# Why the German worked harder in Australia

- Teacher: Ajahn Brahm
- Type: Story
- URL: https://beingmindfulstories.com/stories/brahm-west-german-migrant-cooperation
- Themes: cooperation, competition, work, jealousy
- Life situations: workplace competition, office politics, migration

## Synopsis (editorial summary)

A society member who migrated from West Germany before reunification is told by Australian workmates that Germans have a strong economy because they work hard. No, he says — he works much harder here. In Germany colleagues cooperated; here people in the same office compete against each other, so everyone has to work harder just to keep up.

## The story, as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

many years ago when I first came there's one of the members he just migrated from West Germany this was before unification at that time I think the West German economy was the best in the world beating Japan China United states there's a very very strong economy and he told me that when he when he came and worked here in Western Australia his work friends sort of said to him oh you Germans you got such a good economy because you really know how to work hard no that's not right I work much harder here in Australia than I ever worked in Germany and I asked him well why was your economy so strong he said because when I was working in Germany family. This was before unification. He said we would work cooperatively here in Australia. He said we work like this competing against each other in the same office in the same company. He said that was why we had to work so hard to be competitive to be productive. Sorry when you work together you have cooperation instead of competition you get far more success far more productivity and also you don't have this jealousy business

## Teaching point

Cooperation beats competition: it is more productive and it removes the soil jealousy grows in.

## Reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

A German migrant said he worked much harder in Australia, because here colleagues competed while back home they cooperated. Ajahn Brahm even suggests school marks that reward helping weaker classmates. Working together gets more done and leaves jealousy little room to grow. Try it in your office and your family.

## Source

- [Jealousy | by Ajahn Brahm | 15-11-2013](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nBSPHe1RCc) (Buddhist Society of Western Australia) — watch from 31:03 to 32:30: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nBSPHe1RCc&t=1863s