More from the article ...

... He is seeing a record number of requests from firms for his agency to check up on employees suspected of calling in sick when they are actually fit to work.

"There are just more and more companies that don't want to put up with it anymore," he told AFP, adding his Lentz Group was receiving up to 1,200 such requests annually, around double the figure from a few years earlier.

"If someone has 30, 40 or sometimes up to 100 sick days in a year, then at some point they become economically unattractive for the employer," he said in an interview at his office in the gritty district around Frankfurt's main train station. ...

I remember, back circa 2000 or so, when I was responsible for software engineers in a company team in The Netherlands....

I talked with them extensively. Great people.

One thing that did surprise me though, it was not unusual, or uncommon, for a person to stand up in their cubicle and utter, loudly, the word "f--k."

Yeah, the first time I heard that, it did catch my attention. Then the local manager told me, that's the usual here.

Quite odd for me.

But I digress.

Another aspect of the corporate culture, --- if you call in sick you should expect a visit at your residence from ~a company representative~ to assure you are really sick.

That was surprising to me.

@#3 ... I know everyone's circumstances are different, but if you are sick, can't most people just work from home? ...

If you are sick, the first priority should be to get well, not work.