RajeshG

Borrowing by hardly known neighbours it seems is becoming the new normal.    Today a neighbour dropped by and asked for my vaccum cleaner. We are just on hello terms and i found this a bit odd. I mean i had been without one for the last 2 years and used broom and mop to clean the home. They are double income no kids family, If they needed one then they should have bought one. I can imagine a critical thing eg if you need to go to vet with your cat but dont have a box, you may borrow it. But to borrow a vaccum cleaner . I was in a delima - if i had not given her, then there would have been the  awkward meetings in the hallway but now its been eight hours, and  she has yet to return  it though she had taken it explicitly for an hour.   The other day another neighbour walked into our home and asked my partner to print some stuff - again something important and urgent, we do understand. But it turned out to be some flyers for her yoga class    And another time a 3rd neighbour asked to use internet for something urgent. We shared the password and after a week changed it. And she kind of complained to my wife that, it seems we have changed the password -    And mind you all these are German young people and not some immigrant. In my part of the world, we would make fun of such borrowers.   So is this the generational thing of us living within our means and nowadays people just get it - beg, borrow or steal  

Which city please? 

 5 Elephants ( https://www.fiveelephant.com/)  and The Barn ( https://thebarn.de/ ) also deliver good coffee beans. They have very good collection

who blinks first 

Not to forget GDPR guidelines which safeguard ones privacy and information sharing without the adequate approval / consent could be a legal offence

Hi i have a question about Tax refund. I had filed my returns from Munich and Berlin for 2016 and 2017 using an app and got 1000 plus tax return every year when the annual salary was around 40000 and 35000 respectively. However for 2018, i tried to use Elster and on 01 Apr i got a letter from the Tax people / Elster that i shall get only about 100 euros back. I thought it to be an April fool's joke.   I thought mathematically, now that i pay more taxes ( due to higher salary, about 50,000) same tax class 3, i should get more refund. If nothing else, my BVG travelling card itself costs 960 euros annual.   I just want to know from some of the experts here in this community if this is in line - so that i can have peace with myself and move on. Thanks     

How come i look better in the mirror ?  

I am happy because after the acquisition of our company , we were being laid off in 2s and 3s every week. I got mine termination too and before my last date i have found another exciting job. So life goes on as before.

Our company was finally sold. Though on the surface, all looks same as before, but who knows what's cooking. Maybe I may rejoice in the fact that I had the opportunity to work here - the best company in these  30 years of my work experience - so much employee friendly ( naturally good things don't last forever )

Thanks @Lenny Nero @Brockman @Malt-Teaser and @HH_Sailor   The dates of acquistion are confirmed for this month. As advised, wait and watch is the the thing to do. And being under German law helps. 

@HEMThanks, unfortunately, we donot have a betriebsrat. And this is not public knowledge yet in the company - only some of the employees have access to this information - so there is no collective uproar yet.   @jeba Thanks, i will look into it, but maybe we donot have much time - i mean they would not be able to help in retrospective.

Hi, so its 2019 and the last entry in this thread is from 2011.   Another long story short. There is a German company having Germany based employees. Now it's being bought by an American company - no rumours but factual. So what happens to the German employees please? -  there are talks of downsizing and getting rid of overlapping departments and people. Read lots of adverse reports in internet about the bad HR practices of now going to be the new parent company. What happens to the unbefristet German contracts - poof in the air oder?   So what should one do? Can one protect oneself - not for long term but atleast for short term ? Any information would be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance 

  This is a nice solution, but many times, its good in theory as one partner starts resenting internally or is it outright jealous about other one having a jolly good time. Unless both the partners run through most of the scenaioes and come to a clear understanding, this might not work.  

  Having gone through it once, i feel stressed to go through one more time - the pain, anger, uncertainty...   One hopes slowly we will drift so far apart that the bond between us is not visible.   Also living in limbo becomes a way of life - 2 people living under one roof but having their own boring routines - maybe waiting for the other to make the first move    

 Sorry to hear about the departure. RIP Otto Maybe now family around him can rebuild their life as taking care of a sick family member is so draining.