At least in the literal sense German bosses are the old bulls in Europe´s executive suites. Their offices are on average more spacious than the offices of all their European counterparts, as was revealed by a survey conducted by Colliers Property Partners which is a real estate consultancy. “Germans do not like office structures which do not reflect hierarchic strutures”, is the interpretation of this phenomenon given by Renate Kölbel from Colliers in an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
Not only does the spacious nature of offices apply to German bosses, but also to normal employees. The survey which questionned 500 lessors in 14 European countries revealed that each German office worker has on average 30 sqare meters at her or his disposal which by far exceeds the European average of 14 square meters. There are also differences depending on what branch of industry people work in. For instance employees working in law firms have the most spacious offices with on average 17 square meter each at their disposal. By contrast to this, in call centers this figure does amount to just eight square meters per person.
Another study by CB Richard Ellis real estate consultancy examined the office costs per employee of 176 sites worldwide. Even though the square meter prices are lowest in Germany, the office costs are nevertheless driven upwards due to the spacious nature of German offices. For this reason, despite the lower square meter prices, German companies have to pay more for office rent than e.g. in Moscow, Madrid or Dublin. Only in London and Paris costs are higher. 