Everyone back to the home office?
The plans of Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) for the coming autumn and winter are not quite as strict.
Employers will soon have to offer their employees the opportunity to work from home again.
But unlike last winter, for example, they can decide for themselves whether they want to do it.
If you don't want to or can't work from home, you don't have to.
Nevertheless, the new home office rules seem exaggerated.
On the one hand, as in earlier phases of the pandemic and unlike parts of the new Infection Protection Act, they are not linked to the development of the number of infections.
The home office obligation should apply from October 1st to April 7th, regardless of what exactly happens during this time.
In the third year of Corona, this is even less understandable than before.
The situation has changed due to vaccinations and the currently milder course of the disease.
This should also be taken into account in the protective measures.
New, flexible working models
On the other hand, both the companies and the employees have now learned how to deal with the pandemic and the risks of infection.
Sometimes painful, with high staff shortages in the summer wave - but employers and their employees made it through this time on their own responsibility and without any obligations imposed by the federal government.
From this it can be deduced that they are able to react appropriately in critical phases of the pandemic.
Instead of acknowledging this, Minister of Labor Heil is depriving companies of the opportunity to come to a normality in dealing with Corona - and to test and establish new, flexible working models for longer than just a few weeks.
The Telekom boss's appeal to his employees has just shown once again that many companies are hoping that more employees will come back to the office.
But it's not like they want to roll backwards to the pre-pandemic era.
Home office is now possible in many companies where it was unthinkable for a long time: to protect against infections, if necessary, and to ensure employee satisfaction.