Detlef Scheele would be able to maybe imagine at the very least, that he would be in the last few years of his professional career to the crisis Manager. For three years, he is the Chairman of the Board of the Federal employment Agency (BA), and since then, he had to announce almost only good news: unemployment fell, employment increased, only by the lack of skilled workers could tarnish the mood.
Britta Beeger
editor in the economy.
F. A. Z. Twitter
at the end of February, he bore with the same Routine as every month, the latest labour market figures – two and a half weeks later, the BA castle all the employment agencies and job centres for the public. You have to set up an organization so that it is at all times able to act, he says. “But a crisis that affects all industries, all over Europe and the world trade, as we have seen, of course, do not come.”
It was a Friday evening in mid-March, when Scheele was clear that he must act. He came out of a Meeting with representatives of the Federal government and the social partners in the Federal Chancellery, the main train station he got on the train to Hamburg, his home. The is the time are usually full, but not so on this day, as the effects of the Corona pandemic were suddenly noticeable. On the weekend, Scheele, with his Board colleagues involved: Christiane Schönefeld, responsible for personnel and Finance, and Daniel third stream, which is responsible for the operational side of the business. He spoke with Ministers and representatives of the parliamentary groups in the Bundestag. Since then, Germany’s largest authority and its roughly 100,000 employees are in a state of emergency.
the Highest priority: the short-time working money
Scheele and his two colleagues decided to set clear priorities. The top was the payment of short-time working money. Finally, the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of companies and their employees in the country depended on it suddenly – “in the end, the interim financing of a portion of the German economy”, as the authorities chief it. More than two million call attempts in the case of the services within a day immediately after the Shutdown speaks for itself.
Deal in normal times, approximately 700 employees, the applications for short-time working money, it was in the past few weeks, in the top of 11.600. Colleagues from the employment Agency have been consulted, but had to be trained only once. They also pay out about 200 million Euro short-time work money on the day and are even faster than in-Corona-times. Today, everything is running, but allows the beginning of the crisis, Scheele, he slept “honestly, sometimes bad”.
His working day began in the first weeks with a daily phone call from the management Board with the Directors of the ten Regional directorates, which are, in turn, provides the local employment agencies. How is the situation in Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Northern Germany? The leading trio are not ordered from the top, what to do, but from the language itself closely with the managers from the middle level. Has crunched it Scheele, according to never, what is not a matter of course after the many years of wrangling in the BA, which culminated in the ignominious expulsion of Valerie Holsboer, the first woman on the Board. In the meantime, calm seems to be returning.