Coded Praise in the Work Reference

Every German employee who leaves a job has a legal right to a written reference, the Arbeitszeugnis. The law says it must be clear and easy to understand. In practice, set phrases carry the grade. Stets zu unserer vollsten Zufriedenheit, always to our fullest satisfaction, means very good. In 2014 the Federal Labor Court ruled that zur vollen Zufriedenheit, to full satisfaction, counts only as befriedigend, a middle grade. An employee who wants a better grade must prove that he earned it.

The same ruling quotes legal commentators. When 86.6 percent of references rate performance as good or very good, they write, a reference no longer says anything about what the employee can actually do. The ruling does not name the study behind the figure.

Keeping to the matter

Sache is the matter, the thing itself. Sachlich means pertaining to the matter and nothing else.

English has no clean equivalent. Objectivity suggests neutrality of the observer. Matter-of-fact is a description of manner. Sachlich is neither — it names a discipline: keeping to the substance and out of everything around it.

A German asking you to be sachlich is not asking you to be calm. They are asking you to talk about the problem.

The vocabulary of knowing better

Der Besserwisser — the better-knower. Someone who always knows better, and the word is a complaint.

Der Klugscheißer — the clever-shitter, cruder and more common.

Der Oberlehrer — the head teacher, applied to anyone lecturing an adult as though in a classroom.

Belehren — to instruct or lecture at someone, and sich belehren lassen, to allow oneself to be instructed, which is what you are asked to do gracefully.

Four German words for the person who gives advice nobody asked for. A culture does not develop that much vocabulary for a behaviour it rarely encounters.

How are you

Wie geht’s? in German is a question, and it is answered. Not well, thanks — but an actual report, which may include the back, the weather, the traffic and the state of the department.

The English greeting of the same shape is not a question and is not answered. The German one is, which is why Germans answering it in English conversation produce more information than was wanted.

Saying it to the face

Ins Gesicht sagen — to say to the face. Offen aussprechen — to speak out openly. Kein Blatt vor den Mund nehmen — to take no leaf before the mouth, meaning to speak without covering.

And the opposite: hintenherum, behind-around, and hinter dem Rücken, behind the back. Both are accusations.

The German objection is not to being criticised in front of others. It is to being criticised where you cannot answer.

The borrowed word

German has no native word for small talk. It uses the English one, written as one word — Smalltalk — and it entered the language along with the practice it names.

Plauderei and Geplauder exist, but they mean chatting or prattling, and neither describes the specific business function. The thing had to be imported, and the word came with it.

Registering concerns

German construction law places a duty on the contractor: where he has concerns about the intended method of execution, about materials supplied by the client, or about the work of other trades, he must notify the client immediately and in writing, and preferably before starting. The provision is § 4 Abs. 3 VOB/B.

Doing so releases him from liability for defects arising from those points. Failing to do so leaves him liable for consequential damage he did not cause.

The obligation runs the wrong way for a contractor’s own interest, and it is the law.

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