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German feedback sounds worse than it is
This conversation is the one most likely to be misread by someone arriving from an English-speaking workplace, because a German manager giving a positive review says less that is positive. Krause's opening — Aus meiner Sicht gut — is genuine approval. It is not faint praise and it is not a preamble to bad news. German workplace feedback works on the assumption that meeting the standard is the expected case and therefore needs little comment, while the things to change need naming precisely. The ratio of criticism to praise is not a measure of how you are doing; it is a measure of what is useful to say. So the two-week text comes up bluntly and immediately. What matters is what is absent: no suggestion that Alex is a problem, no reference to attitude, no cushioning. The criticism is about the work and it is specific, and the instruction that follows — show an interim state sooner — is something he can actually do. That combination is what German feedback aims at, and by its own standards this is a good review. Two things not to do in reply. Do not over-apologize: one acknowledgement is enough, and several read as insecurity rather than accountability. And do not explain at length — Alex's Das habe ich zu spät gemerkt is four words and complete. Germans tend to hear a long explanation as an excuse, the same point the English courses make about admitting a mistake, and for the same reason. What to do instead is ask two questions: what to do differently, and what the target is. Then, because this is Germany, put the answer in writing — a short email the same day restating the goal you agreed. If the review is formal, a written Zielvereinbarung may exist anyway; if it does not, your email is the record. Lesson 75 in the English courses makes the same case about reviews generally, and here it has an extra edge: a target agreed in conversation and never written down is a target nobody can be held to, including you. One last piece of vocabulary for the moment you are praised, because English speakers habitually deflect and German has a cleaner move: Danke, das freut mich. Not Ach, das war nichts. Accepting praise plainly is normal here and costs nothing.