Is your old boss stealing your new job?
Learn how to stop bad job references
Is your bad former employer stealing your opportunity for a new job? They do this by willfully giving you a bad reference. Insidious former employers who engage in retaliation will tell other employers negative and even untrue things about you!
You might be amazed at what a bad former supervisor may say about you during a reference check. When talking about employment reference checks there are two important points to consider;
(1) Your potential boss can ask you WHY you left your last job.
(2) It may or may NOT be illegal for a former employer to say they fired you.
In connection with the first point, the NEW employer could find itself in legal hot water by NOT asking why you no longer work for the former company. For example, a new potential boss fails to check a job applicants references which would reveal the employee had a history of sexual harassment of women. This individual was applying for a call center managers position where 90% of the employees are women. Then after being hired this employee is arrested and subsequently convicted of sexual battery against a co-worker. This creates a potential lawsuit against the new employer for what’s called “wrongful hiring”.
The potential employer has the right to ask about why we left a job. However, my former boss does NOT have to give an answer. It could be unlawful for a bad former boss to give a negative reference if he or she KNOWS what they tell is not true. The reference has to be correct. If the reference is a lie, the former employer may be sued for defamation of character. Obviously, if the reason for termination involves some criminal act the former employer and the subsequent employer may be at risk of liability. This is where employee background checks are also critical to the employment process.
A defamation lawsuit requires certain things;
(1) Publication to a third party. In this instance the potential employer is the third party.
(2) False statements concerning your work ethic and character as being negative
(3) Your reputation was damaged causing you not to be employed
(4) Loss of income because you were denied employment
Because of these four defamation guidelines a lot of employers will only discuss;
-Your hire date
-Your termination or separation date
-Starting rate of pay or salary
-Ending rate of pay or salary
-Your job titles
Former bosses can get into trouble by engaging into subjective evaluations of you like;
-Not being a “team player”
-Not being “communicative”
-Having a “bad attitude”
We have the option of contacting the former employer and inquiring as to what info they are releasing to potential employers about us. Many employers may get defensive or even take a hostile attitude toward being asked these questions. If so that may be a red flag they are discussing more about you than just the hire date, job titles, etc.
We can tell them to stop releasing any information other than the objective facts, meaning what actually happened. I would send a certified letter to the manager and human resources department.
Some of the elements to put in the letter could be;
- Confirming what the former employer only releases objective not subjective info
- Restate my objection to the former boss discussing anything beyond hire date,separation date,beginning/ending employment dates,beginning/ending pay rates and job titles
- Give the former employer notice of potential legal action if false statements about you continue to be discussed with potential employers
- End the letter with an attempt to move forward for both you and the former employer in a positive manner, if possible.
- Of course sign and date the (certified) letter
What continues to be amazing to me is the level of arrogance many employers take when the employee or former employee exercises their workplace rights. Any business or organization that doesn’t realize the importance of respecting the rights of former and current employees is committing business suicide!
Many employers hope you NEVER learn about Your Rights in the Workplace
Hmmm….I wonder why?