Antiwork

German here, there are a bunch of "buts" worth mentioning, before everyone mistakes our country for a socialist utopia:

For starters, the notice period for employee and employer are identical, mutually agreed upon, and can be 1-6 months. If the OP was fired with 3 months notice, that simply means he would have to give equal notice when resigning. Usually it's however expected to work all through the notice period and not just relax at home.

Secondly, a compensation is voluntarily, unless being fired due to socio-economic circumstances (as opposed to bad performance). In such a case, 1 month compensation per 1 year worked is often recommended by labor courts (maxing out at 6 months). Again, those are not mandatory unless it goes to an arbitration tribunal or court.

Thirdly, being allowed to take classes or other further education measures typically only exists for elderly layoffs with limited chances of finding qualified employment, or people with very limited skillset. Again the only exception is when being terminated due to socio-economic reasons, where the company agrees to pay development measures as part or in lieu of a settlement.

Unemployment benefits apply once the employee has paid social security contributions for minimum 12 months without interruption. In the first year they are due to receive 70% of their former salary after tax (there's a cap though, I believe it was 2800 EUR/month).

If they still didn't secure a new job, they are entitled to receive 484 EUR plus housing (based on actual cost; again capped and with a size restriction, I believe it was max. 20m² per person in the household). To qualify for this second stage of benefits however, the person must not have any assets exceeding 10k EUR, else they'd have to use those up first).

Medical insurance however is available all through without any caveats.

The place I work has had an amazing 5~10 years. Constantly surpassing prior revenue "far and beyond what we expected". And yet, annual raises are capped at 3%. No matter how well the company is doing, nobody gets a raise higher than 3%. 7% inflation? Fuck you, here's 3%. Management wildly speculates about the coming year, and misses targets? Fuck you, here's 1.5%. Sure, the company grew wildly last year, but not as wildly as they predicted, and they just can't afford raises this year.

Coupled with all this growth meant a hiring spree. As the company grew, it seemed like there were always new faces walking around.

Then, the rug pull. Their #1 customer (about 50% of the business) announced they wouldn't buy anything in 2024. Management found out in September. Before announcing anything, management forces everyone to sign a non-compete agreement. Nobody is allowed to go to work for a competitor, supplier, partner, customer, or start a new business in the same sector for 2 years after leaving the company. The agreement is filled with scary clauses such as forcing the ex-employee to pay all of the company's legal fees in the event of a disagreement.

Once everyone signs (a few people left instead of signing), they announce the loss, and say that a lot of people will lose their job in 6 weeks. December 23rd. Christmas. This is painted as the CEO being generous in letting everyone know ahead of time, so they can make arrangements. Actually, it's their legal obligation (look up the WARN act).

Remember that surge in hiring? Some of those people had only been with the company a few months. Some of them came from our competitors. Suddenly, they're out of a job, plus they just signed an agreement that's going to probably force them to move to get another one.

Yes, I know, non-competes are generally unenforceable, but that's not the purpose. Because they're not enforceable, they're written to scare employees into not testing the company's resolve if they ever leave or are fired. Someone suddenly out of work usually won't take on that risk.

So yes, I'm a little radical now. I don't hide it, I'm the "office socialist". And I found out I'm not alone.

It should be mention that to actually get fired is also a lengthy process where it's on the employer to document e.g. unwillingness to perform assigned work and prove the employee has been given the opportunity to improve etc. etc.. You can't just tell someone they're fired, get out, or you'd be in a world of hurt.

At least that's how it is in Norway and I assume Germany is similar in such regards.

My first job was working in a property management company. At one point i was tasked to check all flats of a new property that got assigned to us, after the client bought it. I had to go through 30 flats in a day, to assess if there is legal possibilities for increasing the rent of people within the legal limits, based on the condition of the flat.

Going through the personal space of so many people in a single day, having to deflect about what the purpose of this is, being met with worry and hostility... There being the guy who took the day off, so he could assist his old mother, because she would have been overwhelmed if by herself. The guys who had a strongly water damaged flat in the ground floor, but me already knowing that our client will avoid any investment. The old couple where the guy kept yelling at me and his wife trying to calm him down...

This was just wrong. And now like a decade later i still remember some of the people and their flats, even though i couldn't remember a single name.

Peoples homes shouldn't be subjected to a profit maximizing market.

Worked in insurance for 9 months. Was treated like absolute shit, got paid way too little, and was told profits were what mattered, not the good of the patients. Came out of that job so broken and jaded.

Starting at my first job and being promised a 90 day review and pay increase. Only to he told at 90 days that they've changed the policy going forwards.

Not in workplace, but seeing older people in my country fetishizing suffering and injuries during work, and thus them throwing a temper tantrum every time workplace conditions improved, or the worst thing: not getting covered in oil during office work, and blaming said office workers for economic downturns for "being a deadweight on the economy", and effectively calling them not workers. All while fetishizing CEOs of companies that do "real work" because they sometimes photo themselves in a designer-made "dirty" worker's clothing (which costs like thousands of dollars) on the construction site.

One of the most ghoulistic such incident was under a news report of a female employee cutting her finger off at a quite infamous Hungarian supermarket franchise, and how her bosses didn't let her to leave for the hospital. One such boomer said it was right for her bosses to stay, because it's just a "minor injury", and scars from it would be cool to show for crying little boys that injured themselves during play. Everyone but other boomers bodied him, but you have to remember our country is being shaped for these very boomers that won't live for very long, but are insisting on passing their trauma onto the younger generations.

My peer was let go last year, and they received their full benefit package for a year, two weeks pay for each year of service (he had 28 years of service, so 14 months pay) and a "lump sum" of $15,000. He was in management, but everyone who was laid off got the same deal which included many individual contributors.

From what I have seen and heard there are many American companies that do this, the problem is that there is no law or other regulation that says they must. It should be this way for everyone, no matter who your employer is.

10 years in consulting. 2.5 to 3.0 billing multiplier for my labor. Even an “employee owned” corp. Still basically a pyramid scheme run by rich white men.

Being informed that "from now on, we'll use Microsoft development tools" because our branch in $other_country decided to.

Soon after that, I informed the boss that I'd wrap my projects up (using development tools of my choosing) during the subsequent year, and then leave, and support the projects in future as a subcontractor.

So I went and started my one-person-company. It was hard, but so far it has worked.

The last bit is somewhat similar to Sweden. There is no minimum wage in Sweden as it is negotiated between unions and employers. Employers could easily fire an employee as compromise of this deal, I suppose. However, a fired employee receives training from union to help with finding a new job.