Column “There and Back”: Working by the Book?

When, if not in the summer, can you let things go and take things a little easier? Not just in your free time, since that's the case anyway, but also at work? It's holiday time after all. Half of your customers are sunning themselves in Mallorca or on the Adriatic. A good portion of your colleagues are driving their campervans through Sweden or sailing between the islands off the Croatian coast. And several of the companies that either supply you or buy goods or services from you are currently closed for the holidays. Things aren't moving forward much at the moment anyway – so why work at full speed? That would be pure activism for which no one would thank you and which ultimately yields nothing.

Now, one might object that there are certainly industries that cannot tolerate slacking. Every hectoliter of beer not brewed now will, of course, not be served at the Munich Oktoberfest in a few weeks. The work of police officers, firefighters, nurses, and doctors generally tolerates neither procrastination nor half-heartedness. And in aviation, and the related issue of flight safety, a laissez-faire attitude also seems questionable, even problematic.

The longer the flight, the longer the stay should be. A Briton stayed in Thailand for decades on a tourist visa. He received no thanks.

Or are we being too strict with the employees of these and related industries when, unlike ourselves, we demand from them—to use the words of World Cup coach Joachim Löw—to be "maximum" focused at all times? 24/7, year-round? Always show full commitment. Even during the holiday season. Isn't it possible, at least for transport companies, to operate at half capacity without immediately fraying everyone's nerves and putting several economic locations at even greater risk than they already are?

A Malta Airlines pilot recently saw no reason not to take his time on his flight home from Rome. It was the holidays, after all. Not for him, but for a colleague. And so he could take him and his family back to Malta from their Italian vacation , he waited until all the suitcases were packed. It was nice and thoughtful of him. That all the regularly booked passengers therefore arrived at their destination, Malta, three-quarters of an hour late: Good heavens, there's no need to get worked up about such a trivial matter. The two pilots' employers, however, promptly took action.

An 18-year-old Colombian who distinguished himself as an air traffic controller in the control tower of Bogotá International Airport also received no praise. The young man apparently communicated with the crews of around 20 aircraft by radio and even gave takeoff clearance. The catch: He has no relevant training. His father, an air traffic controller, brought him to work and let him try out a bit. A blatant violation of safety regulations, on the one hand. On the other hand, however, the son clearly has talent, because no one noticed that an amateur was temporarily on duty in the control tower. It wasn't until the young radio operator proudly posted about his short internship on social media that the matter became known. And there was trouble here too. Because air traffic control insists on work by the book, year-round.