German term
German-to-English technical translator
Native in: English (Variants: US, British)
Works in: German to English
Änderungen auf dem Rücken weniger ausgetragen
Zur Zeit werden die Änderungen auf dem Rücken weniger, sehr weniger ausgetragen.
Context: An employee response to an internal survey, employee is talking about changes that a parent company is making some of its member companies.
Potential interpretation 1: Changes behind the scenes are being staged/carried out far less than expected/used to be the case.
Potential interpretation 2: Lower-level employees currently have to deal with much less change.
Potential interpretation 3: ??? (maybe I missed a clue in the sentence and it means something entirely different)
Wenn irgendeine(r) Muttersprachler/in etwas Perspektiv dazu beitragen könnte, wäre ich ganz dankbar.
| 3 +1 | very few bear the burden of change |
Ramey Rieger (X)
|
| 4 | Enact/carry out changes on the backs of a few |
Michael Martin, MA
|
Jun 17, 2019 22:40: Johanna Timm, PhD changed "Level" from "Non-PRO" to "PRO"
PRO (3): Steffen Walter, Ramey Rieger (X), Johanna Timm, PhD
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Proposed translations
very few bear the burden of change
| agree |
Thomas Pfann
: Yes. (And I also like franglish's 'carried out at the expense of'.)
42 mins
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Thank you and have a good weekend.
|
United States
Creativity wins in the long run
Native in: German (Variant: Germany) 
, English (Variant: US)
Works in: German to English
Enact/carry out changes on the backs of a few
I think the meaning of the German is pretty clear.
Reference comments
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Note added at 2 hrs (2019-06-14 09:41:31 GMT)
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Noch eine kleine stilistische Anmerkung als Hintergrundinfo für Juchi.
Der AT ist nicht ganz idiomatisch und vermischt zwei typische Kollokationen; "etwas austragen" kollokiert mit Konflikt, Streit, Meinungsverschiedenheiten etc.
Mit "Änderungen" kollokieren eher Verben wie umsetzen, durchführen.
| Rieseling, vielen Dank für die Referenzinfos. Der kollokationen war ich vorher nicht bewusst. |
| agree |
franglish
: ... are being carried out at the expense of ...
10 mins
|
| agree |
Ramey Rieger (X)
2 hrs
|
| agree |
Thomas Pfann
2 hrs
|
Discussion
Here's a link you may find helpful:
https://www.dwds.de/wb/austragen
The DWDS offers a lot of features, IMO. You can also consult the Duden, ofc.
Back to the Q: Yes, it's not really the right collocation but not because they are conflating two idioms, but because in this context, "Änderungen" stands for all those unexpected setbacks and painful choices that have to be made in change management.
That is, the company is going to be restructured and the employees have to pay the price for it; in that sense, it would mean: "von den Änderungen sind zur Zeit wenige, sehr wenige nachteilig betroffen" (fired, etc.).
There's another possibility, though, and if it's that one, Riesling may indeed be right that whoever said that was a bit...well, actually, more than a bit... confused. But only you know that.
The question is whether it makes sense that few are affected by the changes at present but more could be soon.
If that's the case, I'd have expected the person to say "bisher" and not "zur Zeit." Hard to tell.
Best