It must be said, however, that there is another side to the contract. If it protects the employer in reducing to a minimum the chances of his being left without a servant, it also makes his life a burden during the long period that intervenes between the notice and the time when it takes effect. The service given by a servant during this time becomes absolutely perfunctory, while the personal relations become so strained as to render the situation almost intolerable. The temptation besets the housekeeper to “rather bear those ills she has than fly to others that she knows not of,” and thus she often encourages poor work by tolerating it, because she is unwilling to give the necessary notice, endure the still poorer service after it has been given, and in the end incur the risk of getting another servant no more efficient than her predecessor. Yet undoubtedly this extreme form of government supervision in Germany is successful there. The police officials administer many a wholesome rebuke to both parties to the contract. If an employer is in the habit of changing servants often, that fact is known to the police through the service books and the notifications of change that every employer must make. When, therefore, such an one complains to the police that his servant is impertinent or remiss in some way where he wishes legal redress, the officer will probably advise him not to make the attempt. “You had better not say anything about this, every one knows that you cannot keep a servant long.”[342] If an employee makes too frequent complaint of ill usage at the hands of his employer, he will probably be dismissed with a reprimand for his own shortcomings.