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Deutsche Bank Chief Tells Germans: Work Longer and Harder (politico.eu) 176

Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing this week urged Germans to work harder to help restore the country's economy. From a report: "Investors are already doubting our ability to reform, but especially our ability and our will to perform," Sewing said at the Handelsblatt banking summit in Frankfurt. "More growth in Germany will come only if we also change our attitude to work; if we are prepared to work differently, but overall to work more and harder." Sewing said that EU citizens work about 34 hours a week on average compared with about 28 hours in Germany.

He argued that Germany should embrace longer work-weeks. "We won't manage it with an average of 28 hours per week and a pension at 63," he said. The euro area's biggest economy has been digesting a slate of negative economic data recently. For starters, the German economy contracted in the second quarter of the year, while at the start of the month, the manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI), a key indicator of industrial sentiment, flashed negative, marking over a year it's been in negative territory.

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Deutsche Bank Chief Tells Germans: Work Longer and Harder

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 05, 2024 @08:08AM (#64764788)
    You first.
  • by fph il quozientatore ( 971015 ) on Thursday September 05, 2024 @08:11AM (#64764800)
    Shame.
  • by nosfucious ( 157958 ) on Thursday September 05, 2024 @08:21AM (#64764818)

    Oh God! Won't somebody think of the Billionaires and their Super Yachts?

    • Oh God! Won't somebody think of the Billionaires and their Super Yachts?

      Some countries already do, by means of a wealth tax.

  • by khchung ( 462899 ) on Thursday September 05, 2024 @08:21AM (#64764822) Journal

    After decades of ratio CEO:worker pay ratio, it is getting obvious that CEOs do not deserve all that money.

    Before asking anything from the workers, the CEO should start with slashing 95% of his pay.

    • by khchung ( 462899 )

      I meant after decades of ratio of CEO:worker pay *increase*.

    • by laughingskeptic ( 1004414 ) on Thursday September 05, 2024 @08:30AM (#64764866)
      In the United States, the CEO-to-worker compensation ratio reached 399-to-1 in 2021, but in Germany this number was closer to 7-to-1 in 2020. At a small cyber firm in Frankfurt I am familiar with, the owner only makes 20% more than the most junior employees. Young Germans make more than young Americans on average and their bosses make way less.
      • by Tom ( 822 ) on Thursday September 05, 2024 @10:29AM (#64765328) Homepage Journal

        Germany on average, maybe.

        Deutsche Bank? Not at all. Someone else posted the numbers. I don't know the average salary within Deutsche Bank, but from the CEO salary it looks like he's not far away from 399-to-1

    • If I owned a company with a billion in revenue and the top tier CEOs are 0.5% better than the next tier but want a five million a year vs a million, I will take the five million a year CEO. I will also take the time to measure and evaluate the CEO. If my current front line workers are getting the job done at $15/hr then I will keep paying them $15 per hour. If I could get better workers for $20 an hour I would only fire the current workers if I knew the $20/hr ones are more than 33% better. It likely is
    • Ratios (Score:5, Interesting)

      by JBMcB ( 73720 ) on Thursday September 05, 2024 @09:10AM (#64765034)

      I calculated what would happen if you took all the executive compensation from Ford - CEO, CFO, President, vice-presidents, executive directors, etc... and distributed it to all the salaried workers, they'd get a raise of about $200 a year. The average salaried worker at Ford made between $80,000 and $100,000 a year in total compensation, so that would have been an increase of about 0.2%.

      The ratio of compensation is much lower for German companies, so the overall increase would probably be much lower.

    • by m00sh ( 2538182 )

      After decades of ratio CEO:worker pay ratio, it is getting obvious that CEOs do not deserve all that money.

      Before asking anything from the workers, the CEO should start with slashing 95% of his pay.

      When you mean CEO worker to pay ratio, you mean CEO of fortune 500 to worker of fortune 500.

      That's comparing the salary of 500 CEOs to 50 million workers of these companies.

      If all CEOs then there are plenty of "CEOs" who are make nothing or at most make as much as their worker (who is themselves).

      If being CEO is so high paying, why doesn't everyone just become a CEO?

  • As automation increases, humans should do less work, not more. You can not fix the lack of jobs-problem with working more, you just take work hours from some people and give them to others.

    Instead, you should change the taxing system to focus on taxing companies instead of workers. This is obviously hard as it can scare companies away or just force them to close the shop. This kind of system has multiple benefits, including cheaper workers, which increases productivity, gives things to do people, distribute

  • by Altus ( 1034 ) on Thursday September 05, 2024 @08:24AM (#64764834) Homepage

    Do they get a better life? Do they get more comfort and happiness? Or does this just enrich the lives of the elite as the economy grows and lets them buy a new yacht?

    Folks in the US work a lot more and our economy is "good" but the workers are not the ones feeling the benefits of that good economy.

    • by vlad30 ( 44644 )
      Workers are the low hanging fruit in the taxation system they generally can't do anything to avoid paying it. Companies and the rich will just move to a lower tax region or do some fancy accounting.
    • by hawk ( 1151 )

      In the context the statement was made, the worker gets a solvent pension.

      This was a "the math doesn't work" statement.

  • by jbmartin6 ( 1232050 ) on Thursday September 05, 2024 @08:25AM (#64764838)
    This is just normal human behavior, other people are generally biased to advise you to do what benefits them, not necessarily what benefits you
  • by FritzTheCat1030 ( 758024 ) on Thursday September 05, 2024 @08:25AM (#64764842)
    https://paywizard.org/salary/v... [paywizard.org]
    Christian Sewing
    CEO - Deutsche Bank - Germany
    Born: 1970, Germany

    Annual: $9,837,410.00
    Monthly: $819,784.17
    Weekly: $189,180.96
    Daily: $37,836.19

    How much do you think the average Deutsche Bank employee is making? The ones he thinks should work longer and harder? Do you think their average annual salary is more or less than this guy makes in 2 days?
    • by rossdee ( 243626 )

      So that CEO is getting 190K per week.
      I am retired now, but in July I was getting $25 per hour. I would have had to work 7,567 hours per week to get that much.

  • by MeNeXT ( 200840 ) on Thursday September 05, 2024 @08:32AM (#64764876)

    What the summary should read is that we should all become investors. $100/week invested will suffice for your retirement at 55 if you start at 25. Now if it's greed that is motivating you then nothing is ever enough.

    My answer to this banker would be stop hoarding the wealth.

  • One step closer (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Thursday September 05, 2024 @08:46AM (#64764934)

    As the wealth gap keeps growing and the wealthy keep telling us we just need to work harder - like they're not the ones setting the rules making us poorer while they get richer - we get closer and closer to pitchfork / guillotine time.

    The incredible gall it takes for someone who makes an annual minimum wage EVERY DAY telling the workers to buckle down is obscene. Nobody should make that much more than the lowest-paid full time worker.

    • by Tom ( 822 )

      As the wealth gap keeps growing and the wealthy keep telling us we just need to work harder - like they're not the ones setting the rules making us poorer while they get richer - we get closer and closer to pitchfork / guillotine time.

      I've been saying that for years now. The 0.01% will press this lemon until it all blows up, revolution, heads rolling, the whole nine yards. They don't have the common sense to tune it down so we can all live.

  • who advise the have-nots on how to run their lives.

    I don't take advice from people who have never worked a normal average honest-to-goodness 9-to-5 like I do. If you want to be credible Herr Banker, go down to reception and work as a clerk in your bank for a few years, trying to balance your budget with the bills and the kids while trying to save up for some sort of pension when you retire and all that. Then I'll listen to you.

    Failing that Herr Banker, kindly shove your advice where the sun doesn't shine.

  • by jmccue ( 834797 ) on Thursday September 05, 2024 @09:15AM (#64765046) Homepage

    How about hire more people. What, are you afraid your stock options will loose value ?

    If you hire and train more, you economy will grow much faster than forcing people to work longer hours.

    • That doesn't help pay for the welfare state. For that to work, there needs to be a certain baseline of worker participation and productivity. If you don't maintain that, then the state has to start dismantling welfare.

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      How about hire more people. What, are you afraid your stock options will loose value ?

      If you hire and train more, you economy will grow much faster than forcing people to work longer hours.

      That's exactly what he wants to do... hire more people... Just not in Germany. The whole "people in this country just don't want to work" shtick is straight out of page 1 How to Offshore.

  • And by "we" I mean "you".

  • Then you can become richer faster.
  • by Tom ( 822 ) on Thursday September 05, 2024 @10:18AM (#64765278) Homepage Journal

    Can't decide. He's either the most dumb idiot in a leadership position or he thinks that everyone else is an idiot.

    28h average work week? Nobody I know works that. No, the fast one he's trying to pull is most likely that he lumps full-time employees together with part-time employees and then makes an average that's nonsense. Take 10 full-time employees (40 hours/week) and 10 part-time employees (20 hours/week) and you get 30 hours "average" working time.

    Germany has since the early 2000s massively expanded its minimum-wage labor market, a very political move supported by pretty much all the parties. Many minimum-wage jobs are part-time jobs.

    What the fucker really wants to say is: "Hey dudes, last year I earned a million less than I wanted to, and couldn't afford my third yacht. Go and work harder so I can next year, will you?"

    • Many dumb idiots think they're smarter than everyone else - this seems to get truer the more money the dumb idiot has.

    • Even if only 10% of his workers work harder/longer, then it was worth saying from a CEO perspective (of course, depending on what collateral damage happens).
    • by hawk ( 1151 )

      >28h average work week?

      No, that's just how many hours they work in the work week :)

      I'm reminded of Pope John pausing after being asked how many people worked in the Vatican before replying, "about half of them."

  • Maybe Deutsche Bank should lose less "Peanuts" in deals with fishy real estate owners.
  • If they need more hours covered, hire more.
    Oh, you just want cheaper labor? Fuck off.

  • Germany is running out of workers. Those left need to work more to try and stay the inevitable collapse. too late. Peter Zeihan has explained this based on demography for years. https://www.instagram.com/danc... [instagram.com]
  • Just conforming to the German stereotype? Or "too soon" for the joke?

  • I don't know how this creep managed to come up with a 28 hour work week for Germans, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't bear scrutiny.

    Based on Deutsche Bank's past performance in certain high-publicity cases, I'd be inclined to fall back on a well-tested adage to describe Christian Sewing: "Whether the water is salty or fresh, sh^t floats.

  • I agree: the other guy should work harder.

  • Lieber Christian. In the immortal words of Musk: "Go fuck yourself".

The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is the most likely to be correct. -- William of Occam

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