Refused reference

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Hey guys

You may remember I had some shite when I gave in my notice at my old support job, they were short staffed and hated me doing it but I towed the line worked my calender months notice and left on what i though were good terms....

I find out today from my new boss that HR at my old place said "It was against company policy to answer questionaire type reference requests", new boss then said I would have to prove myself here as they had not given me a reference.

I'm astonished, I worked my arse off there for 5 years and got on with everyone, I have done NOTHING to warrant a bad reference or a refusal and the least I deserve is decent reference after all the work I put in !!


Was embarassed and this now makes me look shite to the new place.

 

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That sucks mate.

Unfortunatley quite alot of employers do treat their employees like crap and when that employee leaves to go somewhere else they feel as if they are being mis-treated even though they have been mis-treating the employee for all the time they've worked for them.

Recently the Guy who was my superior took voluntary redundancy, his reasons for that were because our main manager told him the job title he was given at the start of our big contract never existed when we last the big contract.

Now the main manager is trying to get him to come back to do a days work on some configurations for applying grey balaces to newsprint and he has said **** off.

The main manager has even said I'll pay him £100 for the day if I was my ex superior I would be expecting a grand and my main manager is wondering why he said no.

The point is companies will **** you around if they feel agrieved by you leaving but its always nice if you can get one over on them.

So just try to prove yourself then shove it in your old companies face

 

Sucks doesn't it mate, just because it didn't suit them for me to leave they treat me like this....just proves I'm way better off out of that company if they treat people like this.

 

Actually, MOST employers will refuse to answer questionnaire-type reference requests whether the employee was good or not for fear of being sued. For example, if they give the employee a bad reference, the employee could sue the old employer... and if they give the employee a good reference, and the employee turns out to be horrid, then the new employer could sue the old employer. So the old employer has nothing to gain and everything to lose by giving ANY reference. The only information they'll typically provide is:

1) whether you worked there or not,
2) your start and end date,
3) your job title, and
4) occasionally, they'll verify salary information.

That's it. Nothing positive... nothing negative. Just information that cannot come back to haunt them.

 

I understand BM

But the thing with Bambino1506 is very common here (dont know how it is in the US)

If an employee leaves a company the employer will feel agrieved as the employer might have had to give the employee various rights that have recently been brought in such as minimum wage and I believe its no-more than 40 hours a week with regular breaks.

These rights may not have been introduced in the company if it hadnt been passed in the EU.

So these days because of things like that companies feel they own you and your treated that way as a possesion to do thy masters bidding.

 

It is true that the reference roulette here is a bit more hit and miss than the US. However, what BM says is right - 90% of companies write a standard reference for all ex-employees when approached by their new employer. It is unusual for any company to fill out a 'questionnaire' type reference for an ex-exployee - not just for the reasons BM has stated, but also because they don't want to pay their 'hard worked' (said tongue FIRMLY in cheek) HR staff to do work that won't benefit their organisation. It is VERY unusual for a company to write a deliberately bad reference for an ex-employee (unless there were serious disciplinary issues or something criminal took place). We are a much more litigious society now than we have been in the past. Most employment law changes benefit the employer at the detriment of the employee. The move toward a society where people are much more able to sue for things like this is one of the only benefits to there being more lawyers in the world!

Bambino - it sounds very much like your new employer may be more clueless in common employment law practice than your previous one

 

I believe in the US companies are only allowed to confirm dates of employment.

 

I agree with whats been said here. I was even told by my employer about giving out references. I was told that in some cases and this doesnt happen often the management will give a positive feedback not just the confirmation of employement.

 

Some companies will send a *standard* letter which could include;

*Start date
*Leave date
*Reason for leaving

They might ask your line manager if they would like to provide a more *personal* statement for you. This way they say what they want and don't have to say yes or no to something they don't want to answer or perhaps not relevant to your previous position.

Boyce