The call to work more "leads astray"

The HR chief of Commerzbank is fighting against the widespread part-time work in Germany. However, the mere demand for more weekly hours may not bring about significant change. Labor expert Alexander Spermann sees employers as being responsible.

Approximately one third of the workforce in Germany work part-time - "that's just too much," finds the HR manager of Commerzbank, Sabine Minarsky. Germany, Austria, and Switzerland need to free themselves from the "part-time culture," writes the manager in view of the skilled labor shortage on Linkedin.

Economists, companies, and politicians have been calling for more working hours for months due to labor shortages. They see Germany's future economic output at risk. Labor expert Alexander Spermann, however, sees the companies themselves as being responsible. "Simply the call for more hours leads us astray," says the professor of economics at the FOM University of Economics and Management in an interview with ntv. It's about offering top conditions to employees so they can work productively.

Companies should not only demand more working hours but also ensure that those who want to work more can do so. Surveys showed that part-time employees, on average, would like to work more. Employers should therefore enable their employees to work more from home, for example when their children are sick, and offer more flexible working hours. In subsidies for childcare costs, the labor expert also sees a solution. The state cannot solve all the problems, as, for example, the number of kindergarten places is limited.

Germans work relatively few hours, as Spermann explains - but they do so very efficiently. In this, he sees the key to the future: It's not just about more, but highly efficient work. "Then we can afford to work fewer hours than others." However, this is not the case at the moment: Germany is lagging behind in digitalization and is not at the forefront of flexibility in working hours and locations. "We have to make it work."

"We have the pension at the boiling point"

Stepstone CEO Sebastian Dettmers also refers to productivity as a solution to the skilled labor shortage. "The fact is: We have the pension at the boiling point, we have the healthcare system at the boiling point - we have to finance these just as necessary investments in the education system and infrastructure," he says in the ntv podcast "Startup - Completely Honest." "How do we get there: with more productivity or more work? One of the two has to be it." Politicians neglect productivity in the debate in his opinion, and even lower it, for example through short-time work in "outdated industries."

Spermann also emphasizes the importance of better childcare, but through the state. Women are stuck in the part-time trap because they have no childcare for their children. "It looks completely different in the Scandinavian countries," as he recently discovered during a stay in Norway. He asks himself: "Why don't we get that right in Germany?" A Stepstone survey among parents also showed that two thirds of women in part-time work would like to work full-time or "full-time" if childcare for their children was guaranteed. According to the Statistical Federal Office, half of all women in Germany work part-time.

"Deeply rooted in our culture"

Dettmers sees the problem not only in kindergartens, but also in schools where short-term closures are common. "There is something deeply rooted in our culture, namely that we assume we can just close a kindergarten, a school, because there is someone - in brackets: the mother." This is wrong and not the case in Scandinavia or France. France kept kindergartens and schools open during the Corona-Pandemie, while Germany did for months. "Parents don't have a lobby", says the CEO of Stepstone. "They don't demonstrate, they don't loudly demand their needs, which is a big problem" - a problem that society should care about.

Commerzbank-CEO Minarsky, however, is not concerned about part-time employees who raise children or care for relatives. According to the Statistical Federal Office, more than a quarter of part-time employees work without a specific reason less than full-time, especially older employees reduce their working hours. Minarsky wants to encourage employees to increase their hourly rate again when their children are older, as she explained in an interview with "Handelsblatt".

The personnel manager sees the companies also responsible: "In the past, as an employer, we have not focused deliberately on the fact that employees increase their part-time quota." In the Babyboomer generation, there was no need. Now, as they retire, it is up to the younger generation. Minarsky does not consider this generation lazy: "I don't have the impression that the young generation is less performance-oriented and wants to work less."

Despite Commerzbank's HR chief advocating for reducing the prevalence of part-time work in Germany, labor expert Alexander Spermann suggests that Commerzbank and other companies should prioritize improving work conditions to encourage productivity among employees, especially women trapped in the part-time trap due to insufficient childcare options.
The labor market expert Alexander Spermann emphasizes that the solution to Germany's skilled labor shortage and future economic growth lies not only in demanding more working hours but also in offering top conditions to employees, enabling flexible working arrangements, and subsidizing childcare costs to empower part-time employees who wish to work more.
In his view, Stepstone CEO Sebastian Dettmers highlights the need to focus on productivity as a solution to the labor shortage rather than mere increased working hours, noting that Germany's existing high efficiency allows for fewer working hours and better work-life balance, while criticizing policymakers for neglecting productivity and exacerbating the part-time trap through measures like short-time work in outdated industries.