Day 146: Three Generations of Office Hours
At Sunday lunch in Siegen, Marion (A), who clocked in at the same factory for forty years, her daughter Vera (B), who works from home, and Vera's son Rasmus (C), sixteen, just through his first week as an apprentice, compare their working lives.
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
- Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a German word to see what it means.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native German, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning
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A
Rasmus, du siehst ja völlig erledigt aus, dabei fängst du doch erst um sieben an!
Rasmus, you look completely worn out, and you don't even start till seven!
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B
Lass ihn doch, Mama, die Umstellung ist hart. Ich hingegen bin heilfroh, dass sich meine Arbeitszeit im Homeoffice frei einteilen lässt.
Leave him alone, Mum, the change is tough. I, on the other hand, am so relieved I can plan my own hours working from home.
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C
Du hast leicht reden, du sitzt im Schlafanzug am Laptop. Bei uns dauert die Frühstückspause genau fünfzehn Minuten, und der Meister schaut auf die Uhr.
That's easy for you to say, you sit at your laptop in your pyjamas. Where I work, the breakfast break lasts exactly fifteen minutes, and the foreman watches the clock.
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A
Und darüber beschwerst du dich? In der Fabrik wurde gestempelt, und wer zwei Minuten zu spät kam, dem zog man eine Viertelstunde vom Lohn ab.
And you're complaining about that? At the factory we clocked in, and if you were two minutes late, they docked a quarter of an hour from your wages.
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C
Das ist heute kaum vorstellbar, Oma. Dafür warst du um halb drei zu Hause und für niemanden erreichbar.
That's hard to imagine these days, Grandma. But you were home by half past two and nobody could reach you.
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B
Genau das ist mein Problem: Im Homeoffice ist der Feierabend kaum von der Arbeit zu trennen. Zudem schreibt mein Chef sogar sonntags Nachrichten.
That's exactly my problem: working from home, you can hardly keep your evenings separate from work. On top of that, my boss even sends messages on Sundays.
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A
Dann mach das Handy eben aus, Kind. Wir hatten vierzig Jahre lang feste Schichten, ihr dagegen könnt euch aussuchen, wann und wo ihr arbeitet.
Then just switch your phone off, love. We had fixed shifts for forty years, whereas you two can choose when and where you work.
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C
Ich kann mir gar nichts aussuchen, ich bin Azubi. Folglich habe ich von uns dreien eindeutig den Kürzeren gezogen.
I can't choose anything, I'm an apprentice. So of the three of us, I've clearly drawn the short straw.
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B
Mit dreißig Tagen Urlaub und einer Ausbildungsvergütung, von der Oma mit sechzehn nur träumen konnte? Und jetzt iss, bevor der Braten kalt wird.
With thirty days' holiday and apprentice pay Grandma could only dream of at sixteen? Now eat up before the roast gets cold.
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