The Buddy Bank

The world of finance around the globe is not known for its breezy atmosphere. Besides the occasional dress-down Friday, the order of the day is generally pressed pants and tie clips and a rather reserved formality (save on the trading-room floor).

In Germany, the serious tone in the workplace is often ratcheted up a notch. Germans offices in many sectors are often more formal than, say their American counterparts, with employees who've worked together for years often still calling each other Mr. Schmidt or Ms. Bauer instead of Dieter or Gisela.

So when a bank in Germany puts a new policy in place that asks employees to get all touchy-feely, it's touted as a revolution. Theophil Graband, the chairman of Teambank, hasn't mandated the singing of kumbayah and holding hands, but he has asked him employees to address each other using the familiar form of the word "you."

Dual 'you'

German, like many languages but unlike English, has two forms of "you." There's the informal one, "du" in German, used with close friends, family members and little children. Then there's "Sie," used with everyone else. Most workplaces are "Sie" kinds of places, while in schoolyards, for example, the "du" predominates.

But now Teambank is all warm and fuzzy, and the informal "you" form can be used with everyone from the copyboy to Director Graband himself. He says taking the formality down a notch can help strengthen team spirit at the bank, which is all the rage in 21st century management manuals.

Graband is not forcing his "du" on anyone, and says the new form address should be adopted "voluntarily" by the bank's 1,250 employees. But those who refuse to bend will face a bit of peer pressure. "We want to be as unifed as possible," Graband said.

Over the next several weeks, Teambank is holding "Teamcamps" to get any starched-shirts used to the bank's new jaunty ways.

Whether there'll be a Teamgroan going up among employees remains to be seen.