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Well Well, TexasVines you are assuming a lot there. (I am sure you know what it is to assume) Why so negative? You know nothing about the circumstances of this employment, or whether it was myself or anyone else!!! I am not going defend the reason for this inquiry to you or anyone else. I think this is a valid question and I am sure there are plenty of people that have encountered this problem due to no fault of their own.
Well Well, TexasVines you are assuming a lot there. (I am sure you know what it is to assume) Why so negative? You know nothing about the circumstances of this employment, or whether it was myself or anyone else!!! I am not going defend the reason for this inquiry to you or anyone else. I think this is a valid question and I am sure there are plenty of people that have encountered this problem due to no fault of their own.
I really doubt that, if a company gives you a bad reference I'd bet they can back it up.....Or they'd say nothing at all when asked....
When I receive reference calls regarding former employees, I will only give the dates they worked for me and if I they were considered rehireable or not.
The best thing an employer can say is that they would not hire you back. That says everything and keeps them legal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BevoLJ
When I receive reference calls regarding former employees, I will only give the dates they worked for me and if I they were considered rehireable or not.
exactly .... that is ALL i would ever say.......
i also only rarely checked references for potential employees ..... because REALLY.... a former employer can not say anything very enlightening and personal references are only going to give glowing reviews......
It isn't illegal. It is stupid for someone to be so specific but even if you do try to sue for defamation, it is rare to win a case and/or receive a settlement unless you are an Executive level professional. The best thing to do is to be a good employee no matter what the situation and to resign before things get bad enough that a bad reference could be in your future. We still check references from previous jobs but also take them with a grain of salt as they are rarely useful.
It is useful to contact former employers to verify employment. You want to know the candidate is not lying on the job application (legally much more important than the resume).
But most large companies will not even try to get a reference from the former employers because they know it will say little.
I do not believe it is illegal, but it is risky because the former employee might sue claiming the negative reference was false.
That is why most larger or more mature companies will only say "yes, employee x worked here from date1 to date2" and say nothing, either positive or negative. At my former company where I worked for more than ten years in management, I was strictly prohibited from giving any reference about a former employee. Our HR people would simply verify employment. If a former employee was really good, I was happy to give a personal reference.
If the OP suffered from a negative reference and it is untrue - you might be able to file a compliant. But I don't know who to complain to. It seems unlikely that it will be a productive thing to do unless you have legal help.
exactly, how many get around this? (Xemployers) they just do not give a positive review. As you said, they will only varify the employment. What you do is just like I used to do. I would allow the employee to use my name as a personal reference. I haven't read all the responses but I do wonder why the op is asking the question? Companies trying to varify employment can pretty much judge from the way the questions are answered what type of employee the candidate was. It would be pretty hard for a job applicant to prove they were given an untrue and bad reference. All that needs to be said (which is within the guidelines) would this person be considered for re-hire?l
Agree in general that most employers will not give a "bad" reference and will limit it only to dates worked, eligible for rehire, etc.
What is totally unregulated and used with increasing regularity are *informal* references -- such as social networking sites like LinkedIn.
Exg -- The Hiring Mgr at Company X (where you have applied for a job) reviews your resume and notes you have worked at Company Y. Through LinkedIn, the Hiring Mgr has a "social" contact at Company Y, and calls up that contact to informally ask -- off the record, purely socially -- "what do you know about him/her?"
Informally, socially -- that contact could say *anything* such as, "Yeah, didn't know him that well, friend of a friend said that he had some issues and that he and his boss didn't get along that well."
The Company X hiring manager could take this into account and decide not to interview you.
Is it fair? Maybe not...
Is it legal? Yeah ...Because it's a strictly social transaction and there are no laws that govern this kind of interaction...yet.
The best thing an employer can say is that they would not hire you back. That says everything and keeps them legal.
Exactly. And that speaks volumes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Houston3
I really doubt that, if a company gives you a bad reference I'd bet they can back it up.....Or they'd say nothing at all when asked....
When we get calls for past employment verification we give the dates and if they are eligible for rehire or not. That is what we ask as well when we call for past employment verification. That little "yes" or "no" speaks a million words. The tone is also easy to read. This is true for smaller companies where the person doing the verification actually knew the person and why they no longer work for them. If it is someone worth hiring then most post employers will speak a few good words on behalf of the past employee. If the past employee is not welcome back all it takes is a curt "no" and the jest is given. Hey, I want to know ahead of time that someone we are looking at hiring has past employment issues. Why waste our time going thru the hiring process (paying for drug screening in our case as well as other background checks), training them, etc when there are other people that were considered that are worth hiring.
If you KNOW that you might get a bad rap from a previous employer and it is something that you are over or was a mutual departure before you got fired......... be upfront and honest w/ the prospective new employer. If there is only ONE potential bad past history is one thing........ if there are multiple....... time to check the attitude and job performance.
I do not believe it is illegal, but it is risky because the former employee might sue claiming the negative reference was false.
That is why most larger or more mature companies will only say "yes, employee x worked here from date1 to date2" and say nothing, either positive or negative. At my former company where I worked for more than ten years in management, I was strictly prohibited from giving any reference about a former employee. Our HR people would simply verify employment. If a former employee was really good, I was happy to give a personal reference.
If the OP suffered from a negative reference and it is untrue - you might be able to file a compliant. But I don't know who to complain to. It seems unlikely that it will be a productive thing to do unless you have legal help.
This sums it up best. Most large companies with a brain will just verify employment and not leave themselves open to be sued.
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