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blacklisting-how do you find out
Posted by: squeedlebee
Date: 8/15/2007 11:20:22 AM
I worked for the same company for ten years. During that time I made a lot of connections with clients, and was liked by the people I served. My boss was a manipulative creep though, and he laid me off right before my pension was solidified. He was supposed to give three weeks notice. He did not. He said it was because of downsizing, and that he would provide a letter of reference so I could find other work in the field. It took nearly four months to get a tepid letter from him. Subsequently, absolutely no one will hire me, though my technical skills are excellent, and people say they like my work. I believe that my boss, who is very influential in the field, is black balling me... everytime I get to the stage of giving references, potential employers simply evaporate. Is there any way I can find out if he's giving me a negative reference.. and is this legal, after he gives a letter of recommendation?
| Reply from: |
goodboss |
| Date: |
8/15/2007 4:48:00 PM |
| Reply: |
First, most prospective employers don't bother with letters of reference because they all too often are fake. Prospective employers rely on work-related reference information acquired through phone calls. Second, your former boss is legally allowed to say whatever he wants to about you to prospective employers, as long as what he says is true, or he believes it to be true (and even if it contradicts what he said about you in the reference letter). Third, if you really want to know what your former boss is saying about you to prospective employers, have a trusted friend with professional phone manners to call your former boss for a "reference." Make a list of reference-style questions (job title, start/end dates, reason for termination, and so on) for your friend to ask, and don't forget to include one about your "weaknesses" - the answer to this question in particular will show if your former boss is saying negative things about you. If he does say negative things about you, think about whether or not those things are true from his point of view, and if they're not, you may then have a cause of action against your former employer. |
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| Reply from: |
athena911 |
| Date: |
8/31/2007 4:40:00 PM |
| Reply: |
Yes, there are services out there that you can hire to call employers to 'check your references'. They will provide you with cerified documentation for litigation! |
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| Reply from: |
BonusOnus |
| Date: |
3/3/2008 4:25:00 AM |
| Reply: |
There's a service called myreferences.com that will check your reference for you and relay it back to you.
As long as what your former boss says is true, there's nothing you can do. However, that doesn't mean you can't file a lawsuit or threaten one. I live/work in California and there are some cases where former employers were sued for giving negative references, even though they might have been true.
Check what your former boss is saying about you, document everything, and then talk to an attorney. |
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