Probation clauses that look standard — and aren’t
New hires often treat Probezeit as a formality. Employment consultations in Germany should treat it as the first pressure test of the whole Vertrag.
A six-month probation appears so often that advisors skim past it. The risk sits in the combination: length of Probezeit, notice during that window, and whether the contract quietly extends “trial” conditions through side letters about performance gates.
What to mark on first pass
Start with the calendar. Count the stated months, then check whether the clock pauses for absence. Some drafts try to freeze probation during unpaid leave; that may or may not hold, but it changes how you brief a candidate who plans parental leave or a long trip early on.
Next, map notice. During probation, shorter notice is common. Candidates need the exit math in plain numbers: if things sour in month three, how many days of buffer do they have before income stops? Consultants who skip this step leave people negotiating from vibes.
Where “standard” stops being standard
Watch for probation paired with aggressive IP assignment, broad non-competes, or mobility clauses that activate immediately. Individually, each clause might pass a casual read. Together they concentrate risk on the person with the least leverage — the new hire who has already resigned elsewhere.
Also watch for references to company policies that redefine “successful completion” of probation. If the Vertrag outsources criteria to a handbook the candidate has never seen, flag the gap and ask for the document before signature day.
Briefing tone
Your job in an employment consultation is rarely to declare a clause void. It is to rank urgency: must-clarify, worth-asking, live-with. Probation usually sits in “worth-asking” unless notice or extension language is unusually harsh. That ranking keeps conversations calm and actionable — the same habit we drill in German Work Contract Review for New Hires.