What Grinds Your Gears? :)

[Barkworm]

Civil service in Germany is kind of grinding my gears. I‘m an appointed civil servant myself so I do enjoy the benefits but when I look at my school, it is way too safe once you get in. I have a colleague who has just gone on extended sick leave for at least the third time in the last five years. And by ‘extended‘ I mean for more than five months at a time. All this for full pay! Can you imagine someone like that finding work anywhere else? And this is just one example, I know several other people like that.

[IndigoErth]

And they can just do it...because they want to, no reason required? Like, I dunno, battling cancer or being a full-time caregiver?

[Barkworm]

No, you need to get a medical report of course. But some doctors will just write them without looking into it too much. In the case I mentioned, it‘s something about her foot? No one really knows. Sure, in case you‘ve got something really bad, it‘s amazing to have this kind of security about your job but there are too many people who take advantage of it.

You can take a guess how people usually react when they find out you‘re a civil servant.