358. The Note

Friedrich Merz, the Chancellor of Germany, has announced that German workers will be required to obtain a doctor's note starting on the first day of illness.

The current rule requires the note after the third day. Under the old system, you could call in sick and self-report for two days before anyone needed to confirm you were actually sick. Under the new system, you call in sick and then immediately go outside, where the illness is waiting for you, and see a doctor about the illness, who will write a note about the illness, which you will submit to confirm that the illness is real.

I want to walk you through the logic of this. You wake up. You feel unwell. You call your employer to say you cannot come in. The call triggers a new obligation: you must now go somewhere. The somewhere is a doctor's office. The doctor's office contains other sick people. You will sit with the other sick people and wait for a doctor, who will examine you and confirm that you were correct to call in. You will then go home. You were already at home. The round trip has confirmed what you reported by telephone.

The purpose of the policy is to reduce absenteeism. Germany had approximately 19 sick days per worker in 2024. This number was considered too high. The method selected to reduce it is: add a trip to a doctor's office to the experience of being sick. The theory is that some portion of those 19 days are fraudulent, and that fraudulent sick people will decline to visit a doctor because visiting a doctor costs time and money. The theory is probably correct in part. The other part of the theory — that legitimately sick people will have an easier or equally difficult time visiting a doctor's office on day one — has not been stated.

A doctor's office is a place where sick people gather. The policy now requires potentially sick workers to gather in a doctor's office on the first day they feel unwell, in order to obtain permission to not gather with their coworkers. This is one approach to the problem.

Friedrich Merz has been Chancellor since February. He has a majority. He has a doctor's note requirement. He does not have 19 sick days per worker. He has a plan to reduce them.

The workers have not commented. They are probably at the doctor's office.