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The statutory rule

Under OR Art. 335b:
  • The first month of an open-ended employment relationship is a probation period unless the parties agree otherwise.
  • The parties may agree a different probation period, extend it, or waive it — but it may never exceed three months.
  • During probation, either side may terminate with seven days’ notice, unless the contract agrees otherwise.
  • Where probation is effectively shortened by illness, accident or the performance of a statutory obligation, it is extended by the corresponding period — still within the three-month cap.

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How the platform enforces it

The probation end date is derived, not typed. Once a contract is signed the start date and the configured probation duration are known, so the end date is computed:
  • Probation runs whole months from the start date. Its last day is the day before the same day-of-month that many months later — start 01.01 with three months means probation ends 31.03 and employment is confirmed from 01.04.
  • Day-of-month overflow clamps to the end of the target month: 31.01 plus one month is 28 or 29.02, never 02 or 03.03.
  • The configured duration is capped at three months regardless of what a position or template asks for. A template requesting six months yields three.
  • No probation configured means no end date at all.
Because the date is derived, correcting a start date corrects the probation end date too. A hand-typed date is the classic source of a missed probation deadline.

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Extension after absence

Where illness, accident or military service shortens the probation period, the law allows a corresponding extension. This is a deliberate HR action rather than an automatic recalculation — the extension has to be agreed and communicated, and the statutory cap still applies.

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Notice during probation

Seven days unless the contract says otherwise. The applicable notice period sits on the employment period, so when probation ends the notice period switches to the contractual one automatically and offboarding uses whichever is in force on the day.

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Protection against termination

The ordinary protection periods under OR Art. 336c — illness, accident, pregnancy, military service — do not apply during probation. That makes the probation end date a materially significant date, which is another reason it is derived rather than maintained by hand.

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The platform’s framing

The Probezeit is treated as a mutual decision about fit and support, not as a window for building a termination file. The probation companion is a shared meeting template used by HR, the employee and the manager together, and the questionnaires are reflective — no scores, no ratings.
Requests to add a pass/fail rating, a scored evaluation, or a performance-improvement-plan default to probation are declined on ADR-006 grounds.