I’m now at week 3 of my 7 week contract project here in Berlin.   I’ve gotten used to my German keyboard layout, I’ve learned not to go for irony when making jokes, and with the help (and patience) of some friends here, I’m even building up my Deutsche vocabulary, however slowly (I’ve decided to ignore the various grammatical cases and noun genders – and the resulting 16 different situations affecting how one says the word ‘the’ – for now).

Anyway, over the past few weeks I’ve had ample opportunity to pick up on some of the differences differences between how Germans and Americans approach technology, both in and outside of the workplace…

it’s easier, bein’ green….

It’s well known that they’ve got the whole environmental friendliness thing going on over here to a greater extent than we do back in the states.  What’s interesting, though, is the extent to which simple and well thought-out technology is helping to not only making this possible, but to make it easy as well.  One example: the bottle deposit return kiosks at the supermarkets here in Germany.  You insert your bottle into the small circular opening, and from there it’s sucked a bit further into the device by conveyor belts, rotated  until a bar code is read, and then either accepted and ingested into bowels of the machine or politely slid back out to you. When complete, a simple receipt for the cashier is printed out. Utterly painless.

Another example – the Berlin subway doors don’t open automatically, you have to press a button.  It might ultimately be a particularly American quirk that the pressing of such a button would constitute too much of an extra effort – and granted, NYC subways are often so crowded that’s it’s hard to imagine a situation in which every door on every car at every stop wouldn’t have to open – but I’ve got to think there has to be some potential energy savings there if they all didn’t open automatically (especially since our cars are air conditioned).

Yet another example of how just a little simple technology (although not quite as simple as a button) can conserve energy and more than pay for itself comes from the German squash courts I’ve been on during this trip. In the states, the courts are lit all day, which come to think of it, takes a lot of energy (a squash court is a bright place).  Here, though, as I poked my head into my first darkened German court, looking for the light switch (and already imagining having to go back to the desk and say “Machen Sie mal auf die Licht für Squash spielen bitte?” or something equally wrong…), I was pleasantly surprised: a motion detector turned the lights on for me (it’s amazing what doesn’t even occur to us in the states sometimes).

Another thing I like about Germany?  In the US, the bicycle is either a recreational toy or athletic equipment.  Here it’s considered a vehicle, and is treated as such.  To me, this just makes a lot of sense, especially in the city – but like the button-enabled subway door, its not a concept I see gaining any real widespread acceptance in the states any time soon.

the european vacation…

It’s also well known that European workers get more time off – in Germany, the legal minimum is five weeks vacation plus (on average, depending on the state) 14 bank holidays.  In contrast, there are there are 8 national US holidays, and the minimum number of days off required by federal law is, um, zero.  In practice, most US workers average about 10 days of vacation plus the 8 major holidays, although there are exceptions (the last time I checked, it’s been three weeks now since there’s been a new episode of the ostensibly topical ‘The Daily Show’).

What’s surprising, though, is not the amount of vacation time employees receive over here – you expect that (especially in August).  Rather, it’s the extent to which that vacation time is allowed to affect the day-to-day running of things.  In the US, the concept of a “vacation” dictates that there be as little impact on the business as possible (preferably none) – so prior to a vacation, clients are notified, projects are prepared for hand off to coworkers, out-of-office voice mail and email responses are carefully put in place, and ‘just in case’ cell phone numbers are exchanged.  Not so in Europe, where time off is sacrosanct – here the vacation seems to be something more akin to the weather: an act of God that’s difficult if not impossible to plan for much in advance, and like inclement weather, in the event a client or vendor’s vacation does spontaneously occur, often all one can do is react after the fact by canceling or postponing previously made plans.  For several weeks.

Perhaps it’s just that the service-oriented US companies I’ve worked with have happened to have been particularly demanding in this regard, while the European ones have happened to have been particularly worker-friendly.  Perhaps if I was a university professor (or Jon Stewart), the disparity would appear less striking.  Regardless, the situations I’ve found myself in have so far have happened to lie at either extreme – maybe a sensible middle ground would be a good balance to strike.

in general…

On balance, I’ve been more often impressed with the role technology plays in daily life here than I’ve been disappointed.  One example: the Berlin subway, like most other European subway systems I’ve ridden on, has large LED signs on every platform counting down the exact number minutes until the next train arrives.  I can’t tell you how much nicer this somehow makes waiting for a train.

And once you’re on the train, another pleasant surprise: nearly ubiquitous cell coverage.  This is great – not that the Germans use it much, though: European cellphone etiquette dictates minimal usage in confined public spaces (those one-sided conversations one is routinely treated to in packed Manhattan elevators would be unthinkable here).

Some comparisons are less favorable, though.  For example, apparently it’s still not expected that residential internet access be the reasonably robust utility it is back in the states, as I found out while troubleshooting my non-functioning USB cellular access stick.  Upon installing the software and seeing no cell service from my centrally located Berlin apartment, I was cheerfully informed by tech support that there was a months-old known cellular data network issue in my particular neighborhood, and it would be another several months before it was resolved.  While such honesty was refreshing, with a spouse (and a life) back home in the states, the prospect of no internet access from my apartment for the duration of my stay here is disappointing.  I’ve since been depending on wireless networks in cafés and restaurants as a workaround, but while I’ve found them almost everywhere, network access protection (always a good idea) is even more prevalent here than in the states (although usually it’s the older and weaker WEP algorithm).  Luckily, most have been happy to trade their password for my business (although poking out emails on an iPhone in a café remains no substitute for having an internet-connected laptop at home running Skype…)

Under more normal circumstances, though, I wonder if a little less connectivity outside the office would necessarily be a bad thing.  Have you noticed that the window of time in which you’re expected to answer a personal email in the US has been gradually shrinking, to the point that there’s essentially no difference between the use cases for email and SMS?  (thank the smart phone…)  Until I came here, I hadn’t either – but in Germany, a personal email exchange is more likely to occur over the course of several days rather than within the hour.  This too is kind of refreshing.

in conclusion…

At the risk of stating the obvious, it’s an interesting and enriching experience to work abroad.  In fact, in my opinion, the best way to truly experience another country is to work there – I highly recommend it.