Performance should be worth it again, she believes FDP. And therefore suggests making overtime more attractive. In a presidential resolution, which is available to ZEIT ONLINE, the Liberals are demanding tax benefits for overtime worked. This is intended to strengthen the economy and ensure that people realize again that personal commitment makes a difference, it says.

The idea is not new. This was requested last June already the deputy CDU chairman Carsten Linnemann. He wanted that too overtime should be tax-free. The suggestion seemed absurd even back then, almost as if it came from a parallel universe, at least not from this working world – for several reasons. On the one hand, the working hours of employees in Germany have increased significantly over the past ten years, as data from the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB) shows. People in Germany are already doing a lot, many even doing more than is good for them, Sickness levels and, above all, days of absence due to overwork at work have been increasing for years.