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Generation Z: The future of police working hours?

The article by Dr. Anna Arlinghaus and myself has finally been published. And best of all: you can read it for free. And thanks to the kind permission of the editor of "Die POLIZEI", Prof. Dr. jur. Dieter Müller, I can also offer you an article from 2018 by administrative judge Cornelia Alberts and myself for download: "The EU Working Time Directive and its impact on police practice."

Generation Z: The future of police working hours?

Summary

Public safety must be guaranteed around the clock. Accordingly, police officers work shifts, usually 40 or 41 hours a week. Despite numerous publications on occupational science, in which the specific risks with regard to accidents and the health of employees were outlined, there were only minor adjustments, if any, such as the reduction of the planned 12-hour night shift to 10 hours.

However, police forces are now confronted with a young generation that is very health-conscious and reluctant to work shifts if it affects their health and limits their socially useful time too much. As a result, more and more officers are quitting, a new but massive phenomenon for the police. It seems that the time has come to rethink the traditional shift work models of police forces.

Practical relevance: For the most part, the shift systems of police forces contradict the findings of ergonomics on the humane organization of shift work. This article shows why, with the younger generation of police officers, police forces must now urgently rethink and adapt their traditional systems and working hours. It also discusses ways in which such adjustments could be made.

The EU Working Time Directive and its impact on police practice

Summary

The Working Time Directive 2003/88/EC1 contains specific minimum health and safety requirements for the organization of working time, in particular with regard to daily and weekly rest periods, the maximum weekly working time and the organization of night work. The implementation of this directive poses considerable problems for the police with their special tasks. Is it legally permissible, for example, to limit the rest
shorten police working hours in the event of major operations, e.g. the G20 summit in Hamburg or Castor transports? Does this also apply to regular shift work? What is actually working time and what is on-call duty? How should on-call duty be classified? After an introduction to the basic mechanisms of the EU Working Time Directive, this article examines these and other questions of great practical relevance, which have repeatedly led to heated debates between staff representatives and employers in many federal states and at federal level. In addition, the ergonomic background of the directive is explained in order to demonstrate its importance as an essential cornerstone for safe working conditions.

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Generation Z - the future of working hours in the police force

Is shift work in the police force, as it is currently organized, still sustainable? Weekends off (84.9%) and no shift work (60.2%) are important to the younger generation.1 Police work is undoubtedly a 24/7 service:

"We stand up for people's safety and provide help around the clock"2

But how can this be reconciled? Together with Dr. Anna Arlinghaus a contribution at the conference of the Working Time Society on October 11, 2024 in Berlin at the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health presented. In short, the police would need:

Click on the image to download the poster
  • Intelligent personnel deployment systems (who is needed for what and when)?
  • Building on this, shift models with fixed and flexible elements
  • And most importantly: a workload-oriented weekly working time

You can also find out more in my Publications - they are still up to date 😉and soon there will also be an article on this poster in the Zeitschrift für Arbeitswissenschaft.

  1. ZfK. 2023. the truth about Generation Z. Retrieved April 12, 2024 (https://www.zfk.de/karriere/die-wahrheit-ueber-die-generation-z). ↩︎
  2. Police Bavaria 2024. mission statement of the Bavarian police. Police - Framework for action and orientation for the future. Retrieved October 11, 2024 (https://www.polizei.bayern.de/wir-ueber-uns/leitbild/index.html) ↩︎

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Positive leadership with PERMA-Lead

Why I as a manager I am convinced of PERMA-Lead

Since 2013, I have been a management trainer at the German Police University , I am currently head of the Leadership and Operations department at the Bavarian Police Training Institute and have held various leadership positions in the Bavarian police force. So I have been dealing with the topic of leadership for a very long time, have read numerous theories and studies and reflected on them in a practical leadership context. But as exciting as many of the approaches were, what I lacked as a manager and scientist was scientific proof of the effects and / or easy practical applicability, i.e. an operationalization of this "leadership style".

Continue reading „Positive Leadership mit PERMA-Lead“
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Positive leadership for practice

You can find practical tools for putting PERMA-Lead into practice in my new toolbox. Here I provide all the tools that I have come across in police forces and organizations, that I have stumbled across in specialist articles or that I have (further) developed myself.

Click here for the PERMA Lead Toolbox.

Many more practical examples, for which you don't need a download, can be found in my presentation. Or - and this is the most fun: develop customized tools yourself in PERMA Lead Workshops

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Healthy leadership with positive leadership

🍎 Healthy leadership with positive leadership. That was the title of my keynote speech today at the Lower Franconia Police Headquarters Health Day.

🔬 It was a pleasure to show my colleagues the scientifically proven positive effects of experiencing PERMA on resilience and illness. Thank you very much, dear Dr. Markus Ebnerfor your great studies.

☺️ We also experienced a lot of PERMA, laughed, smiled, reflected on our strengths and discussed many practical examples.

👏And the PP Untefranken set a great example with this day: Active promotion of positive emotions, many speakers and sports coaches (and a great organizer - Claudia Ernst) who were able to live out their strengths, lots of cross-organizational contacts (relationships) and a lot of meaningfulness:

👍🏻 Even State Secretary Sandro Kirchner, MdL took a lot of time and emphasized the importance of the health of Bavarian police employees with his presence and words of welcome!

😊 A great event that filled my PERMA memory properly again!

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PERMA lead at the Hesse police force

Image generated with AI - in the updated versions of the graphic I have also taught the AI to generate such an image without gender bias.

😊 Positive leadership PERMA lead in the police? I'm incredibly pleased that more and more police forces are interested in it, because I think it's the ideal approach to operationalizing good leadership.

🤗 I am pleased that I was able to make a small contribution to ensuring that the Police Hesse PERMA-Lead even more intensively in the future. Why?

1️⃣ PERMA-Lead has been scientifically proven to be effective in terms of performance, well-being, reducing staff turnover, sick days and much more. And we need healthy, high-performing and cheerful police officers and police chiefs.

2️⃣ PERMA-Lead is easy to explain and implement. Thanks to numerous companies that already use positive leadership, there are also numerous practical examples of implementation that invite you to copy and adapt.

3️⃣ There are great tools for measuring the implementation of PERMA-Lead and developing it further in a targeted manner.

❤️-Congratulations Police Hesse and from the bottom of our hearts to all colleagues: good luck on your journey!

And also a big thank you to the Chief of Police Torsten Krückemeier, who invited me to this event and also invited me to the this great article has written about this.

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Certification as PERMA Lead Coach

Finally - I'm a certified PERMA lead coach and consultant 🤗

Since I published the book "Positive Leadership" by Dr. Markus Ebner have read (here to the current, extended edition)1I am a big fan of this management approach. Why? For three reasons:

👩‍🔬Erstens, because Positive Leadership - PERMA-Lead is scientifically sound and many verifiable studies have shown that implementing the leadership style has a significantly positive effect on performance, health (=fewer sick days), staff turnover and much more.

⚙️ Secondly, because it is easy to put into practice (if you want to) - the model is easy to understand and apply and there are numerous examples of good practice. It is about promoting positive emotions (P for Positive Emotions), using employees in a strength-oriented way (E for Engagement), creating sustainable relationships (R for Relationships), explaining the meaning of work and decisions, such as changes (M for Meaning) and consciously recognizing successes (A for Accomplishement).

☺️ Thirdly: Because it's fun. PERMA is contagious and not only proven to be good for employees, but also for managers themselves.

🔖 For this reason, I really wanted to delve deeper and went to Vienna with Dr. Markus Ebner on 13 and 14 June 2024 to get certified as a consultant. Together with a great peer group, we then solved numerous complex tasks, I was allowed to do my first evaluation coaching and since the final online session on September 10, 2024, I am now officially certified. This means that I can use all the great Test procedure for PERMA-Lead and coach with them. If you are interested, just get in touch 😉

  1. This is a paid link, which means I get a commission if the book is purchased via the link. This way you support my research and work - thank you very much! Of course, this does not apply to works available for free. ↩︎

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Review of the Generation Z book

The current issue of pvt "Polizei Verkehr + Technik" contains a review of our book "Generation Z and Alpha. Understanding, winning, retaining. A guide for the police" published.

Here is a small excerpt from the review by Andreas Hohensinn, consultant at the Federal Ministry of the Interior in Vienna:

"Overall, 'Generation Z and Alpha' is a very informative and engaging book that makes an important contribution to understanding the coming generations. It provides a sound analysis and encourages reflection on the future of society and the police organization. For readers interested in sociology, psychology, futurology in a police context, this book is highly recommended."

The full review here with the kind permission of Dr. Uwe H. Wehrstedt (Managing Editor and Publisher pvt) here for direct download.