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So I'm currently unemployed, and looking around for a new gig. To make a long story short, I "quit" my last job on bad terms (constructive discharge/forced to quit). It wasn't a performance/attendance issue - I became a target for reporting gray zone/possibly illegal activities (Became a harassment/bullying victim from upper management and a bad apple supervisor, hour cuts, etc). Luckily, there are at least some managers I stayed on good terms with. From what I've gathered, trying to sue is pretty much a waste of time and money, except for extremely strong race/gender/etc type cases. So I'm taking the try to collect UI and move on/job hunt approach instead.
I've received some calls back, and had some interviews for jobs so far, but no actual job offers. It's my understanding that regardless of if you give an employer permission or not to contact former employers, or even for jobs where you only send a resume (like through Craigslist), that they're pretty much going to contact past employers anyway to dig up what they can, so checking "do not contact" only makes it look like you're hiding something.
And I've also been told that depending who gets contacted at the former employer, that it's pretty common to do more than confirm employment dates, and give a bad reference.
I thought about having a friend contact my former employers to find out what they're saying, but heard that they will often check phone numbers to make sure it's a business number before they reveal too much. Then I heard about reference checking services, who not only get the information you want - That some people have followed up w/this method by having an attorney send cease and desist warnings for bad references, many with success.
I don't even know for sure if I'm getting bad references, but part of me is beginning to suspect it at this point. Am I just being too paranoid, or do I have a good enough reason to be worried about this? Is a checking service worth it? And should I just mark "yes" on applications asking to contact former employers?
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