Germans often talk about work. Euphoria rarely arises. Always is something. Sometimes the working conditions are unbearable, sometimes there is a lack of social appreciation for one’s own work and sometimes it’s just the mean mammon that is fortunately missing.
For many workers, their job seems to be a constant source of dissatisfaction. However, one occupational group should be the exception: the craftsmen. This is the result of a survey by the IKK classic health insurance fund. In the survey, 700 craftsmen were asked about their job satisfaction and compared with just over 1,300 workers in other occupations. The artisans win. The IKK classic, which insures many craftsmen, should be well suited to this news. The industry meets on Wednesday for the “Zukunft Handwerk” congress.
Craftsmanship can shine particularly when it comes to the question of whether people consider their profession to be meaningful. 92 percent of craftsmen agree, compared to just under 70 percent of the general population. What a sad thought. Three out of ten people who sit on the S-Bahn in the morning think that the reason for their journey is actually pointless.
And as a rule, the train driver – whose colleagues are on strike in the fight for more money – will not even be one of them. According to the American anthropologist David Graeber, it is above all the office workers who consider their jobs superfluous. The members of middle management who simulate work in endless meetings and then create feedback sheets about what was discussed, which ultimately end up in the drawer. So people who could be swallowed up by the earth and nobody at work would notice. Graeber created the term “bullshit jobs” for this.
What more do you want? Society wants more
Craftsmanship is not one of these. Every heating installer who installs a heat pump can go to sleep in the knowledge that they have made a small step forward in the energy transition. What more do you want? Society wants more. The order books of many companies are fully booked for the next few months. A craftsman in the circle of friends has become a valuable asset. The Central Association of German Crafts estimates that there is a shortage of around 250,000 skilled workers in Germany.
Why does the interplay of supply and demand not work properly? Their desirability does not reach all craftsmen. Many employees complain about hierarchical structures in the company, meager pay compared to the “bullshit jobbers” and still a lack of social recognition for their job. According to the survey, the craftsmen are therefore happy employees. Now you just have to believe it yourself.