Arbeitszeugnis: What It Is, How to Read the Coded Language, and What to Do If Yours Is Bad

You have left a job in Germany or Switzerland, or you are about to, and you have a one- or two-page German document in your hand. Run through a translator, it sounds warm. The trouble is that a Swiss or German recruiter does not read it the way a translator does. Certain sentences in an Arbeitszeugnis work as a grading scale, and two small words can move you from the top grade to below average.

This article separates three things that most guides mix together: what German law says, what Swiss law says, and the grading convention that sits on top of both. Then it reads a sample certificate line by line and shows what to ask your employer to change.

What an Arbeitszeugnis is

An Arbeitszeugnis ("work certificate") is a written, signed statement from your employer about your job. The full version also assesses how well you did it and how you behaved. You keep the original. When you apply for your next job, it goes into your application dossier behind your CV, and the recruiter reads it instead of phoning your old boss. The Swiss CV guide shows where it sits in the dossier and what to send if you have never worked in a country that issues them.

What German law says

Two provisions matter. § 630 BGB gives anyone leaving a lasting service relationship the right to a written certificate about the relationship and its duration, extended on request to performance and conduct. For employees, it hands over to § 109 of the Gewerbeordnung (GewO), which sets out the details:

• Paragraph 1: when the employment ends, the employee is entitled to a written certificate. At minimum it states the type and duration of the work, which is the einfaches Zeugnis (simple certificate). The employee can ask for it to cover performance and conduct as well, which is the qualifiziertes Zeugnis.
• Paragraph 2: "Das Zeugnis muss klar und verständlich formuliert sein. Es darf keine Merkmale oder Formulierungen enthalten, die den Zweck haben, eine andere als aus der äußeren Form oder aus dem Wortlaut ersichtliche Aussage über den Arbeitnehmer zu treffen." In my translation: the certificate must be clear and understandable, and must not contain features or wording intended to say something about the employee other than what is apparent from its form or its words.
• Paragraph 3: with the employee's consent, the certificate can be issued electronically.

Notice what the text does not say. It ties the right to the end of the employment and says nothing about an interim certificate or a deadline. If you want one mid-job in Germany, you ask for it. Before you let a bad final certificate sit for months, check your contract and any collective agreement for a deadline clause (Ausschlussfrist).

What Swiss law says

The Swiss rule is shorter and, for the employee, broader. Art. 330a of the Code of Obligations (OR) says the employee can ask the employer jederzeit, at any time, for a certificate covering the type and duration of the employment and the employee's performance and conduct. Paragraph 2 adds that, on the employee's specific request, the certificate is limited to type and duration. That short version is the Arbeitsbestätigung (confirmation of employment).

The article itself is two sentences. The practical detail comes from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, whose SECO FAQ on the Arbeitszeugnis says:

• The certificate can be issued during employment as an interim certificate (Zwischenzeugnis) or at the end as a final certificate (Schlusszeugnis). The limitation period is 10 years from the end of the employment.
• A full certificate should name both parties and give start and end dates. It should list your important functions and the activities that shaped the job, with how long you did them, and give a meaningful assessment of your performance (quality and quantity of work) and your conduct. It needs a valid signature and the date of issue, normally your last working day.
• It must be truthful, benevolently worded without breaching truthfulness, complete (the conduct assessment, for example, may not be left out), and clear, understandable and correctly spelled.
• Negative facts may be mentioned if they matter to the overall assessment, but not isolated incidents or trivia. Ambiguous wording and Zeugniscodes, where neutral or positive-looking phrases carry negative messages for insiders, are not allowed.

The federal portal ch.ch adds three useful points. You can ask for an interim certificate if you get a new supervisor or take on a new role, even if you stay with the same company. The certificate should state your employment percentage (Stellenprozente) and the reason it was issued. It should not list one-off negative incidents, and ch.ch's own example is a single late arrival. If you find inaccuracies, errors or untruths, you can ask for the text to be changed.

SECO notes that its answers are guidance, not binding, and that in a dispute only the civil court decides.

If codes are banned, why does everyone still decode certificates

Both countries forbid hidden messages. What survives is not really hidden. The satisfaction sentence works as an open scale that HR readers in both countries recognise, much like a school grade written out in words. No statute defines it, and there is no official version of the table below. Versions found online disagree by a step in the middle, which is one more reason not to panic over a single word.

My position: take the satisfaction ladder seriously, because your next recruiter will. Treat the long lists of "secret" phrases online with more suspicion. Where a phrase really is written to damage you behind a friendly surface, the law is on your side, and that is exactly the wording you can ask to have removed.

The satisfaction ladder, translated (convention, not law)

The sentence is built on a base like "Sie erledigte die ihr übertragenen Aufgaben … zu unserer … Zufriedenheit" ("She carried out the tasks assigned to her … to our … satisfaction"). The grade lives in two slots: whether stets (always) appears, and how full the satisfaction is. The labels use the German school scale.

Some versions place stets zu unserer Zufriedenheit (always to our satisfaction) at befriedigend. Below the whole scale sits hat sich bemüht (made an effort), which says you tried and implies you did not succeed. German texts spell Großen with ß; Swiss texts write Grossen.

The trap for English speakers is the fourth row. "Carried out the tasks to our satisfaction" reads as a pass in English. On the ladder it is below average. Vollsten is the other tell: "fullest" is odd German, because full cannot really be fuller. Its oddness is the point, and readers notice when it is missing.

Other things a reader looks at

The points below, and the "how a recruiter reads it" column in the example that follows, are common readings among recruiters, not rules from the laws or guidance quoted above.

• Gaps. A full certificate with no conduct assessment is incomplete by SECO's own example. A missing section is read as a comment.
• The conduct sentence. By convention the strong version names superiors before colleagues (and clients, where the job had them) and uses stets, for example "Ihr Verhalten gegenüber Vorgesetzten, Kollegen und Kunden war stets vorbildlich."
• Praise for the obvious. Punctuality or "showed understanding for the work" in the performance section is usually read as a sign there was little else to praise.
• The closing. The conventional full closing has thanks, regret that you are leaving, and good wishes. "We wish her all the best" on its own is read as cool.

Worked example: a weak certificate, read line by line

The paragraph below is invented for this article. Lena Beispiel is a fictional project coordinator leaving a Swiss company after four years with good appraisals. Nothing in it is written as an insult, and that is why it is worth reading slowly.

Two things are missing entirely, and they are the easiest to win because they are facts, not opinions. The list of duties, which SECO expects in detail. And the employment percentage, which ch.ch lists among the points a certificate must state.

Here is how the fictional Lena might ask for the changes. Keep it short and specific, and send the wording you want rather than only the objection.

What to do if yours is bad

1. Fix the facts first

Check dates, job title, employment percentage and the list of duties against your contract and your own records. A wrong date or a missing responsibility is an error, not a matter of taste, and ch.ch says you can ask for errors to be corrected.

2. Ask for the wording, with evidence

Write to whoever signed it, or to HR, as in the example above. I would always send the replacement sentence, because it gives the employer something to approve instead of something to argue about. Attach appraisals, target agreements or written praise if you have them. Know the limit: the certificate must be truthful, and SECO allows negative facts that matter to the overall picture. You can ask for complete, clear and benevolent wording and for isolated incidents to be removed. You cannot ask for a grade the record does not support.

3. In Switzerland, the fallback is the Arbeitsbestätigung

Under Art. 330a para. 2 OR you can ask for a certificate limited to the type and duration of the job. I treat it as a last resort. A confirmation with no assessment makes a reader wonder what the full version said, so it helps only when the full version would hurt more.

4. If the employer refuses

In Switzerland, SECO points out that only the civil court decides a dispute, and the claim is time-barred after 10 years. In Germany, get advice early, and look for a deadline clause in your contract or collective agreement. In both countries I would try a letter from a lawyer or, if you are a member, your union before thinking about a court. This is also where the "not legal advice" note at the end of this article applies.

5. Next time, ask for an interim certificate

The best protection is a Zwischenzeugnis written by the manager who knew your work, before that manager leaves. ch.ch names a new supervisor or a new role as the moment to ask. In Germany the statute does not give you that right in the same words, but asking costs nothing.

If you have never had one

UK and US employers do not issue Arbeitszeugnisse, and Swiss or German recruiters know that. What to put in the dossier instead, and how to label it, is covered in the Swiss CV guide. For the process around it, see how to ask for a reference, the Swiss work permit guide and, for Germany, finding a job in Germany as a foreigner.

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