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Interview with Barbara and Steve Hall - Part 3
Working for a US company in Germany
In Part Two of this interview, Barbara and Steve discussed their German skills and how they coped (or not) with living in a small German community and in a foreign culture, plus the “trailing spouse” syndrome. In this segment they talk about German business practices, travel opportunities, driving on the autobahn, dogs in Germany, and more.
Expat Interview - Part 3
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Steve Hall welcomes in the New Year during a visit to London. Travel was a welcome bonus for the family in Germany. Photo courtesy the Hall family. |
Steve Hall: I’ve often been asked this question since returning to the States. There’s a big difference between working for an American company in Germany, and working for a German company. I could go on for a half hour or more about it, but let me just hit some high points. Some key things to consider include:
- Salary. It depends on the job of course, but I found that salaries in our industry (engineering and construction) are nearly the same (Germany compared to the US). The problem is that Germans face higher taxes and higher costs of living. So Americans expect to receive much higher compensation to compensate for the higher costs. This creates friction with the Germans who don’t want to pay so much. Why should they? Especially with unemployment being so high. Moral: try to negotiate a deal where you’re paid from the US side, with a German component added in to compensate for cost of living differences.
- Contracts. Nearly all Germans work under an employment contract. American expatriates often don’t; they just have some kind of assignment letter. Because the Germans are so used to their contracts, it’s very important to get the terms of an expatriate assignment completely defined in writing. We left some of our assignment details unwritten. This was a big mistake because the Germans wouldn’t honor the oral promises. They thought our deal was already exorbitant so they weren’t about to kick in anything more than that which was written. On the other hand, once written in a contract or assignment letter, there was no problem at all with compliance.
- Taxes. Try to have your employer pay for tax equalization and tax accounting.
- Holidays and vacations. Simply, there are a lot more of them in Germany than in the USA. Expatriates get different deals with regard to time off. I had one friend whose company gave him exactly his US schedule - that is, 3 weeks vacation plus the US home office's eleven company holidays. He took off on Labor Day, but went to work on All Saints Day. The Germans in his company got 30 days vacation plus all public holidays (total changes depending which ones fall on a weekend; unlike the US, holidays falling on a weekend are not taken on the next Monday). My company had a middle policy: we got all the public holidays, but only got our US vacation plus a week. Some expats get the whole shebang: holidays, six weeks vacation, Gleitzeit (flex-time, time off to compensate for overtime), etc.
(For more on these topics, see the GW Business and German Holidays pages.)
GW&M: If you had to pick ONE element or aspect of living in Germany, what is at the top of your list, your biggest favorite?
Barbara: It allowed us to travel! Where we lived in Stuttgart, we were centrally located only two hours from France (Strasbourg) [German: Strassburg; see map below], Switzerland (Basel or Zurich), Munich, and the Austrian Alps. It was a six-hour drive to places like Amsterdam, Paris, Venice, Vienna, and Berlin. We even took a short “English break” in London one winter. Living in Germany, we could travel to those places because they were so close. It was inexpensive (compared to traveling there from the US), and we could afford to take the time, especially since we had so many long weekends due to the German holiday system.
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| Map adapted from the Herrenberg website. Used with permission. |
Steve: I enjoyed traveling on a micro level the best. By that I mean taking the time to get below the tourist-surface. I spent a lot of time near our home, exploring the forests, fields and villages on my bicycle. It’s exciting to “discover” remnants of the Middle Ages, in the form of old buildings, castles, walls, and roads.
Barbara: Another great thing is how dogs are treated.
Steve: That’s right! Gizmo had a wonderful time in Germany. We took her everywhere except to the grocery store. She had long walks in the fields. We took her to the mall. When Barbara was away on outings, I took her to work. Gizmo even came with us to Hohenzollern Castle; in some of the rooms we had to don special slippers in order to protect the floors. But Gizmo was permitted to simply walk along with us, even though it was raining that day and her feet were potentially dirty! (We were good citizens though, and carried her on the tour).
GW&M: And your least favorite thing?
Barbara: For me it was the difficulty in running a household. Everything seemed to be a struggle, ranging from shopping for basic necessities to getting things fixed in the house. We had a tiny refrigerator that needed restocking almost daily. But when a two-day holiday butted against a Sunday I started feeling the stress build about a week before! We used to make emergency trips to the airport on holidays — to go shopping! They had a small grocery store there, complete with deli counter, that was permitted to stay open every day.
GW&M: I found it interesting that Steve thought the Germans were pretty good drivers. Some expats I’ve interviewed in the past might not agree with you. What impressed you the most about German drivers?
Steve: I found German drivers to be very predictable. And they tend to follow the rules. I know they drive fast on parts of the Autobahn, and I did too! But off the autobahn there are strictly-enforced, reasonable speed limits. It’s uncommon for people to pass you on the right [...and illegal in Germany, Ed.]. Weaving in and out of traffic is rare. We didn’t hear people honking their horns much (except in Munich!). Of course my boss was an exception. I tried to sit in the back seat whenever he was driving. Several times I saw him peg the speedometer, in excess of 250 km/h (155 mph). One time I was in the office when he called in from his car phone. He ordered his secretary to call a client and give instructions for the client to call him in his car. She replied (sweetly), “Here’s his number, why don’t you call him directly?” My boss replied, “How can you expect me to dial the phone to call him while I’m driving with one hand on the wheel at 220 km/h (136 mph)?”
Barbara: I felt that German drivers were very impatient! I thought they’d weave in and out of traffic at high speeds on the autobahn. In local traffic they were impatient, especially if you didn’t start up fast enough at a light or if you weren’t keeping up with the speed limit. Twice, German drivers followed me home because they were angry at my driving. I pulled out of a parking space in town, cutting off another car. He was so mad that he followed me all the way home. When I stopped in our driveway, he rolled down his window and yelled something at me. I just told him I didn’t know any German; that shut him up!
GW&M: You also mentioned your problems getting used to things like “right has right-of-way.” Can you comment on that and any other things that were different?
Barbara: Here’s the rule: unless there’s a sign to the contrary, the car on the right at every intersection has the right of way. They have signs that signify “priority” roads, ones that indicate you have the [right-of-way at intersections on that road]. The “residential zone” (30-Zone) signs mean that all streets within the zone must yield to the right at every intersection — and you must drive less than 30 km/h (18 mph) throughout.
(For more, see the GW Autobahn and Driving in Germany pages.)
Steve: It took us the whole two years to get the hang of this. Now, when I drive through our suburban American neighborhood, I find myself stopping for cars coming out of side streets. It’s infuriating.
Barbara: The problem in Germany is that this rule is hard to follow, even for Germans! Lots of people stop at intersections even when they know they have the right-of-way because they’re afraid the other driver won’t stop.
Steve: It’s hilarious to me when there are big signs reminding drivers to yield to drivers on the right. The only law more useless is in New Jersey, our home state, where the rule at traffic circles is that there is no rule! Each traffic circle’s yield pattern is up to local custom! But that’s a story for “The American Way” Web site.
Barbara: Another German custom that gets me messed up are the sudden changes in speed limits. In the US, you get on the Interstate and put it on cruise control. You could drive for hours without seeing a change in speed limit. Not so in Germany where I think they change the speed limit just so they can collect speeding revenue.
Steve: Those traffic cameras are completely unforgiving. It was fun the day they set up a camera in our driveway. Every other car that drove by must have been “flashed.”
Barbara: Driving to school, the speed limit on the autobahn went from 120 (km/h) to 100 to 80 in a short distance. They used to set up a camera behind the 80 speed limit sign! That one was a money maker!
Steve: I liked the sign on the autobahn east of the airport. It was a big blue rectangular sign with a “120” printed on it. I kept asking people what it meant, but nobody knew. This particular stretch of road is straight, with three lanes in each direction, and has good visibility. I found a similar sign (but not quite the same) in the driving rules book; eventually my driving instructor verified that it meant “recommended maximum speed.” Apparently, you don’t have to adhere to a recommended maximum (there is no speed limit in this particular area), but if you have an accident while exceeding the recommendation your insurance company can refuse to pay for the damages!
Barbara: That’s like the rule about shoveling your sidewalk. Each resident is responsible for clearing his sidewalk of snow. They figure you can get up and shovel by about 7:00 a.m. So if someone is walking in front of your house and slips on ice, the insurance company will pay damages if the fall occurs before 7:00. But after that, if you haven't shoveled, your insurance might not pay!
In the next installment the Halls talk about the boys’ schools and education in Germany.
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- Business in the German-speaking World
- The Autobahn - Is it really free of speed limits?
- Driving in Germany - Do you know the rules of the road?
- Snow and Ice Removal in Germany - What you need to know about winter in Germany!
- The German Way Expat Blog
- The German Way Forum - Join our forum, where we share info and tips about life in German Europe.
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ON THE WEB
- Nufringen.de - Information about “die Gemeinde Nufringen im Kreis Böblingen.” In German only.
- Steve and Barbara’s Life in Germany - Online slide show with photos concerning the family’s two-year stay in Germany. Part of the Halls’ Americans in Germany website.
- See more related links in Part 1 of this interview.
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