Germany is faced with a new stage of economic challenge, and at the Center for Discussions there is a generation of Z - young workers who occupy their positions in German companies. However, the attitude towards these youth is far from unambiguous: the leaders of the largest enterprises criticize the new generation, imposing responsibility for it for some of the economic difficulties. Thus, for this reason, frequent hospital, which, according to Fortune, can reach 20 cases a year. This situation has given rise to an acute debate about the efficiency and adaptability of young workers who have come from central topics in German society.
The publication writes that millions of Germans take hospitals so that they do not work at a speed that is almost four times exceeding the one observed in the United Kingdom. This gives a completely new content of the nickname of the country "Sick of Europe".
The Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) study, the largest German health insurance fund, showed that in 2023, workers missed an average of 19.4 working days due to a record illness. Another record year of lack of work may also be recorded after 5.7 million Insured TK employees have registered 14.3 million hospital days for the first 9 months of this year.
Although Germany has largely avoided technical recessions, Germany's economy decreased by 0.3% in 2023, and this year is expected by 0.2%.
In 2022, in Germany, employees took 15 days of hospital. For comparison, in the United Kingdom, workers lost 5.7 days due to illness of the same year, the German Association of Pharmaceutical Companies operating in the field of research (VFA), claims that, without the average number of hospital days, the German economy would increase by 0.5% in 2023, and would not decrease. This means that a high incidence rate in Germany cost its economy about 26 billion euros last year, according to VFA.
These results did not slip from the attention of Germany's employers, who seem not convinced that their employees were really sick. One unnamed leader of the leading manufacturing company informed FT that workers have a "complete reluctance" to understand what victims are needed to prosper the country's economy. He identified "careless" young employees as a special problematic case.
"And then everyone is surprised why Germany is a sick person of Europe," said the head.
