German Business Methods.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 13, 27 March 1912, Page 11

German Business Methods.

Tn an interesting article on the "German at Home” in the "World’s Work,” Mr. J. H. Collins remarks that the German business inan works abominably long hours. He and his clerks are on hand at eight in the morning after a cun of coffee at home. At 9.30 everybody, stope fifteen minu.tes to eat a bit pf Jiread and butter, brought in the pocket,' At udon, two hour* ira allowed to go back home for

a hearty dinner. Tn the afternoon an other stop for tea or coffee, after which everybody works, through . till eight in the evening; so that the German bu.-i uess people are catching trains for home and supper about the time Engli-b people are going to the theatres. “Even in retail shops and factories, the pause, or “powza,’’ as it is pronounced in German, is rigidly observed. Workmen stop in the morning and afternoon for bread and beer, served from their canteens, and every retail shop, large or small, has a place where clerks can warm and eat food. At noon, many of the employes find time for a nap at home, and the ‘boss’ almost invariably takes a snooze of an hour or so on the sofa, which is a fixture in every private office. This habit is so ingrained that in many cases, especially outside of Berlin, business men will halt a transaction at the sacred dinner-hour, to resume after they have eaten and slept. . . .

‘‘The German has a vast assortment of quaint beliefs about his stomach. Food must be put into it cautiously six or more times a day, and his strict idead as to what may be done to the stomach

and what may not lead him to condemn our three simple meals. His stomach guides him in selecting a wife, and its general state after marriage is the latter's rating of efficiency. Stomach

governs German business ways, too: for, just as he and his staff are getting on with the day's work under a good h?ad of steam, the whole machine is stopped for a'powza’ and laboriously steamed up

again after each snack, with the out come that no more real work is done, usually, than in our shorter day. “Five years after a German clerk is hired he will appear before his employer, click his heels together, bow deeply, and call attention to the fact that he hui been there five years. Does he expect an increase of salary? Not at all! This is merely the German respect for length of service. By doing so, he politely intimates that he thinks he must be. of some use around the place or he wouldn't be there. At the end of ten years, fifteen years, and twenty years, the same reminder is given; until, when the twenty-fifth anniversary comeg rounl, the boss is looked to for a handsome jubilee dinner.”