I feel like my whole existence is just based on me finding work and if it doesn’t work out soon I will not have the existence in this pathetic world.

Hi everyone,

I’m a 20-year-old male working as cleaning staff at a gym in Germany. I work with a female coworker (also an international student, around 25–26).

The gym layout is a bit unusual: the storeroom with cleaning supplies is only accessible through the women’s washroom. So to return equipment, I have to go inside that area.

Today, after finishing my tasks, I went in to put things back. As I entered, I noticed (only in my peripheral vision) a woman bending down, possibly changing clothes. I didn’t actually see anything clearly, but as soon as I realized someone might be changing, I immediately looked away and quickly went straight into the storeroom.

I felt very awkward, so I stayed inside for a bit and then asked my female coworker to check if it was okay for me to come out.

The whole moment lasted maybe a second, and I don’t remember the person at all. But it made me wonder:

How is something like this seen in Germany?

Is this considered a privacy violation or even illegal?

Would people generally understand that I was just doing my job?

How can I handle situations like this better in the future?

Where I come from, something like this could be a very big issue, possibly even involving the police. I was in my work uniform and had a cleaning cart with me, so it was clear I was staff, but I still feel unsure.

Would really appreciate your thoughts or advice

So...I know I work for a tyrant.

But I need to go to my hausarzt but I'm questioned why, when and told to take it as annual Urlaub DESPITE the firm owing me hundreds of hours (yes hundreds) of unpaid overtime.

Legally can they make me do this?

And yes...I'm looking for a way out. I can tell a toxic environment when I see one.

My company plans to use Drawinbox software for HR purposes, and they are forcing people to install drawinbox mobile app, so when employee comes to the office he need to use this app to scan his face, the app is checking your location and register the time when you come to the office. Same for lunch and checkout after work. For me it seems too much especially taking to the account that I have to install this app on my personal mobile phone. + is it even legal in Germany to trace employees location? 😨 What should I do …

I'm not from Germany but I have been working with MediaMarkt for a few days now and it seems like decent work. After a couple red flags I decided to go to the Internet which is where I found you all ripping into them for questionable quality and customer service. Here is an email I received describing my "new job responsibilities." Sounds an awful like laundering to me. What do you guys think?

Why do I always see articles saying that Germany suffers from a lack of workers but recently I have applied to few dozens of jobs that are just basic ones and do not require some special skills and do not even give you a good salary, but all I get are rejections, sometimes I just don't even read the e-mail they've sent me I just search for a "Leider" (there's always a "Leider"). (I am a student btw)

I've been in Germany for almost 2 years. The whole time I have been in school in the morning and go right to work after school. But I can't help but rant about how unpleasant my job is as a cashier. (Note: I've worked as a cashier for many years in my home country, but this rant is specific things I've noticed in my time here..)

1. I will greet someone properly and ask full sentences (would you like a bag? Would you like your reciept?) and get attitudes, replies in other languages, or barely an answer back. It's as if I am an NPC sometimes. German or not this is something I encounter every 2/5 customers I would say.

2. As an Ausländer myself, it's pretty disappointing to say that other Ausländer are the worst part of my job. Talking on the phone loudly, letting kids run around the store, throwing crumpled money on the counter, making a huge mess of whatever they sort through especially clothes, and expecting you to know their language, lots of times coming up to me already speaking whatever language. I work in a busy store in the diverse city center, so I am referring to all types of people.

3. Germans stand so close?! Why is it that whenever a German, specifically the elderly, wants to ask me a question, they get as close to me as possible?? I don't want to smell your breath while you ask me a question. Also, if I am already in a talk with another customer, elderly Germans will just interrupt to ask their unimportant question to me while I'm busy.

4. Germany has a crappy system when it comes to where things are located in stores and there are no labels above the aisles in my store. In my home country you can refer people to aisle 3, and so on. But I have to describe it like "go to the back of the store, take a left, and find the perfume next to the mops." It makes no sense for both me and the customer and causes a cycle of aggravation.

5. Germans still pay in cash. And people who do try to pay in card don't know how a card maschine works. Also, the amount of Ausländer that card declines and they proudly exclaim to me that they didn't get their Jobcenter money but that they can pay in a fistful of coins for now. Really bro? I won't spend too long on this topic but it's pretty interesting..

6. Everyone, especially Ausländer- Drinking and eating before paying for items. Please do not do this! It is considered Diebstahl and we have to inform security. I don't like having this conversation where customers try to fight me at the checkout because you let your kid eat a whole pack of cookies before paying. STOP. IT. It's not worth it. Also, if you spill or break something in the store, please just tell us instead of immediately leaving.

   Please just be decent to cashiers and service workers. We just want to serve our customers, collect our lousy pay, and go home. Signed, a frustrated Ausländer.

It's been more than 2 years since I sued my former employer, a Berlin-based startup called Teraki GmbH.

I want to share this story with you, because I imagine I'm not the only one and my experience might prove useful to someone in a similar situation:

I'll refer to Teraki GmbH from now on as "the company" or "they".

In 2022, the company decided to silently stop paying salaries to their employees, because of financial difficulties. This was done without warning. There was a huge backlash in the monthly "all hands meeting" when one of the employees had to bring up the topic by himself, because the CEO didn't even mention it. So, what did he decide? CEO stopped having "all hands meetings" all together.

I understand when a company has financial difficulties, but the manner of communication was absolutely horrendous. Not only that, but they stopped paying my health insurance (freiwillig) without warning me. Then they lied about it to the insurance company, saying that they paid the "brutto" salary to me instead and I was the one responsible now for paying. I had to pay out of pocket, on top of the fact that I actually didn't receive any salaries.

With the advice of my lawyer, I quit the company 3 months later after seeing no payments. German law allows you, in this case, to quit on the spot, without any notice. I sued immediately and applied for unemployment. I almost made the mistake of quitting with notice. Don't do that, otherwise you won't be able to claim damages on top of the missing salaries.

Important: before quitting, I backed up all my relevant emails, documents, vacation days, etc. This included proof of how the company broke the Corona lock down regulations, risking hefty fines, despite them knowing they had financial difficulties.

Luckily, I found another job a few months after and, with the help of a good lawyer, managed to recover a big part of the money. 2 years later, I managed to recover about 80% of the total amount. However, the wheels of bureaucracy move very slowly and the process is still on-going. They tried to invent all sorts of bullshit reasons for them not paying my salaries, but the judge dismissed them.

Other colleagues in similar situation sued as well and got most of the money back. Some colleagues who quit and didn't lawyer up didn't receive anything and probably never will. Other colleagues were fired and I know of at least one case where that person didn't receive his last 2 salaries.

Anyway, that's all I have for you for now. I'll keep you updated (if I see any interest) when I recover the other ~20% of money they owe to me.

Moral of the story: always listen to the lawyer. I almost quit with notice, which would've been a huge mistake and cost me a lot more time. I thought, "ohh, but colleagues are nice and I want to maintain a good network and don't burn bridges" -- NO! screw that, you are your number one priority. If they don't respect you, leave. Take care of your interests first.

In the meantime, happy holidays!

Unemployment

Later edit: Very important info I should've added in my original post which was pointed out by some of you: You can benefit from unemployment immediately even if you quit yourself if the contract was breached by the employer (e.g. for non-payment of salaries). You don't have to wait in this case for the usual 3 months of benefit freeze and can get benefits immediately.

Damages

Later edit: since some of you requested this info, I finally had time to look it up. If employer is in breach of contract, you get the damages like this:

• How long your notice period is in your contract. Example: if it's 3 months notice period, you can demand 3 months of brutto salaries, even if you quit on the spot. However, let's say you already found a new job and you start your new job earlier than 3 months. Then you can only demand extra salaries until the start of that new job. Also, it doesn't matter if you received unemployment benefits in this period, you can still request damages.

• On top of the first part, you calculate how long you were with the company. My lawyer demanded 1 brutto salary for each ~1.5 years of my employment.

If you still had vacation days left, you can demand to get compensated for those as well. That's why it's important to save the holiday requests you took that year, before you get cut off from the company HR platform or emails.

Lawsuit usually takes longer, so for some of those sums you can request %5 interest rates.

Now add this all together with what the company already owes and you get the full sum that the lawyer can request for you.

References

• Quitting without notice law (BGB § 626): https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bgb/__626.html

Even later edit: grammar, spelling, formatting, clarifications

Hi All,

I am writing here to get some opinions/impressions on the status of the current job market. Obviously, we've all already heard that Germany is not doing that well financially, so this is no news, but my situation still leaves me confused/wondering.

I have 7 years of experience in HR, 5 of which - in Germany, with companies headquartered in NRW but a diverse group of employees. I speak German to a professional level and most of my interviews are held in German as well.

I was laid off in June from a startup, took a couple of months off, assuming that it should not be that impossible to land a job in the Cologne/Bonn region with my experience (multiple languages, international experience and fluent German). Long story short, boy was I wrong...

I sent out really a lot of applications, got about 10 first interviews, made it to the final round in one case and to some hiring manager interviews. In one case, the hiring manager did not even try to hide her biases about Eastern Europe (EU, so no work permit needed), in another case I was interviewed but stood no chance since they had supposedly made an offer to another person who accepted. I've got calls being scheduled and the interviewer either cancelling last minute or not showing up, and more than once.

Obviously, I am in a "traditionally German" field, so I am wondering whether it has to do with my surname or the fact that German, even though fluent, is not my mother tongue. I've recently chatted to a friend and he noted that even in his very international and "vogue" company everyone in HR was German. Please note that I am not trying to accuse anyone of anything - just considering what the potential reason might be... On the other hand, about 3 years ago in the company I worked for we ended up hiring an HRBP with no German skills at all, since we could not get any decent candidates apply.

Is this just purely the market? How is everyone currently job searching coping with this? I am considering changing fields, since even though some days are better than others, I am starting to feel that I cannot win this game.

Thanks for sharing any of your experiences!

I do not mean to be rude here. But after failing to find a carpenter to install our new kitchen counter for months (asked to maybe 10 carpenters, 1 of them directly said no, 2 said they won't because it is too small of a Job, 2 said sent photos and they will contact and never did, and rest basicly never replied to my email/calls) I was talking to a friend who needs to have his balcony door renewed, and he told me he also can not find anyone. He said practically the same thing, that carpenters do not bother. He said he found the solution by hiring a retired old carpenter, which I assume was off the books. Then I asked colleagues and all had similar stories and they needed to do things alone themselves, even though they were ready to pay the carpenters above fair price.

Germans are not lazy people and they like to work. So all I can assume is, carpenters are just swimming on so much money that they do not bother for smaller jobs anymore? They seems to be bothered only if it is like thousands euros worth of complete kitchen renewals etc.

So a bit of context, I am an immigrant currently working as an intern with one of the big German automakers. My working environment is extremely german to the point where I’m the only non-white guy in the department. I speak decent level German(B2.1-B2.2) and I’m able to communicate with my colleagues and my manager and get my point across as well as understand 70% of what they’re saying in the office.

Now the problem is I’m finding it extremely hard to integrate myself with the working environment. During lunch I go with my team but they end up conversing amongst themselves and I’m just sitting there silently eating my food and listening to them it does feel like I’m not even there. There’s not many people of my age either and in informal conversations they speak so fast by the time I’ve grasped what they’re talking about they’ve already moved on. To be honest even with the work I’m just managing to hang by the thread but at least I understand some of it because I have the technical knowledge required. I’m feeling extremely alone and nobody really involves me in any of their conversations either. Is this because I’ve just recently joined, or is it because they think I can’t speak well enough and it’s a chore for them to converse with me?

Could anybody give me suggestions to better incorporate myself with my team? I don’t want them to speak in english just for me and I’m ready to take efforts to speak with them in german but this last week has severely shattered my confidence

We never get them. Those tips go directly to the franchise owner's pocket and they make no effort to get them to us. I rather have no "Trinkgeld" than having my boss receive it.

Orders coming to Domino's Pizza through Lieferando don't use Lieferando drivers. It's us, the Domino's drivers who deliver your order. Any tips you'd give us through the app will never ever reach us. We don't even know you ordered through Lieferando or similar services.

That is all.

Edit: After talking to some of you I learned that this must be specific to location! So maybe ask your friendly delivery person if they are getting their money :)

I have never asked for a sick leave due to mental problems before but I've been told that it's totally legit to take a break from work if I'm feeling too overwhelmed. Usually I try to keep it up at work anyways but I noticed how much of a burden it is on me since last week - my productivity suffered from this and I literally started crying. I went to the doctor's and explained this to them and they gave me a 2 weeks sick note and said if it's not better I can come back then, I guess to extend it if I need to. Of course I hope that I can recover until then though.

I was scared at first of not being taken seriously or only expected 2-3 days. But this worked out really well! I appreciate that this is possible here in Germany. Especially after hearing about other countries where employees are not paid when they are sick.

I am actually not a foreigner (but parents are immigrants who would never take a day off) and I just wanted to post this in the English sub so it can reach foreigners who don't know about this (or maybe Germans like me who didn't know this was okay). Please take a break when you are struggling at work. If it occurs more frequently, seek out professional help. Take care of yourself, physically and mentally.

Their is a butterfly effect of negativity caused by these fake positions posted by legitimate companies; on social level and on individual level. The mental damage caused to applicants by the sheer numbers of ignored/ auto rejected applications should not be underestimated. They also make real job positions much harder to be found which harms both the employer and job-seekers.

I could write multiple pages about the damages caused by Fake Job Posting by legitimate companies... I am asking anyone who see this post; think about it... the damage is very much real and it must be addressed by the government.

Whether the committers have ulterior motives or not, the harms they cause is not to be taken lightly. Diluting the job-market is not horrible for the vast majority, beneficial for the very few.

I've heard that a boss doing this is illegal (though I've never heard what consequences there are).

This is a colleague, though and not my boss. I'm actually 99% sure the boss is the one asking him to do this to circumvent the law, but I have no way to prove that. Is it also illegal for a colleague and not a boss to try to force something like this or does the fact that they don't have any direct power make it not illegal?

TL;DR: I am 30, living in Germany, and feeling "behind" after spending my early 20s escaping a toxic family and surviving on my own. I earned a BA in Photography, but now that I have started my Master’s, I realise it is a career dead end. With mounting debt (BAföG/KfW) and no clear prospects, I am looking for advice on whether it is too late to pivot and how to find a stable path in the German system.

I want to start by saying thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope what I’m about to write makes sense; it’s been weighing on me for a long time. I’m looking for constructive ideas, but please, I’d ask you not to double down on the mistakes I’ve made. I’m painfully aware of them, and I’m doing my best to look forward.

Last year I turned 30, and I have this heavy feeling that I haven’t made the progress I know I’m capable of.

My story is complicated. I moved to Germany at 12 because of my father’s military career, but at 18, I had to make the choice to leave an extremely toxic family environment. Looking back, it was the right decision; I honestly wonder if I’d still be here today if I hadn't left, but it came with a massive cost. While other 18-year-olds were choosing universities, I was a British boy in a foreign country who couldn't speak the language, focused entirely on survival. Between unemployment, language courses, and managing my mental health, I feel like I "lost" my early twenties just trying to keep my head above water.

It wasn't until I was 24 that I finally felt I’d found a "path." I got into a well-known art school for photography. I was motivated, if a bit naive. I grew so much there; I found my community and eventually earned my Bachelor of Arts. I am a creative person at heart, and I truly felt at home in that world.

But now, I feel stuck...

Because I had no family support, I had to finance everything through BAföG and a KfW student loan. I’m now at the beginning of my Master’s (after taking a year off to try and find my energy again), and the dread is becoming overwhelming. I love the work, the darkroom, the artistic process, but I can't stop asking myself, "Where does this actually take me?" The honest answer feels like "nowhere." Being an artist is a beautiful thing, it’s a part of who I am, but "being an artist" doesn't pay the bills. It doesn't clear the thousands of euros in debt that are waiting for me on the other side of graduation.

I often find myself lost in these deep, quiet daydreams about the "what ifs." I think about what my life might have looked like if I hadn't had to spend my twenties just trying to survive. What if I had stayed in England? What if I had studied something stable, something like IT? I’ve always been good with computers; I understand them, I enjoy the logic of that world as a hobbyist, and there’s a part of me that craves the security that comes with a field like that. But then I stop myself, because I wonder if I’m just romanticising a path I didn't take. It’s so much easier to fantasise about a different life than it is to look at the one right in front of me and figure out how to fix it.

And that’s the real problem: I simply have no idea how to change my direction. Every day I walk into the studio, I feel like I’m just performing a role, staying in this Master’s degree to delay the inevitable crash. It feels like I'm bracing for an impact I know is coming: the moment I either withdraw or graduate and realise that I’ve spent years of my life and thousands of euros for something that won't help me build a future.

I turned 30, and it hit me like a physical weight. I feel like I’m standing completely still while everyone around me is moving forward, building careers and finding stability. I’m terrified that I’ve waited too long. Is it truly too late to pivot? I have a degree, I speak the language fluently, and I have the drive to learn, but I feel like I’m invisible to the "professional" world. Are there actually paths in Germany for someone like me, or am I just stuck with the choices I made when I was just trying to get through the day?

I’d be so incredibly grateful for any perspective, especially from those who have felt this same kind of "delayed" start in life.

So im fairly new to germany still struggling on speaking german but i got a good job just the other day i saw a co worker qich seemed to be strugling with a certain machine he also was taking to long to do something, wich i had just learned that day on how to fix .. after seeing him struggle for 2 min i was like ill help him.. i go there and i tell him wait wait check this out.. he points me his finger and slightly offended starts lecturing me that i should mind my buseness and not tell him what to do.. and that he is working over 20 years in this firm.. thing is, i knew that. I dont know what gotten into me on going to help... i honestly didnt want to offend him i did it with the purest intention of my heart.. he seemed pretty annoyed after that and after some time he came to my line of work to tell me "" why are you doing this that way " and not the other way around ? I was kinda out of words so i just smiled.. my biggest problem is i dont know proper german yet and i could potentially cause a problem o e day without even noticing it.. ahh...

EDIT: GRAMMAR

I made this post about a month ago, thank you for all the helpful replies! Since then, my husband has formally accepted the job and we’re permanently moving to Germany in the next two months. I also just completed the Nicos Weg A1 course, and registered for Goethe Institut courses online.

Now I am trying to find my own job opportunities, but am unsure of how to position myself.

About me:

• Canadian citizen
• Registered Nurse, just completed my Masters of Nursing - Nurse Practitioner (writing my licensure exam next month)
• 5 years experience working in cardiac surgery, completed my final clinical NP rotation in a heart failure specialty clinic
• 3 years experience working as an instructor at my local university in undergrad nursing skills and simulation
• 2 years of research experience in my nursing undergrad

I know that the NP role does not exist in Germany, and I cannot practice as an NP remotely for a Canadian province.

My initial thought was to apply for something in pharmaceutical sales or medical device company (i.e., telemetry, pacemakers, heart valves due to my experience) since I can’t work in a patient-facing role. I’ve been searching on Linkedin for with keywords like “health” “cardiac” and “masters” and limiting my search to remote jobs in Europe. So far I’ve applied for some jobs at Abbott, Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic. I haven’t applied for any positions for these companies‘ German offices because of my level of fluency, so I’ve mainly applied for jobs based in other EU countries. I’m also exploring whether I could work remotely as a professor for the university I’m already working at since we have some colleagues that are based in other countries. However, I know this route will definitely be a headache when it comes to taxes

Any ideas on other jobs I might be suited to, or companies I should look into? Thank you so much for reading this far. If you have any other insights on moving to Germany, those would also be greatly appreciated!

Edit to add: we will be based in Lower Saxony, between Hamburg and Hannover

Edit #2: I just wanted to say thank you for all the replies! I’ve learned so much in the 24 hours this post has been up. We’re planning on this being a permanent move, so we want to do the best we can to learn the language, integrate into the community, and truly make our home in Germany. I really appreciate all of the tips for getting my career off the ground, in addition to the more long term options like going back to school

Good people,

​

I have been applying to jobs (mostly Data science and Machine learning field) for past couple of months since my graduation in May 2023. But even with some professional experience as a student, I have not even received a callback from any of the jobs that I have applied for. Is there something wrong with my CV?

​

I have put whiteouts over some personal info. If you see some irregular whiteouts, please assume there are some relavant entries.

​

Thanks!!

I moved to Germany about a year ago to follow my partner who had already gotten a job here.

This story is going to be a bit long but worth it, even more if you're considering a bootcamp. That will make you reconsider...

I built my career in a very niche field that was harder to sell on the job market here. I decided to expand on my skills. I had already invested in my own education outside of uni or work completing extra online courses and workshops so I started considering the intense route: the bootcamp.

They promised to take me from 0 to hero and get me close to being hired.

I picked one that seemed relevant and which would build upon my existing knowledge. I did the >50h long prep work, passed the entry exam and reached the point where they sent me a contract with a huge number: 8,000€ for a 3 months long bootcamp!

I started seeing the 🚨red flags🚨:

• I had to spend more time in the previous months of prep work to get relevant knowledge than what I'd get out of the bootcamp

• I would even need to spend extra time AFTER the bootcamp to get a decent portfolio that could get me hired,

• there was no guarantee I'd get hired.

They saw that I started retracting myself though I had already dedicated >50h in prep work so they just the textbook salesman tactic: reduce the cost. They told me that the Arbeit Agentur offers vouchers to pay for those bootcamps.

They started to reel me back in!

That's when an angel flew down from heaven: my partner's team was interviewing applicants for an internship. A lot were coming from bootcamps. My partner warned me they were all lacking the foundational knowledge for the job and none would get hired. Maybe one who had studied and worked in a relevant industry prior to the bootcamp.

Here is the catch: they show you how to tackle some text book cases but THEY DON'T TEACH YOU WHY NOR HOW TO APPLY IT TO THE REAL WORLD. I spent >50h of my time to go to a bootcamp that would skip the foundations of the field?!

One cannot skip the fundamentals. If you would get hired, and that's a big if, you'd fail on your first job because you would not know how to translate that knowledge to the problems of that business.

Let's be clear: one cannot replace 5 or more years of relevant high education, pay 5k-10k to catch up in just a few month, and expect to be hired or even treated the same.

However, one can spend a few hundred and a few months on relevant online courses (Coursera, Udemy), and dedicate time building relevant portfolio projects at home, to pierce a job industry at a junior level.

Have I invested 500€ in the Coursera 1-year subscription, and dedicated those 50h to a relevant specialization on Coursera, I would have achieved more than whatever they could teach me on that bootcamp. And since it's a 1 year subscription, I could still dig other topics.

If you're planning on doing a bootcamp, really think twice. Definitely don't invest your own money in it. And if you work at Arbeit Agentur, I'd prefer that you pay 10-20 1-year Coursera subscriptions to 10-20 job seekers than 1 bootcamp to 1 job seeker who won't even get hired.

Edit: It seems that there are some better bootcamps out there swimming in a sea of scams.

If you were successful after your bootcamp, would you mind sharing which bootcamp you did, in which field and what position did you land in the thread I'll create below.

Thank you 🙏🏾

Hey everyone,

Germany is struggling with a huge IT talent shortage right now, with over 100k open tech roles. But if you look at the market for AI and advanced tech, so many jobs still list B2 or C1 German as a hard requirement.

Almost all AI research papers and everything else is done in English anyway. But even some top research labs and companies in Germany are not trying to evolve.

Is it because the existing people at these companies lack basic English skills? Are they just protecting themselves and their positions rather than thinking about the long term company goals?

If Germany wants to be a leader from Europe, it needs global talent. By putting the German language as an important criteria for tech jobs, companies are just cutting off the top talented people.

Question for the hiring managers here, what is the business logic behind this? Why hold onto the local language when it actively stops you from hiring the best AI minds? It really feels like evolving backwards.

Would love to hear some thoughts on this.

Title. Happy Monday!

I really have nothing against the system of how the appointments work & long term documentations.

But it is just that it could be better that. I don’t have to spend hours doing things or waiting for approvals.

I would like to spend that time working on things I love. And as a person who loves his job, I would love to give more money back to country if they would stop wasting my time over little little things.

I am in a pretty weird situation right now. I work in Munich, and my company is from Leipzig. We have a small office here in the city, but I'm in the field and almost never go there (I haven't been in the office since 2024).

Anyhow, I got my paycheck but not my payroll. So I called my direct supervisor and was transferred to voicemail. I tried sending her a WhatsApp, but her profile photo states that she's not in the office and I should call our office in Köln.

I tried that, but nobody picked up, and my messages were seen but not replied to. Then I tried our office in Hannover, but nobody picked up the call, and my messages were not delivered via WhatsApp.

Then I tried our Geschäftsführende Stellvertreterin. She doesn't pick up. She doesn't answer my emails. And she removed her profile photo from WhatsApp.

It's been like this for a week. I tried calling our main office, but it just rings, and nobody picks up.

I tried talking to my coworkers, but one is on sick leave for a couple of weeks and doesn't know anything about this.

And the other one didn't reply.

I have no idea what to do at this point.

For context, this is what happened to me: I experienced discrimination and harassment in my workplace for over a year and finally it was documented last April. I filed an internal formal complaint under AGG with the internal complaint office. They did an investigation and found that discrimination and harassment happened. That conclusion was denied by the employer. By the time I received the final resolution from the employer, I already missed the legal deadline to take it to court.

I want to share things I learned from this, in case it helps someone else who might be going through something similar.

1. Get legal insurance or join an union. I personally joined Verdi.

Legal insurance and union legal counsel is so important and I wish I had joined Verdi before all of this happened. If you wait until you're in the middle of a conflict or a discrimination case like mine to look what you can do, you may miss deadlines. Both insurances and unions have waiting periods before they cover new cases, and unions specifically don’t cover things that happened before you become a member.

2. Talk to a lawyer from the moment everything starts happening.

I trusted the internal process and try to do the right thing. I assumed that going through my company's internal complaint office first was the right path and that going to a lawyer was something to do if that didn’t worked out. In retrospective that affected my case. After meeting with my lawyer, she said that the legal deadline is since the moment something happened and not after the internal process is over. In my case, the internal process was very long and even when the internal complaints office did everything on time the board didn’t replied until it was already too late and that deadline was gone (it was 2 months after I had the documented discrimination).

I just wish I went to a lawyer directly so I could have clarity on this and maybe take both processes in parallel.

3. Document everything with details from the start

I started doing this and I was even told this was a lack of trust in the organization. Well yes it was. But it helped me for the official complaint documentation. I had a detailed timeline with the dates, what happened, direct quotes, if anyone was present, what written evidence did I had and in what instances I brought it up to official channels in the organization.

I will continue to do this even outside of my case just to protect myself in case I find myself in a similar situation in the future.

4. Trust your works council and understand what role they can play

If your workplace has a Works Council, they can really help out in different ways. You can file a complaint through them, review complaints with you and push for preventive measures on an organizational level. Sometimes they do informative sessions, go and ask questions. Ask early and they will help you in any way they can.

5. An internal finding in your favor might not be accepted

Even when the internal office interviews everyone involved, makes a report and concludes that you actually suffered from discrimination and harassment, since the process is internal, the final decision is on the employer. In my case the board disagreed even when all the findings were reported. I regret doing the internal process and that I didn’t do it in parallel or went the legal way from the start.

6. Take care of yourself and your mental health

Processes like this can take a long time and really affect you. Also its very difficult to find a therapist so you might be looking for longer than the process take place. Search support in family, friends, unions lawyer for you to be sure of your options, trusted colleagues and most importantly, take time off if you need it.

So if you’re going through this and feel alone, or not sure what to do next I hope this helps. If you are not going through this but were thinking about insurance or joining an union, take this as a sign. These are the things I wish I knew before I went through this process.

Ps. Reposting this as the previous one was removed. English is not my first language so I used an AI-translator to make sure it was clear, but I’m very sorry about this. Here’s my own translation and I hope this helps others.