Der Wechsel — The Move

The Arbeitszeugnis, and a kindness that has to be decoded

Of all the paperwork in this block, the employment reference is the most distinctively German and the one most worth understanding before you need it. You are entitled to one when you leave. Two kinds exist: ein einfaches Zeugnis, which merely confirms what you did and for how long, and ein qualifiziertes Zeugnis, which also assesses your performance and conduct. You have to ask for the qualified one, and you almost always should, because its absence from an application is noticed. You can also ask for a Zwischenzeugnis while still employed — on a change of manager, a change of role, or simply because you want one — and Tobias's having done so in the spring is the tactically sound move the dialogue quietly recommends. The reason for the code is a genuine legal tension. The reference must be truthful, and it must be wohlwollend, phrased so as not to obstruct the employee's future career. An employer who wants to signal a problem therefore cannot say so plainly, and a set of conventional formulas has grown up to carry the negative information inside unobjectionable wording. Courts have repeatedly been asked to rule on particular phrases, which has made the conventions more fixed rather than less. So the document is read for three things. First, the Zufriedenheitsformel, graded by whether it says stets and whether the satisfaction is vollste, volle or merely Zufriedenheit. Second, what is described — effort rather than results, punctuality rather than competence, popularity rather than either, all of which fill space where praise would go. Third, the closing sentence, the Schlussformel, which thanks the employee and wishes them well for the future: it is so standard that leaving it out is a deliberate act, and its absence is read as one. Two practical points. You may object to a reference you consider unfair and ask for it to be rewritten, and this is a normal thing to do rather than an escalation; disputes about wording are common enough to have their own case law. And the reason the reference matters less in some sectors than others is worth knowing — international employers and much of the tech industry in Germany barely read them, while traditional firms and the public sector read them closely. Ask for a good one anyway. One closing observation about notice periods, because they shape all of this. German notice is long by international standards — typically one to three months, longer with service, and running to the end of a month or a quarter. The consequence is that leaving is not sudden: there are weeks in which everyone knows you are going, the handover is real work rather than a gesture, and the relationship is expected to end civilly on both sides. That is why Tobias can plan his Übergabe to a date and still be training his successor, and why Alex's reaction is regret rather than surprise.