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Comment by nkmnz | Hacker News Reader

I am German living in Germany and yes, I think not organizing a holiday replacement when you leave for more than a week is a sign of negligence and indifference; but unfortunately, it becomes more and more common to behave in that way. Many projects don't make any progress between mid of June and late August, depending on the number and diversity of stakeholders. I'd like to declare these ~10 weeks "individual contribution weeks" in which no one is allowed to do anything that needs the coordination of more than two persons.

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it's because there is no incentive in general in EU to be excellent at your job. good or bad, you get the same pay, and dont get compensated for bringing extra value to the company

so naturally employees have a "fuck you" attitude

Obviously untrue, any place on earth you get rewarded for being better at your job, either directly by being promoted or after asking/getting a higher salary, or indirectly by being able to change jobs by outright being better. This is true in most sectors, especially in software where it's really easy to switch jobs if you have the slightest amount of brain power.

Where are all these misconceptions come from? And how are they so far from reality they don't even pass the slightest of critical thinking?

so where are all the EU global software/tech companies? why is EU so reliant on US software? why do the best EU software developers move to US?

Because the US has vastly larger capital markets, and they suck in money globally such that there's more funding for new, high risk reward software.

why dont they invest in the amazing EU software companies then?

Google bought DeepMind, so its possible

but not much interest

Do you think those things are all because of "there is no incentive in general in EU to be excellent at your job"? How on earth is all these things you're complaining about related? You're seemingly only interested in listing what you think EU does wrong, but none of your arguments are connected, why don't you write one proper comment instead of this trash you're sharing currently?

As a software engineer that has worked in multiple German companies I can tell you that it’s not the case, or at least in Germany. If you do an amazing job, they would praise you and give you a promotion with 2% salary increase and more work. To add salt to the I wound, your colleague that has been on paternity leave for 3 months and on sick leave for 4 months would get the same salary increase

I’m not sure if you meant it, but it is indeed the EU, or what it represents and its purpose to suffocate excellence that is at the very core of this matter.

But the pay does not actually matter either, people can and do excel in spite of pay and even time in many places in Europe and the world. What you are probably inadvertently lamenting is the very purpose of the EU, the underlying mechanism that exists in other packaging like “communism”, but whose underlying mechanisms, the machine underneath the cladding is really just management and suppression of the parasitized masses.

They don’t want you to excel, because you excelling scares the ruling class cabal because you may exceed them. That is at least until they can get their own kind into place and control everything like in the US, then they’ll support this fake narrative of excellence that is prevalent in the US, but is really an illusion, a fraud really, like most other things in the U.S. where nothing is what it is said or implied to be.

Aaah the perfect German neighbors.

Always right, always on top of things.

What can you do? I guess we're in vacance? Oupsy. *shrug in french*

Bisous !

Wait I'm Belgian and it is basically unheard of that a company cannot answer a customer's message for a month.

If it is a small company, then the owner will answer. If it is bigger, holidays will be planned so that no interruption will occur.

Companies can close completely for a week, usually between Christmas and New Year. That's all.

I was referring to (mostly) internal projects in "German Mittelstand". Some of them with external partners. Customers might have the same problem, though, if they rely on the expertise of a single specialist. Regular customer support is usually available 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, but that's not what I was referring to. They usually don't manage projects.

And its the same in my experience in France. Companies want to survive.

But I stand by my ( bad ) joke on our ( beloved ) German neighbors!

What are you talking about? I was referring to German companies where we don't have proper holiday replacements for internal projects, as well as for those with external partners.

> Many projects don't make any progress between mid of June and late August, depending on the number and diversity of stakeholders

That's what, less than 8 weeks, in a year of 52 weeks, where things progress slower, and this is supposedly a big issue? And even if you know and understand that these other people are humans too, just like you, this is seen as "narcissism" and "selfishness", that they take vacations in the summer?

I'm sorry but this is borderline insane and inhuman, do you never rest? I understand your point of view when we talk about huge corporate entities with thousands of employees, but even SMBs with like 200 employees end up in a situation where people with specific jobs will have to be unavailable for weeks (as again, they're human just like you) and you can't realistically hire people to replace those for just some weeks.

you are correct

but its also the reason for the lack of EU tech capability and over-reliance on US

It might be a minor contributor, but it sure isn't the reason.

If you do do much admire economic success through suffering, can I assume that you have relocated to China? (mainland) Because they sure know a thing or two about that...

if you think the status quo is sustainable, and that Europeans can live a luxurious life fueled by cheap Chinese workers...

> BERLIN, June 26 (Reuters) - Volkswagen is considering shutting four German factories and ramping up job cuts to as many as 100,000, two people familiar with the matter said on Friday, in what could be the biggest ever overhaul in the industry.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/volksw...

I very much agree, the status quo is not sustainable. But I really don't believe that the solution is trying to one-up China in whatever they are doing, or the USA, for that matter.

You are both missing the target. It's far too complex to fully elaborate on here, but suffice it to say that Europe has broken an iron triangle of choices, which not only limits the number of concurrent choices possible, but also require a minimum of choices to be sustainable.

Besides the whole AI thing, what exact "tech capability" is missing in EU or Europe today? Most things been preferable to get from the US as workers are generally abused there for profits, so been cheaper, but capability still exists in Europe and is ramping up. Do you have any specific examples or you're just on the typical anti-EU HN tirade so many of you seem to fall into as soon as EU is even slightly related?

what is the EU equivalent to AWS/GCP/Azure?

or do you think EU doesnt really need that, it can just rent from the americans

what is the EU frontier AI model?

what is the EU frontier chip fabs?

> what is the EU frontier chip fabs?

Where are the US or Chinese equivalents or betters of ASML of the Netherlands?

ASML had $30 bil revenue in 2025

it's main client, TSMC had 4x, $120 bil revenue in 2024

the Chinese equivalents are 5 years away

sounds like VW from 10 years ago - "Chinese can't make quality cars"

What I wrote: "not organizing a holiday replacement when you leave for more than a week is a sign of negligence and indifference"

What you read: "taking vacations in the summer is 'narcissism' and 'selfishness' (...) these other people are humans too, just like you... this is borderline insane and inhuman, do you never rest?"

I rest my case, thank you. Also, 2.5 months are closer to 11 weeks than 8 weeks, but you don't seem to care about a sincere discussion anyways.

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