Sunday, October 12, 2014

Schichtwechsel or Change of Shift


If shifts are changing, we call it Schichtwechsel in German. Normally it's done to refresh the workers in between to get a break or at the end of the shift to call it a day. The service, however, shouldn't be impaired as this ruins the business.

After crossing the Kyrgyzstan - Kazakhstan border on foot carrying the baggage I tried to change money in the small Kazakhstan border town. Quite near at a gas station I saw a money changer. There had been a little queue already and I joined the people there. Then I saw the Russian scribbling on an A4 piece of paper: 20 minutes - change of shift. As I was travelling with a group, we decided to better try at another money changer in town. Actually there were quite a lot. The first of our group changed money and then they popped up an A4 piece of paper: 20 minutes - change of shift. Actually that was the only moment I watched the Russian speaking guy in front of me to freak out.


Let's see it this way: in some places in the world the satisfaction of employees is more important than the saticfaction of customers, Schichtwechsel is more important than business.

Finally we’ve got to a money changer without change of shift.

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