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When it comes to job references, other than your work history and if they are willing to rehire you, can your former employer say anything else?
Reason I ask, my brother for 14 years worked at a local radio station. That is until this past June. He left on very good terms, the company even threw a "goody bye" party in his honor. Even the owner was there, telling him that his is always welcome to come back if he wished.
In June he moved to Columbus, Ohio. He had an interview for a company there only to not get the job. Imagine his shock when this company told him why he didn't get the job. It was due to a bad reference they received about him from his old radio station.
Turns out, the HR team in Columbus called up his radio station on a Saturday afternoon to get a reference check. The guy they talked too was not his boss even though he was in management there. The guy they talked too brought up all sorts of things like my brother's roommate had nude pics of himself online. He had calls from listeners that my brother was seen visiting a strip club. The worst thing this guy said was that my brother had posted a message on some online bulletin board that he had "bipolar disorder and had beaten his wife". That was totally false.
He also told the HR people that my brother had an "ethics" problem since for a number of years he ran a website from his house about the histories of local radio stations in the area as well as the latest news in media there. He claimed it was a "conflict in interest and shouldn't have been allowed" OTOH, my brother's boss and even the owner gave their blessing for the website and even helped run it at times.
My brother anyway, calls up this person back home and he admitted saying such stuff because "I don't approve of you moving to Columbus and I don't want you working there". My brother told him what he did was illegal and could be sued. His old co-worker told him that with employment being "at will", he can say anything he wants and that he can't be sued for "expressing an opinion".
BTW, in the same phone call, the old co-worker begged him to come back to work for him. Go figure !!
Anybody else had a problem with questionable job references?
I'd talk to a lawyer. I once worked with someone and guessed she was ripping off the company. I couldn't figure out why they hired her. Later I found out when they called her references the company said "our lawyer advised us not to say anything." They still hired her. I think even if (not this case) there was something wrong, you have to be careful about slandering someone.
What they are supposed to say and what they will say are often very different. I used to sit next to a hiring manager. She would often say things like this "off the record..." or "we couldn't prove anything...."
It often makes a big difference who is actually doing the talking. A well trained HR person at a large company is less likely to do anything more than verify dates & hireablilty status.
What has occurred in the OP is a specific libel tort.
Your brother will collect a couple years' salary from the first station's insurnace company before it even hits court. Everyone in the business world knows you cannot pull jack@ss stuff like this. The jerk was representing and acting as an agent of the station, on the station's own phone line, no less. The station will fire the jerk, but will bear full liability for his actions.
I don't get the slander part here. I do find it odd that someone from Human Resources would call up for background check on someone......on a Saturday.
But the "slander" part, I don't see it. For starters they did talk to a manager and aren't all managers/supervisors allowed to give references?
Did the guy's roommate really have naked photos of himself online? If yes, that is not slander.
Did the man in question actually go a strip bar? If the answer is yes..where is the slander? But then again, these "phone calls" the manager received, did he document them as in name, address, and phone number from those who were concerned enough to complain in the first place? If the manager didn't, he may have something there. A good manager would have a list names and such.
I do however see the manager's point when it came to this guy's personal website. It really is a conflict of interest. Most businesses would not allow it. Say for example I worked at a Six Flags amusement park. But I am also the webmaster of a site that is all about theme parks, not just Six Flags but even Cedar Fair and all the others. Six Flags does have the right to tell me as an employer that if I want to continue working for them, then get rid of the website. It really all goes down to ethics.
After saying all of this, yes maybe he should talk to a lawyer. But I don't see this actually going to court though.
Slander is "Oral communication of false statements injurious to a person's reputation" and from the OP, the communication was made of false statements.
Your brother should DEFINITELY see a lawyer, and he will DEFINITELY collect handsomely from his previous employer! Because a company can be held liable if an ex-employee loses a job because of a bad reference, I know for a fact that at least major corporations with lots to lose have adopted strict policies regarding references. In particular, many have established a dedicated 800 phone line for verification of references, and will only verify dates of employment and title over the phone. Salary verification is only done if requested in writing. Beyond that, they won't say absolutely anything else; even if the employee was fired, companies will only say that the individual no longer works there. If calls are made to the immediate manager or co-workers, responsible companies often prohibit their employees from giving any feedback at all on behalf of the company, and employees can be fired if they disregard this edict. That said, many people get around tht by stating that they cannot give a professional reference on behalf of the company, but will be glad to give a PERSONAL reference, which is much different. I've done this for employees that I hold in very high regard, but would never do it if what I have to say can be construed as anything other than positive. It's just not worth the potential hassle!
Now, even if some of the statements made were true, they're still injurious because they're unrelated to work performance and can easily be understood to have a malicious intent. Who cares what what kind of pictures his roommate posts on the internet? Or whether or not he beat his wife? Of course I think the latter is INEXCUSABLE, but it is absolutely unrelated to work performance and thus off limits for work verification purposes. Raising the bipolar issue, even if true, is potentially slanderous on various accounts: 1) the individual repeating it doesn't have first-hand evidence of that, 2) even if correct and the company had knowledge of it, that information falls under strict medical confidentiality issues, so it cannot be divulged; and 3) if the condition did not impede his ability to perform satisfactorily on the job (as evidenced by his length of employment and voluntary cessation of employment) it consitutes, among others, a gross breach of the employee's right to privacy. Furthermore, the issue of the website, whether a conflict of interest or not, has no bearing on this individual's performance as evidenced by the fact tht the company knew about it and failed to act on it, which essentially makes them passive participants by virtue of their inaction. Typically, in cases where such conflicts of interest are identified, companies have set policies and written guidelines to address the issue, up to and including termination of employment if so stated. In the worst case scenario, the previous employer failed to act on it so they have no right to hold this against this gentleman on a reference check. Finally, the fact that this man wants him to go back to work for them is undeniable, stated proof that this bad reference was given knowingly and willingly with the express intent of harming this gentleman's ability to secure alternative employment. How much more malicous does it get?
In the final analysis, this man may have done your brother a big "favor." He may indeed be a very rich man, or quite well off for a reasonable period of time at the very least. At this point I think his only problem will be which lawyer to hire, as they will be descending on him like sharks on blood -- this is a plaintiff's and employment lawyer's dream of a perfectly open and shut case!
I would not want to be in that jerk's shoes when the stuff hits the fan (but I would love to be a fly on the wall when it happens!!!!
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,667,450 times
Reputation: 3587
Quote:
Originally Posted by cathy J.
When it comes to job references, other than your work history and if they are willing to rehire you, can your former employer say anything else?
Reason I ask, my brother for 14 years worked at a local radio station. That is until this past June. He left on very good terms, the company even threw a "goody bye" party in his honor. Even the owner was there, telling him that his is always welcome to come back if he wished.
In June he moved to Columbus, Ohio. He had an interview for a company there only to not get the job. Imagine his shock when this company told him why he didn't get the job. It was due to a bad reference they received about him from his old radio station.
Turns out, the HR team in Columbus called up his radio station on a Saturday afternoon to get a reference check. The guy they talked too was not his boss even though he was in management there. The guy they talked too brought up all sorts of things like my brother's roommate had nude pics of himself online. He had calls from listeners that my brother was seen visiting a strip club. The worst thing this guy said was that my brother had posted a message on some online bulletin board that he had "bipolar disorder and had beaten his wife". That was totally false.
He also told the HR people that my brother had an "ethics" problem since for a number of years he ran a website from his house about the histories of local radio stations in the area as well as the latest news in media there. He claimed it was a "conflict in interest and shouldn't have been allowed" OTOH, my brother's boss and even the owner gave their blessing for the website and even helped run it at times.
My brother anyway, calls up this person back home and he admitted saying such stuff because "I don't approve of you moving to Columbus and I don't want you working there". My brother told him what he did was illegal and could be sued. His old co-worker told him that with employment being "at will", he can say anything he wants and that he can't be sued for "expressing an opinion".
BTW, in the same phone call, the old co-worker begged him to come back to work for him. Go figure !!
Anybody else had a problem with questionable job references?
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
16,259 posts, read 24,667,450 times
Reputation: 3587
If I were a boss and somebody asked me for a reference for a good employee, I would give it. I would say he did great work and gave notice before he left our employment and we would rehire him in a second! But if it was a bad employee, I would just say "he worked here from ___date to ___date and I am not going to comment on anything else- draw your own conclusions"
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