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I accepted a position 9 months ago, since I was unemployed and needed to get something. The pay and benefits weren't that great. After about 3 months, I wondered why I was hired since I was not very busy, even if I worked part time, there was not enough to keep me busy.
This a small manufacturing company and I worked in the office with about 6 people and there were about 20-25 in the production department.
Here is what happened:Over the last few weeks, one of the women started to give me the cold shoulder and I don't know why and didn't inquire about it.
She started about 4 months before me. Things were tense and one day before I was let go, I asked her something and she grunted at me and I said nothing.
The next day, Friday, is when the incident happened. This occurred about 1/2 hour before the day ended.My boss is Ken, his boss is Bob and Bob's boss is Bill. Bob was not in, Ken and Bill were.
Without going into detail, she annoyed me, I said in a loud voice, I am sick of playing games, she muttered something, I said F*** You, then said to my boss, aren't you going to say anything. Then Bill came out and told me to quiet down and I said, what about talking to her. Again, he told me to quiet down.
He went back to his room and I went back to my desk. After a few minutes, I went into Bill's office to apologize and I could see that he was upset and said that something like this has not happened in his 26 years. I assumed the worst would happen.
On Monday morning, I went to my bosses desk and said I want to speak with him and Bob. I then went into Bob's office and stated that I'm sure that Bill told you what happened and started to explain my behavior. Bob very politely stopped me and stated that this has nothing to do with what happened Friday and that since business was slow, I would be let go.
I knew this was not true and that Bill wanted me gone, but I didn't want to call Bob a liar. (I went into Bob's office on my own, I was not called in.) He said you will get unemployment and that for references, it is company policy to just give dates, salary, title etc.
On that part I tended to believe him since a couple of months earlier I heard him say something similar about a past employee.
My question is that I had a 2nd interview and gave Ken as a reference about a week ago. When I called the company on the status of my chances, I was told that due to what happened at my last job, I would not be hired.
Do I have a right to sue since the company did not tell me they would say that?
you can only sue (successfully!) if what Ken said was not true, he knew it wasn't true, and you can prove both things. your manager's word that they don't give positive or negative references (even if it is documented company policy) unfortunately doesn't count for anything.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by groar
you can only sue (successfully!) if what Ken said was not true, he knew it wasn't true, and you can prove both things. your manager's word that they don't give positive or negative references (even if it is documented company policy) unfortunately doesn't count for anything.
Actually, you can sue for anything if you find a lawyer that will take the case. The real question is whether you can win. In addition to what groar said, you would have to prove in court that the reference told them about what happened. They may in fact, have gotten it another way. Companies may go as far as to hire investigators who may interview former fellow employees.
From your story, it sounds like if your reference told the truth then you wouldn't get hired. Why did you put him down as a reference? If you just listed your employment there, then when a prospective employer called to verify your employment, they would have probably been sent to HR, where they would give the standard dates of employment, etc. However, you listed him as a reference. That means that he is supposed to talk to a prospective employer about your job performance. You basically asked for it. On the legal side, asking non-lawyers for legal advice is a bad idea. As an attorney (who is not giving you legal advice), I would say just learn from your mistakes and move on.
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