Microblog Memes

And then there's me, just barely Z, office job, heading for lunch at 12 with my boss, his boss and some other colleagues, chatting about whatever (not work), eventually getting up to head back to work around 1250 because some of us have meetings at 13. My boss asks me if I want to grab a cup of coffee with him, we end up sitting in the break room for another half hour, eventually turning to work topics too.

On my timesheet, I write lunch 1200-1230 for the legal minimum 30 min break. My boss signs it. Nobody bats an eye.

Sure, I'm incredibly lucky, but I'd wager being in a unionised company in a country with fairly strong union protections (Germany) does some work too. If my boss started being a stickler for rules, I'd be talking to my union rep, and that just doesn't end well.

They're scared enough of the union that, when a round of negotiations failed to achieve the result they were hoping for and the union put out notice (as in, flyers in the break rooms) that they're considering the threat of strikes, the CEO immediately announced raises retroactively effective for the whole month, "as a show of goodwill".
Previous negotiations have also resulted in flat one-off payments even for working students. A 500€ tax-free bonus might not sound like a lot if you're making 4k+ net, but for me it was half a month of wages.
Also, I have 30 days of paid time off, on top of bank holidays and unlimited sick leave (provided I submit a doctor's note on the third consecutive day). One coworker was sick for over half a year.

Unions work.