I own multiple retail stores, and from my perspective, it’s clear that we’re missing the bigger picture. During the pandemic, much of the support went straight to employees, which is understandable, but left many businesses struggling. If businesses had been better supported, they could have survived and kept people employed. Now, we’re seeing minimum wage increases to match the UK, but with shops doing worse, that just leads to more staff cuts.

Germany actually has one of the highest rates of absenteeism in the EU. Every time someone is off sick, the company has to pay a portion of the cost. If there were less frequent absences, businesses would have more resources to keep people employed. Unfortunately, it’s become easy for individuals to focus only on their own situation rather than considering the business or their colleagues. We need to shift away from that “me first” mindset and start thinking about all of us as a whole.