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Professional life in Germany is appalling. I had sales manager talking to me with bad English and with a condescending tone. Managers - especially when they are white German males - have no idea about social skills. You find yourself sitting in front of an arrogant male genitalia who grumpily interrogates you about your work. You can only survive here if you work for an international company, with a manager outside of the country.
I’ve had the worst working experience here in Germany of all the countries I’ve lived in. True, you should never work at a company with all Germans. They will talk about you behind your back, bullied/mobbed you and make you feel unwelcome. German managers will play head games and make you think your work isn’t good. In truth they just don’t like you because you are a foreigner. At first, you think maybe it’s just this job. You go to another job and maybe this time it’s more foreigners but you find out it’s the same shit. If you don’t have the money to leave then it’s better to take state assistance than work here. Take state assistance and figure out how to get out. Luckily Germany isn’t a gun country like America. I promise you there would be a whole lot of work place shooting in this poop hole. These creepy Germans make me freaking sick!!!
My first few weeks at my current job felt VERY awkward because no one talked to me or asked md to join them for lunch or anything. But then i noticed they are also silent amongst themselves and never go to lunch in groups. It is actually considered weird to say hello in the morning or goodbye in the evening.
Basically when you're working with Germans you better get ready to talk shop and nothing else. There's no "how was your weekend" or "how are you" or anything even after you were sick or went on holiday. They find it weird to talk about private stuff and think they are showing respect by not asking personal questions. They like to have a clean professional divide between work and private life.
I don't know If this country really needs external workforce.
I know so many people who came to Germany to study - including myself- ( masters, Phd) and after graduation they were not able to land into a job for months and eventually, they gave up. Some of them decided to move on to other country (Holland, Austria, UK, France, Brazil) and they managed to find great jobs in less than a month. They all have engineering or business degrees such as IT project management masters.They were also not able to speak any local language but obviously, that was not showstopper in France, Austria, Brazil or Holland. They are all happy that they decided to leave Germany.
I also have couple friends who decided to stay and managed to find jobs. Myself also. I was so naive that, I was considering Germany as good place to work. It is not obviously. All others who decided to stay have been working for 50.000 € per year gross and looking for opportunities to move on.
I need to keep working here at least two more years to be able to support my move to other country. I also need to find a new job because I was resigned before Covid situation and my prospective employee decided not to onboard me.
What are your experiences ?
So tomorrow we have another Feiertag. A day when everything closes and the whole city is even more depressing. Just like Sundays! Its so backwards.
Every park in Berlin is freaking poison. They're all overcrowded so much that the meadows are basically just dirt after the first sunny day in spring. And they're full of weird public pissers all over the place because Germany's too poor or too cheap to install public toilets. Fine, if you really have to piss in public then at least be discreet but so many nasty men here will just whip it out like 5m from your blanket. Then there's a ton of drug dealers all over the place. And of course, if the park is a little bigger and has some empty areas then it's not uncommon to accidentally startle gays having sex in public. Seriously every single park I have seen has issues. Maybe there are a few decent parks in West Berlin where people generally seem to be a little better educated but man this city is cancer.
I used to think Germany was a pioneer in architecture and design. Bauhaus, Jugendstil, modernism, etc. But after coming here all I see is cheap and overused building materials. Everything looks like it’s sourced from the same place (like the ubiquitous green fences). Website, advertisement, and display design is non existent, tacky, and/or dated.
yes! That nasty green fence!!! You get large villas in Gruenewald or the like and they still have these ubiquitous, ugly green monstrosities.
Everything is 'praktisch' or stuck in the past/dated, as in post-retro. Even the stucco on Grundetzeit or Jugenstil was out of a catalogue here... mass produced... not indidvidually crafted.
Other thing, regarding the facades, they do not know how to preserve an aged, distressed look like italy - the masters. Buildings are 'overly-maintained' i.e. have curious shades of nasty pastels slathered on to death to try to look 'brand new', which then disappointingly removes any notes of character and charmed ageing.
I hate these fences. Often they won't let you go on green areas. I wondered why does nobody move them away. Some stations for example have field, meadow like areas nearby, but also sporting fields are fenced off. It's wrong and stupid, just freaking stupid.
Next time a German says you should learn German or integrate in Germany ask them if they mean like the Germans in Russia that maintained their language and culture so strongly that Germany still recogbizes them as Germans 100s of years later. Or the Ex-nazis and commies that fled to South America that built German schools and entire communities, where people are still named things like Stefan Meier. Or if they mean like the Germans that moved to colonial USA like Müllenberg who tried (unsuccessfully) to get laws published in German. Or the ugly Germans all over the world who still send their kids to GERMAN schools even though they live in a non-German country. These pigs are the kings of nonintegration.
Petition to re-name Berlin “curs-ed vortex”
"indianer"
www.cbc.ca/cbcdocspov/episodes/searching-for-winnetou
I left Berlin last year. Best decision of my life. Never felt so incredibly unhappy living in a place. Berlin has a weird energy I guess, a collective depression... a demon that has grown over centuries of horrible things that happened there... I don’t know. It is weird... as soon as I left, I came back to myself again. And still today when I tell people how bad it was, most people don’t believe me. “But it’s so great! Such a creative city! So progressive...” Yeah - try to live there and fornicate off!
Totally true. A weird energy, maybe from past horrible events. But also from clear sources. It's pretty dingy/trashy for a capital city in a wealthy country. Overgrown lots with graffiti, trash. Building/construction projects that are so slow they might as well be abandoned. Homeless people everywhere. Unreliable businesses. Simmering racism in the working-class white districts. And I'm convinced their "boomer" generation carries an intergenerational trauma, that makes them pessimistic and overly fearful. All of it contributes to a general lethargy and depression. And it that won't do it for you, the winter certainly fuckking will.
Where I am now?? Salzburg in Austria! Here’s the deal: I am Austrian but lived in California for a decade. Wanted to move back to Europe and the idea was - when Europe - then a progressive and cool place. Well, try trading California with Berlin! Two places that are the polar opposites... it was a tremendous shock experience for my psyche. What was I thinking?? Berlin (or Germany as a whole) only has this facade of progressiveness... it’s not! Might as well live in an Austrian village. I hated this pretense of a liberal, open minded Berlin... well, it’s not. Ausländer bleibt Ausländer - Even in “liberal, open minded” Berlin... its a joke! And I couldn’t take the staring and extreme social awkwardness...
Now I live in Austria again where I grew up. It’s not California; it’s narrow minded as f.u.c.k.! That’s for sure! But having lived now in several countries, the Austrians do seem friendlier and more chatty than the Germans. At least, nobody expects Austria to be open minded and liberal etc... Salzburg isn’t cheap either, but there are mountains really close by and the city is really beautiful. But planning on going back to the US, not now, but definitely some day.
Date rape is so common in Berlin that they sell bracelets at the drug store that you can use to make sure that no one has put drugs in your drinks. There is enough of a demand for this product in Berlin that every drugstore carries it in their very limited product selection. This is a mainstream product. Think about what that means.
Germans are all exactly the same. Every German thinks Die Ärtze is a cool band. Every German thinks Stefan Raab is funny. Every German watches soccer. Every German will sing the theme song to the Gummy Bears cartoon if you sing the first line. Every German hates AfD and any party that has ever cooperated with AfD in the slightest. Every German loves döner. Every German watches Tatort on Sundays. Every German owns a stupid book called "Europa" that they received from school when they finished 8th grade. Every German will laugh if you say the word "Maschendrahtzaun". Every German either goes biking or hiking on the weekends.
It’s funny how people think Berlin is a place they can “be free”. Really it’s not illegal in most developed countries to where whatever outfit you want or party hard. That’s your personal decision. But there are many MANY limiting and broken up thinga about the German government and system that will oppress you that you can’t opt out of. Not sure why this city is STILL being hyped
What are divorce laws like in Germany? Do they give custody to the German? Ugh
It’s funny how white trash American can go to Berlin and thrive because literally anywhere in Europe they would not last. You cannot dress like that anywhere else. Germany is like freaking texas
I may have to go in and out of Berlin to get something. I’m scared. I’m worried something bad will happen. Something will go wrong. Maybe someone will punch be in the street again randomly. I cannot feel at ease in that place.