English version:
A. Your colleagues help and support you

German version:
A. Ihre Kollegen helfen Ihnen und unterstützen Sie

Nein

Online Probing:
Self-employed are much more likely than employees to indicate that this statement does not apply to them (UK: 55% vs. 5%; DE: 48% vs. 3%; PL: 33% vs. 3%).
As a first step of the analyses, we examined why respondents answered that the statement does not apply to them or that they receive no/little help and support. 90 respondents claim that this statement does not apply to them. All but seven of these respondents are self-employed. These seven either explain that they are the only person with these responsibilities; one respondent explains that he is the boss, so he has people working for him, but no direct colleagues. All respondents who answer with “not applicable” (n=90) give as a reason that they have no colleagues. “I have no colleagues” and “I work alone” are the most common answers:

• “I am a freelancer, and don’t have colleagues in a strict sense, only in a broader sense, so other free-lancers” (R396DE, self-employed)
• “I only hire people when I need them. I work alone most of the time” (R237UK, self-employed)

Eight respondents answer that they “never” receive help or support from colleagues. Of these, five indicate that they have no colleagues; these people should have answered with “not applicable”. Two respondents claim that they have colleagues who, however, do not help them. For one respondent, the probing answer does not give a clear indication of the reason.
Twenty respondents answer that they “rarely” receive help or support, exactly half of which are employees and self-employed. The named reasons are evenly distributed between employees and self-employed. The most common answer (n=11) is that the respondent does not have colleagues or no direct colleagues (again, these respondents should have indicated that the statement doesn’t apply to them). The second most common answer it that they do not need help (n=3) and in two cases that they do not often receive help although they want it (n=2). In four cases, the probing answer is inconclusive.

• “We are all freelancers [freelance teaching] – we do our job. If I experience problems with a participant, I speak to colleagues about that. When I have problems with the equipment, I can ask other colleagues. But actually, we all try to do our job as autonomous as possible.” (R367DE, self-employed, “rarely”)

Next, we examined respondents’ understanding of the term “colleagues”. Most respondents who receive help and support from colleagues are referring to the team they work in, so people that they share their work place or work tasks with:

• “We’re a team in a doctor’s office; we help each other, for instance to take blood samples or do the accounting” (R38DE, employee, “most of the time”)

Of the 247 respondents who at least “sometimes” receive help and support from their colleagues, 216 (87%) either explicitly refer to their direct colleagues and team, or the answer remains unclear (but it is to be assumed that they mean their direct colleagues).
Six respondents, all of them self-employed, explicitly refer the statement to peers, but not direct colleagues. They are referring to other self-employed people who carry out comparable work and whose advice they seek. For the most part, they seem to be free-lancers:

• “I don’t have direct colleagues. We are several people doing this job in the region, but everyone is on their own” (R322DE, self-employed, “sometimes”)
• “I mostly work independently, but sometimes I ask my work colleagues for advice.” (R186UK, self-employed, “sometimes”)

More important, there are 13 respondents who explicitly name help and support from superiors or subordinates instead of referring to a peer group:

• “I make decisions about the tasks and the team then does what I decide” (R373DE, self-employed, “most of the time”)
• “I make decisions about the tasks and the team then does what I decide” (R373DE, self-employed, “most of the time”)
• “They work for me” (R228PL, self-employed, “always”)
• “I can always contact my team leader” (R129PL, employee, “most of the time”)

Finally, we examined respondents’ understanding of the term “help and support”. The majority of respondents refer to task-related issues when it comes to help and support. Next to direct tasks, such as lifting objects or work division, asking for and receiving advice is the most commonly named shared work:

• “We help whoever has the most to do” (R63DE)
• “Lifting or carrying heavy things” (R126DE)
• “We all have to complete targets so its handed over to another colleague at shift end” (R188UK)

However, 25 respondents (10%) name both task-related help and social support, and another 28 respondents (11%) only name social support as their understanding of the term. This dimension is described as follows:

• “I have kind colleagues who are always there for one another” (R406DE, self-employed, “always”)
• “Because they help and support me. Even just showing the will to support is what helps, because I feel the support” (R935PL, self-employed, “most of the time”)
• “I was thinking that I can always rely on their help, for instance when answering Emails, for instance when I have no energy left of when they support me psychologically” (R1188PL, self-employed, “always”)

Cognitive Interviews:
In Germany, all respondents except one (DE03) gave an answer to this question. In Poland, two self-employed respondent chose “not applicable”, while all others gave answers.
Employed respondents had the least cognitive difficulties answering the question. However, they, too, make decisions on whom to include in their set of colleagues. Most refer to direct team members in terms of the organizational structure and/or the people they carry out most of their daily tasks with:

• “There are closer colleagues and ones further away in the company structure. But it’s difficult, because there are colleagues that aren’t directly part of the same team as me, but with whom I work very closely, and the other way around. So it’s hard to choose exactly who this refers to“ (DE01, “most of the time”)
• “I was referring to the people who are closest to me in terms of our work structure, so the people who are officially in the same team as me, as colleagues, and not necessarily the people with whom I work the most” (DE01, “most of the time”)
• “Then I talk to my colleagues who do a similar job [giving guided tours]” (PL02, “always”)

Three employed respondents spontaneously reported difficulty differentiating their answer to item A (help and support by colleagues) from their answer to item B (help and support by boss) because both are the same person:

• “In my case, my boss is my colleague, so it’s the same answer for the first and second item” (DE05, “always”)
• “We’re only two people, so my colleague and my boss are the same person“ (DE14, “always”)
• “My colleague is also my boss. We’re a team of two, so to say” (DE15, “always”)

Self-employed respondents have to make their own interpretation of colleagues. Freelancers (without employees) tend to think of other freelancers in the same area or other people that are geographically close to them.

• “I thought about other authors” (DE02, “most of the time”)
• “When I have a patient, and am uncertain about the diagnosis, then I get the advice from a colleague [another doctor], and we discuss therapy together” (DE10, “always”)
• “In the building where I have my business there are people I could call colleagues. They are not directly linked to my company, but they sometimes support me in my job” (PL01, “sometimes”)

However, not all self-employed respondents interpreted the term “colleagues” in this sense. This was the case for the self-employed respondents who chose not to answer the question:

• “I have some friends who deal with similar things but this should be excluded” (PL09, “not applicable”)

Self-employed respondents with employees of their own tend to think of the people who work for them, or even their clients or business partners and contractors:

• “Colleagues – the question is who is meant by this. I would say those are my employees” (DE08, “most of the time”)
• “Certainly, when my employees have time, so aren’t at a client, then they support me” (DE09, “most of the time”)
• “Contractors who are usually designers in the other fields” (PL10, “always”)

Another decision respondents have to make when answering the question is whether receiving support means that colleagues (or the boss) are willing, or whether they are capable of doing so:

• “When I need help, regardless in which matter, there are always people, colleagues, who are around to help me” (DE05, “always”)
• “I was thinking of my employee; she just isn’t always around.” (DE08, “most of the time”)
• “Certainly, when my employees have time, so aren’t at a client, then they support me” (DE09, “most of the time”)
• “Employees and people who perform assigned tasks” (PL13, “most of the time”)
• “I was thinking about my colleagues and their character […] I cannot imagine that they wouldn’t be willing to help me. It’s a big difference whether you can’t help because you don’t know the answer or whether you don’t want to. I chose my answer assuming that as long is someone is able to help me, they would“ (DE07, „always“)

This item should only be shown to respondents with colleagues.
Assuming that “help and support” can be understood in both a task-related way and in terms of social support, no change of wording is recommended.

false