diff --git a/scripts/backup-freshness-alert.sh b/scripts/backup-freshness-alert.sh
index 9136664..c394517 100755
--- a/scripts/backup-freshness-alert.sh
+++ b/scripts/backup-freshness-alert.sh
@@ -26,10 +26,16 @@
 # infra-ops. ⚠ It must NOT be infra-ops — this runs AS infra-ops, so that
 # would mail the alarm to itself, which is the mirror trap named in CLAUDE.md.
 #
-# Exit codes:
+# Exit codes — mirrored from the check, so `systemctl status` distinguishes
+# the three states that matter:
 #   0  backups fresh
 #   1  backups STALE/DOWN, and the alert was delivered
 #   2  the ALERT PATH ITSELF FAILED (investigate this before the backups)
+#   3  ERRORED-JOBS — every body fresh, a job errored recently; alert delivered
+#
+# 3 is deliberately not 1. A nightly job that errored is worth a look; a stale
+# backup body is worth a page. Reporting both as "STALE" over a fleet whose
+# every backup is current is how an alarm teaches you to ignore it.
 set -uo pipefail
 
 REPO=/home/lkraven/development/eshpfi-management
@@ -72,14 +78,24 @@ out=$("$REPO/scripts/check-backup-freshness.sh" 2>&1); rc=$?
 printf '%s\n' "$out"
 [ "$rc" -eq 0 ] && exit 0
 
+# Match the words and the emoji to the finding. A job-errors-only state is not
+# an outage and must not dress like one.
+if [ "$rc" -eq 3 ]; then
+  subject="🟡 Backup jobs errored ($(date '+%Y-%m-%d')) — all bodies fresh"
+  lead="A vzdump job errored recently. Every backup body on the fleet is FRESH; nothing is stale."
+else
+  subject="🔴 Backup freshness ALERT ($(date '+%Y-%m-%d'))"
+  lead="Automated daily backup-freshness check found STALE or DOWN backup layer(s) on the PFI fleet."
+fi
+
 printf '%s\n' \
-  "Automated daily backup-freshness check found STALE or DOWN backup layer(s) on the PFI fleet." \
+  "$lead" \
   "Runbook: docs/runbooks/backups.md (topology, 2-min check, rest-server-ana recovery)." \
   "" \
   "$out" \
-  | send_alert "🔴 Backup freshness ALERT ($(date '+%Y-%m-%d'))" || {
-    echo "FATAL: backups are STALE *and* the alert post FAILED — nobody was told." >&2
+  | send_alert "$subject" || {
+    echo "FATAL: the check found problems *and* the alert post FAILED — nobody was told." >&2
     echo "       Fix the alert path first; that is the fault that hides the others." >&2
     exit 2; }
 
-exit 1
+exit "$rc"
diff --git a/scripts/check-backup-freshness.sh b/scripts/check-backup-freshness.sh
index cd7e96a..66df688 100755
--- a/scripts/check-backup-freshness.sh
+++ b/scripts/check-backup-freshness.sh
@@ -2,8 +2,16 @@
 # check-backup-freshness.sh — the "are we actually backed up?" check.
 #
 # Walks every backup layer and flags anything whose newest snapshot is older
-# than the threshold (default 48h) or any down endpoint. Prints a report;
-# exits 0 if everything is fresh, 1 if anything is stale/down. Designed to be
+# than the threshold (default 48h) or any down endpoint. Prints a report.
+#
+# EXIT CODES — the verdict, not just a pass/fail:
+#   0  all backups fresh
+#   1  STALE — a backup body is past the threshold, or an endpoint is down
+#   3  ERRORED-JOBS — every body is fresh, but a vzdump job errored recently
+#
+# 1 and 3 are deliberately different. Collapsing them prints "STALE" over a
+# fleet whose every backup is current, which is how an alarm earns being
+# ignored. Designed to be
 # run by a daily timer that alerts on non-zero exit (see
 # scripts/install-backup-freshness-timer.sh), or by hand anytime.
 #
@@ -209,9 +217,28 @@ if [ "${#stale[@]}" -gt 0 ] || [ "${#errors[@]}" -gt 0 ]; then
   [ "${#stale[@]}"  -gt 0 ] && printf '  🔴 %s\n' "${stale[@]}"
   [ "${#errors[@]}" -gt 0 ] && printf '  🔴 %s\n' "${errors[@]}"
 fi
-if [ "${#stale[@]}" -gt 0 ] || [ "${#errors[@]}" -gt 0 ] || [ "${#jobfail[@]}" -gt 0 ]; then
+# --------- Verdict. Two different findings, two different words. -------
+#
+# ⚠ These used to collapse into one "RESULT: STALE / exit 1". That is a false
+# statement of fact whenever the only finding is a recent job error: on
+# 2026-09-20 this printed STALE while reporting 37 FRESH layers and zero stale
+# ones — every backup body provably current, the ❌ rows all yesterday's
+# pre-fix runs aging out of the window. infra-hermes flagged it: a reader or a
+# forwarder could page someone over a state where nothing is actually stale.
+#
+# STALE is a claim about backup AGE. A job that ran and errored is a different
+# claim with different urgency, so it gets its own verdict and its own code.
+if [ "${#stale[@]}" -gt 0 ] || [ "${#errors[@]}" -gt 0 ]; then
+  # Bodies stale or an endpoint down. The serious one. Job errors may ride
+  # along and are already printed above.
   echo; echo "RESULT: STALE — see docs/runbooks/backups.md"
   exit 1
 fi
+if [ "${#jobfail[@]}" -gt 0 ]; then
+  echo; echo "RESULT: ERRORED-JOBS — every backup body is FRESH; ${#jobfail[@]} job(s)"
+  echo "        errored in the last ${JOB_WINDOW_H}h. Worth a look, not a page."
+  echo "        Errors older than the window age out on their own."
+  exit 3
+fi
 echo; echo "RESULT: all backups fresh"
 exit 0