diff --git a/states/borg/templates/borg_job.sh.j2 b/states/borg/templates/borg_job.sh.j2
index 9273638..0fcfa43 100644
--- a/states/borg/templates/borg_job.sh.j2
+++ b/states/borg/templates/borg_job.sh.j2
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ borg create         \
     --stats         \
     --show-rc       \
     --compression {{ job.compression|default('lz4') }}  \
+    --exclude-if-present '.nobackup'    \
 {%- if job.excluded_dirs is defined -%}
 {%- for exclude in job.excluded_dirs %}
     --exclude '{{ exclude }}'           \