I'm in a position where I'll have to find an apprenticeship (“Ausbildung” in Germany, something like 2 weeks job then 2 weeks professional school) this year to support my family. Naturally, this takes over 60 applications to different companies. Finally at one point a company agrees to let me do an 8 week long internship to see if I like it there and if they like me. They verbally agreed that after two weeks they'd let me know if they'll let me do an apprenticeship.
Interview with the boss and team leader was very pleasant actually. We got along pretty well, they offered flexible working hours. So long as I clocked in 40 hours a week, they're happy. That's what was told. Cool, so I confirmed it by asking if I for example came in at 7am and went at 3:30pm Monday till Friday if that'd be okay (8 1/2 hours including 30min break by German law) and they said yeah that'd work. This is important because I have a dog that has separation anxiety and my mom's working hours aren't flexible. So if I came and left early enough there wouldn't be any issues because my dog wouldn't be alone.
2 weeks passed and Easter holidays happened. Loss of time and they'd like to let me know 4 weeks into my internship. Okay, no big deal. I quite like it there and the coworkers are all nice. Even learned a few things.
However. 4 weeks in and the boss comes back from his vacation, sees I've been clocking in far earlier than he'd like and takes me to his office telling me I've been wasting one to two hours every day “watching youtube videos” and that “we” agreed on a fixed 8am to 4:30pm shift and that it was even written down. Here's the kicker. It wasn't. Not in E-Mail nor in the contract.
And now he demands I do that specific fixed time for the next two weeks where he directly assigns me to a coworker. I talked with the coworker about it who I get along with much better and who talked with the boss that currently the answer to if I'd get an apprenticeship is no. But if I did those next two weeks then that answer could turn into a “maybe”. Seriously?
This “flexible working hours” benefit for me as an intern now falls apart because the boss said so. Which would leave my dog alone for over 2 hours, enough to trigger his separation anxiety and cause our neighbours to report us to the landlord and possibly get us kicked out.
Have I wasted 4 weeks doing free labor “proving” myself for an apprenticeship just for a “maybe”? What the flying fuck is wrong with corporate Germany? My impression was from most interviews that generally all employers agree that for an apprenticeship you don't need any prior experience. I've very likely been lied to, fucked over and my time was wasted.