Annual working time

The once again flaring discussions about the annual working hours deeply annoy me – with all due respect.

It is high time for Germany to recognize the historical advantage it holds – and not squander it. We are one of the last bastions that understood the need to buckle down. The anachronism of an annual working time tied to the human body is not among the solutions we should be seeking now.

If we continue to waste our time in so-called bullshit jobs, in activities without meaning, without effect, without dignity, we will miss the decisive step into a new work ethic that combines the desire for productivity with intelligence, humanism, and care.

The digitization, as promising as it sounded, has so far not delivered a boost in productivity comparable to the achievements of the industrial revolution or electrification.

→ There is no right work in the wrong system. The solution is not to work more. More time at the office, more hours in the system, more perseverance mantras in the calendar year – all this is a relapse into the fallacies of the past. Instead, we need a change in consciousness. One that dares to rethink work. Not as quantity, but as quality. Not as duty, but as contribution. Not as an empty placeholder action, but as a practice that gives meaning.

→ A productive country recognizes the value of smart work. A progressive country recognizes that digitization is more than automation. It is a cultural challenge. An invitation to refine the way we work. Those who no longer feel that work has anything to do with their own existence become alienated, and this cannot be compensated with more working hours, with the call to the workbench, the shovel, or the next empty meeting.

What we should do is negotiate an ethical renaissance of work that does not pit productivity against humanity but harmonizes both. One that re-establishes mutual care as the fundamental principle of the division of labor – for others, society, the future. One that calculates not only with algorithms but with meaning.

We need to move away from fatalistic digital toys. The construction of digital action figures can be fascinating – but it is not the answer to the question of how to make our world fairer, smarter, and more livable.

Germany has the potential to be not only productive but also pioneering. Let's finally use this potential. With work that creates meaning because it offers direction.