日本人は働き過ぎと言われることがあり、残業することは仕方ないという風潮がありますが、ドイツでは、残業に対してどのような考え方を持っている方が多いですか？

Japanese people are known for their hard work and have a tendency of flippantly working overtime. As a whole, how do most German feel about overtime?

Question

日本人は働き過ぎと言われることがあり、残業することは仕方ないという風潮がありますが、ドイツでは、残業に対してどのような考え方を持っている方が多いですか？

​Japanese people are known for their hard work and have a tendency of flippantly working overtime. As a whole, how do most German feel about overtime?

nici1902 · Answer

@Maaaaaaai Most germans really dislike/hate having to work overtime but we do it if we have to. If somebody works a lot of overtime hours we call them "workaholics". For many germans it is unbelievable how much japanese people work. German people do have a good work ethic/work hard but we try to do all of that in the hours we‘re actually meant to do it in and tend to push it into the working hours of the next day to finish something if it‘s not urgent. That‘s what I can say from the people around me :)

Anki · Answer

In Germany we have quite strict working laws.

For example: In most companies you are not allowed to work more than 10 hours a day or 48 hours a week.
So, if you have a 40 hour contract, you can only work 8 hours overtime. 
If you have a 35 hour contract, you can work 13 hours overtime. 
Bigger companies have also worker's councils, which make sure that the company is following those laws.

Plus, overtime hours aren't cheap. There are two possibilities: you get paid or you collect for example 7 or 8  hours and have a paid free day extra, 14/16 hours for 2 free days and so on.
Because of that, employers think often twice if they want you work overtime or not.
Because of that, a lot of employees are in general fine with working overtime. Because it's an exception and/or needed.

How about Japan? 
Is overtime paid? Do you know the concept of a worker council?

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