Deutschland before Bavaria, before Preußen, before Hanover … 9th of March, 2006 POST·MERIDIEM 01:41

One of the things that’s fascinating about Germany to me is that while, on the macro level, the society has its ѕhіt together as much or more than any place I’ve lived, or even visited, on a micro level I see disorganisation and chaos and general lack-of-ѕhіt-togetherness pretty often.

For example, it’s impossible for me to do the amount of work that I am responsible for in an eight-hour day; I’ve made this clear, my project manager has made it clear, everyone’s been aware of it for months. The reaction to this is to put new management structures in place with new document-organisation procedures, that make it harder to get work done, and while more manpower has been allocated to the issue, the new management mostly ignores what we say are our problems, and put in place solutions for entirely different issues, often exacerbating our perceived problems.

And talking to other people about their workplaces turns up similar problems quite a bit. But, still, the public transport system is excellent, shops are well-stocked and cheap, bank service has been much better for me here than in Ireland, even dealing with public servants is less of a problem than in Ireland or Wallonia. So what is it? Is it just that a slightly higher level of ѕhіt-togetherness gives a significantly higher quality of life? Or is it that I’m hallucinating about the relative quality of life? I don’t think I am, and the Irish people I know who’ve lived in Germany seem to have had the same impression.