Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

We mainly do mental work, so there is always room for improvement. Improvements are possible qualitatively as well, not just quantitatively. It’s clear that such a guideline can also be abused, but that’s not the case with us (at least not in my line).

My experience with the medium-sized company was as follows: As long as everything goes the way the owner envisions and you do exactly what he expects, you have a great life. Back then, we wanted to build up a large online shop for a specific product segment that had zero competition at the time and potentially over 2.5 million customers who needed the products monthly.

Quote from the owner: "We don’t want anything modern like this internet stuff. I’d rather have our field salespeople visit every single customer. That way, the neighbors will immediately see that we exist." Phew – my department head at the time quit immediately afterward because he thought it was too stupid. The order for the clarification and conception of the online shop had come directly from the owner just a few months earlier...

Then the HR department made an error in the time recording for me. Instead of 200 overtime hours, they recorded 100 negative hours. Conversation with the owner: "You’re really deep in the red with us now because of your negative hours; you’ll have to work hard to regain this lost trust!"

I was able to prove the calculation error in the timesheets forwarded to HR, and the next conversation went like this: “We are as disappointed in you as in how you behave and what you take for yourself. You should actually be grateful that you are allowed to work here! And then you behave like this and walk all over us!”

Right after the conversation, I said goodbye, packed my bag, and booked a nice vacation in the south. After that, it was clear to me:

Never again medium-sized companies, never again owner-managed, never again without a works council, never again without a collective agreement. And since then, that’s worked out very well for me.

And what does all this have to do with the rising construction costs?

And what does all this have to do with the rising construction costs?

Material costs and labor costs up. And the contractors' wages aka profits also up. Someone has to pay for that.

And what does all this have to do with rising construction costs?

The joke was good, anyone who doesn't see the connections there oh dear..

Ok, I was not clear. That inflation/wages/rising prices are connected is obvious. I meant the discussion about whether an inflation adjustment is of course a wage increase or not.

Exactly, when productivity increases, the company passes the wage increase on to those who contributed to this productivity growth. And it does not simply pass it on to everyone if it does not grow sufficiently to compensate for cost increases. Because then it would soon be phased out.

again, even low and mid-performers can receive wage increases if they improve themselves/contribute to the overall performance improvement of the company. In the example of the cleaning specialist, this could mean that they stick a note on the toilet door where a tally is kept for the best toilet paper, which is then purchased in the long term. Or they make a suggestion that toilet brushes be placed in all stalls, so they finish faster. No idea, I’m not very familiar with professional cleaning. And I already admitted that it’s easier with purely intellectual work than with physical labor.

Those are of course harsh experiences, but they have nothing to do with medium-sized companies in general. We had managers in other departments who behaved similarly. These were then soon phased out. So the culture we aim for is definitely different.