The organizer, the European Handball Federation EHF, then imposed a fine of 1,500 euros on the players. And in other sports too, women feel uncomfortable or sexualized – but are met with incomprehension necessary when they protest against it.
