Dead-end jobs
August 16, 2011
Years of criticism about customer service, punctuality and the corporate strategy of Germany's national rail operator, Deutsche Bahn, appear to have taken their toll on staff morale. An internal report from early 2010 shows an estimated 70 percent of the company's 4,000 employees are dissatisfied with their jobs.
The study, which was leaked to the Financial Times Deutschland and later confirmed by Deutsche Bahn, was based on a random survey of 200 employees.
"We take the critical response expressed (in the study) very seriously," Deutsche Bahn said in a statement, adding that long-term processes to change the situation were launched over a year ago.
"During an entire series of multiple-day dialogue sessions - often including the entire board of directors - a first step was taken towards open and direct exchange with several thousand employees in order to activate concrete changes for employees and customers."
The state-owned company said it planned to keep meeting with its employees in coming months to work through the problem.
Problems compound
Part of the employees' dissatisfaction could be attributed to the massive 2009 spying scandal that toppled then-CEO Hartmut Mehdorn. Under Mehdorn's leadership, the company hired a security contractor to screen employees' hard drives and emails between 2002 and 2005 as part of an anti-corruption campaign.
Other problems have included a dismal punctuality report published in February by consumer advocacy group Stiftung Warentest, industrial disputes and violent protests surrounding its construction of a new central rail station in Stuttgart.
According to Matthias Oomen from the Berlin-based consumer protection organization Pro Bahn, employees have often found themselves wedged between non-communicative management and angry customers.
"Things are often not communicated well to the train crews. They often don't even know what the problem is and have to wait it out and deal with customers' anger," Oomen told Deutsche Welle. "That's a big problem. The company has followed a bad communications strategy for years now."
Author: Gerhard Schneibel
Editor: Sam Edmonds