English version:
E. You have a say in the choice of your work colleagues

German version:
E. Sie haben ein Mitspracherecht bei der Auswahl der Arbeitskollegen, mit denen Sie zusammenarbeiten

Nein

Online Probing:
There is a systematic difference in the responses of employed and self-employed. Employed respondents are less likely to answer that they always have a say in their choice of work colleagues. Self-employed are more likely to answer that this is always the case (UK: 28%, DE: 50%, PL: 48%) or that this does not apply to them (UK: 48%, DE: 33%, PL: 19%), with self-employed in the UK most likely to claim it does not apply and self-employed in Germany most likely to claim it always applies. This either speaks for a different understanding of the item’s meaning between self-employed in the different countries, or for truly different working situations of the self-employed.
We therefore took a closer look at the reasons that self-employed respondents provided for why they selected their answers. In Poland and Germany, most self-employed (PL: 68%, DE: 58%) argue that they are either the boss of their enterprise or that they work as free-lancers who can decide on a case by case basis who to work with. Hence, it makes sense that they predominantly answer “always” in response to Item E. In the UK, only about 35% of the self-employed argue along these lines.

• “It's my business so I have the choice of choosing who I work with.” (R500UK)
• “As a free-lancer, I can decide who to work with.”(R370DE)

A second line of reasoning, which is provided most often by the UK respondents (UK: 52%, DE: 33%, PL: 25%), is that respondents have no work colleagues, but work alone:

• “I have no work colleagues.” (R218UK)
• “I work alone.” (R768PL)

This explanation is almost exclusively provided by respondents who selected the “not applicable” answer category. Again, this indicates that self-employed respondents understand the item unambiguously and that differences in the answer distributions across countries are most likely due to differences in the sample composition (i.e., the UK respondents work more often on their own than the German and Polish respondents).
This explanation is almost exclusively provided by respondents who selected the “not applicable” answer category. Again, this indicates that self-employed respondents understand the item unambiguously and that differences in the answer distributions across countries are most likely due to differences in the sample composition (i.e., the UK respondents work more often on their own than the German and Polish respondents).

• 1. Most respondents (DE: 52%, UK: 54%, PL: 69%) explain that – to a certain degree – they can influence the choice of their colleagues. How often this is the case mainly depends on one’s position in the job: Respondents in leading positions tend to say that they “always” have a say in the choice of their work colleagues (e.g., “As a senior employee this is part of my job.” – R38DE, always) while those further down on the corporate ladder tend to select the “sometimes” or “rarely” answer category (e.g., “If a new person has his or her trial day, then the manager asks us about our opinion.” – R37PL, sometimes).
• 2. Some respondents (DE: 43%, UK: 43%, PL: 21%) argue that they simply “have no decision making powers” (e.g., R47DE, never) or “don’t hire the staff” (e.g., R85UK, never). Interestingly, a few German (n=3) and Polish (n=5) respondents who argue along these lines selected the “not applicable” instead of the “never” response option. Given that the “not applicable” option should be reserved for respondents who do not have any work colleagues, these few cases hint at a potential problem of the presentation or wording of the answer options.
• 3. A few respondents (DE: 3, UK: 2, PL: 1) argue that they “don’t have colleagues” (e.g., R21UK) or “work alone” (e.g., R91PL). Some of these respondents selected the “never” answer category (n=2) instead of “not applicable” (n=4). Again, these first two cases hint at a potential problem in the presentation or wording of the answer categories.

Next, we examined how respondents understand the term “having a say”. Depending on one’s position in the job, “having a say” is interpreted as ranging from (informally) being asked about one’s opinion on a potential new colleague (e.g., unskilled worker) to making the final decision about hiring a colleague (e.g., CEO). There are no systematic differences in the interpretation of this term between the three countries:

• “As the CEO I have a say in everything.” (R325DE)
• “We are asked what we think of people who want to join the team.” (R196UK)
• “I am in a leading position and can influence the choice of work colleagues.” (R81PL)

Finally, we investigated what sorts of colleagues respondents think about when answering this item. Across all three countries, most respondents (DE: 71%, UK: 77%, PL: 67%) think about colleagues in general when answering this item with no specific focus on either direct colleagues on the same hierarchical level, superiors, or subordinates:

• “Colleagues from the same company.” (R126DE)
• “Other employees below, above and level with my position.” (R52UK)
• “The whole department.” (R337PL)

Some (mostly self-employed) respondents specifically refer to their subordinates/employees when answering this question (DE: 20%, UK: 14%, PL: 22%) while a few other respondents solely refer to co-workers on the same hierarchical level (DE: 8%, UK: 8%, PL: 11%):

• “I thought about my employees.” (R349DE, self-employed)
• “People that I employ.” (R181UK, employee)
• “Drivers who subordinate me.” (R927PL, self-employed)
• “Colleagues on the same level.” (R336DE, self-employed)
• “My management team.” (R 268UK, self-employed)
• “Colleagues working in a similar position as me.” (R89PL, employee

This item should only be shown to respondents with colleagues.

false