The world of work in Germany is trying to catch up with the future. In the discussion about cost-cutting and savings measures, slimming down and streamlining, the motivation of employees to work is in danger of being temporarily lost sight of. Only just under a third of employees in Germany (31%) believe that they can realise their own potential at work. For half of all employees (50%), self-realisation only begins after work. And only 28 per cent of employees can do something at work that is fun, whereas for almost three quarters of the workforce (72%), the joy of their own work only begins after they have left the workplace. This is the result of a recent representative survey by the Leisure Research Institute of British-American Tobacco, in which 1,512 working people in Germany were asked about their life goals and quality of life in work and leisure.
The structural change in the world of work is also associated with a change in values in the workforce. New forms of work, from teamwork in the company to teleworking at home, are changing the level of expectations. Employees are placing higher demands on the quality and creativity of their work. "Changing life goals and concepts must be integrated into corporate policy," says Prof Dr Horst W. Opaschowski, Director of the B-A-T Institute. "Without employee motivation and commitment, increases in productivity and efficiency cannot be achieved." Otherwise, symptoms of weariness and refusal to work will spread - especially among those who are performance-orientated and shift their ideas to non-work areas of life.
Only around one in three employees (37%) believe that they can implement ideas at work (working men: 41% - working women 32%). Are ideas out at work but in during leisure time? 51 per cent of working people can only realise their ideas after work. This applies most to civil servants (63%) and least to executives (48%).

When leisure time becomes work

A particular form of benefit shifting can also be the escape into a second job or undeclared work. Shorter working hours and falling real wages have left their mark: For one in seven working people, the gain in time now represents a financial gain: 14 per cent of all working people, i.e. over four million employees, turn leisure time into work. Leisure time is becoming a second source of income, enabling them to earn a lot of money - the blue-collar workers (15%) a little more, the white-collar workers a little less (10%).
In the post-industrialised society, work and leisure take on a different face. Both areas of life must fulfil their claim to meaningful employment. The question here is what contribution the world of work and the leisure sector can each make to the fulfilment of meaning in life. With the end of full employment, work has lost its dominant influence on life. Although its meaningful function remains, the influence of leisure time on people is increasing significantly.
Today, working people consider leisure time to be just as meaningful as work (57% in each case). In some cases, it even surpasses work in terms of importance in life. For example, a clear majority (59%) of working people consider their leisure time to be fulfilling, while only 42 per cent feel this way about their work. Prof. Opaschowski: "In the seventies and eighties, the vacuum of meaning in leisure time was often lamented and criticised. Now leisure time is also redeeming its claim to fulfil the meaning of life." Politics and business should adapt to this change in values in good time and create more fluid transitions and bridges between work and leisure.
The meaningful world of work and the meaningful world of leisure complement each other, just like family and friends. Against the backdrop of a growing number of unemployed, marginally employed and early retirees, paid work can no longer be touted as the only way to fulfil meaning. After all, work is not only done for money. A lot of unpaid work is done in people's free time: housework and do-it-yourself, childcare and elderly care as well as voluntary work in social organisations and associations.
Companies and entrepreneurs must react accordingly to this competition for meaning outside of work, i.e. organise work in such a way that it is as close as possible to leisure time. Work that is interesting and eventful will then be perceived as leisure time. Otherwise, there would be a risk of a shift in performance from professional to private life, with the second job replacing the Sunday outing or sweating only taking place in leisure time.