Future employers contacting past/current employers

Post Reply New Topic

Long story short, I'm about to quit/get fired from my current job. Either way, I won't be leaving on good terms. This presents a problem if I ever try to get another job. The future employer will try to contact this one. How do I stop that from happening? Do I just leave this job off of my resume? Do I fake a job after this one I have now (I know a few people who could be fake owners of fake small businesses)? Do I start looking for a job right now while I still have this one and if so, will the new employer maybe not contact the one I have now?

I'm just not going to get a good recommendation. I'm not sure what people do in this situation.

You should always be honest. Future employers can be more open-minded than you think.

Uh huh. I gave my current employer the initial benefit of the doubt, too. I'd heard terrible things about her from people who used to work there, but I chalked it up to them being "former" employees.

These days, former employers are reluctant to say bad things, because they have liability exposure. So they either say good things, don't respond, or say non-committal things.

If your problems were associated with AS, then you may be able to negotiate a neutral recommendation. This can be done in an exit interview. Your current employer may be vulnerable under the Americans with Disabilities Act regarding reasonable accommodation, so you may have some leverage.

Employers don't gain anything by trashing past employees, so they usually don't.

Don't try to fake a resume. You want to present yourself in the best way, but be honest.

Also, evaluate why this job didn't work out, and try to think of conditions that would avoid the problems. It's OK to share those insights with prospective employers.

For example, "There were a lot of conflicting demands made on me at my last job, and I had trouble with that. When I have clear assignments, I'm a very good worker".

I agree with duke666 and MizLiz. Don't fake a resume or hide prior employment. You may be found out anyway, so why take the risk?

Everyone is fired, laid off, or quits a job at some point or other. Try to smooth over the problems during the exit interview, and don't worry too much about what your former employer might say about you in the future. Many potential employers do not take such things very seriously, because they know (as MizLiz and duke666 explained) that former employers often give vague, non-committal, or generic references.

In addition to figuring out what went wrong at your current job, don't forget about what went right. You likely accomplished things and learned stuff, which should be on your resume and in your mind when you go for an interview.

Liability exposure? Can you tell me more about that? Does that basically mean that a former employer can't legally rip me to shreds?

Also, none of my employers have ever known about my AS. I've always worried that would put me in jeopardy and sort of put me on the "to fire next" list. I know that legally they can't fire me for that, but some people hear "autistic" and think "mentally ret*d".

I'm still not sure if I should include this job on my resume. I've only been there for a little while and I think leaving a job after less than a year or even six months looks bad. The next one will want to know why I left so quickly.

Here's why I need to leave, basically:
There's a whole backstory to this

Resume tips:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u-87L62lb4[/youtube]

legally they can only ask specific questions and your past/current employees can only provide specific answers. They can't ask your previous manager if they liked you and the manager can't say that they didn't like you, etc.

it would fall under slander/liable.

I think they can state if you were fired/quit, if you worked there, and maybe if you had any disciplinary action taken.

But I am not sure, they may only be able to ask if you worked there.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, nor have I played one on TV.

I have been in workshops, however, where they cautioned us not to say bad things about former employees because they could sue. For example, if someone is fired for stealing, but weren't prosecuted and convicted, it's risky to say anything about it. Where's the proof?

Here in San Francisco, I would write up a list of reasonable accommodations, required as a civil right under the ADA, due to neurodiversity issues. There would be a doctor's note in my human resources file, but otherwise the actual medical condition is confidential. Only the reasonable accommodations are distributed. On the list would be some form of 'shut the f**k up about your kid's soccer match'.

Discrimination again people on the basis of their disability is a very serious rights violation, so I would suggest getting your neurodiverse status on record, and have a talk with your boss about how you can be productive without triggering undue stress. If there is a human resources person, they should be present in the meeting.

If you are subsequently terminated, you could probably negotiate being laid off (allowing unemployment, and no black mark), and a neutral or silent reference. "It is company policy not to comment on past employees". Some people negotiate good references, but I consider that unethical.

It seems like the worst that would happen is they would make the accommodations and you need to stay or quit.

Of course, I don't know that much about your particular situation, and very few places are like San Francisco.

While it is true that there are legal limits to what a former employer can say about you, it is not true that they cannot ask for opinions. Opinions are protected under the First Amendment as free speech and are much harder to qualify as slander or libel. When phrased as opinion, they can still be libelous or slanderous, but the burden of proof is a bit harder. When asked about your employment history an employer should only give objective information, but they can get around this if they're asked to give their opinion.



They can verify job titles, dates of employment, and answer any factual questions. If you say, for example, that you worked on Project Awesome as a team leader (on your resume or in the interview), they can ask about that to assess the veracity of your statements. They can't ask certain kinds of questions (age/race/disability/etc). Former employers, though, can tread shockingly close to libelous/slanderous statements, but ex employees often have no way of knowing that this happens; prospective employers very rarely share the content of a reference check with a candidate.

An employer can be asked most anything about your work history.

There is no law (that I know of) that limits what a past employer can say about you.

However, employers are hesitant to risk getting sued, so they say only the minimum that needs to be said to confirm that you worked for them. So long as their statements are bland confirmation of documented facts, they know a lawsuit makes no sense.

Sadly, this can hurt you because if a past supervisor was really ecstatic of you and says nothing, it might indicate that you weren't that good an employee. You can't be sued for saying good things about someone, hence the lack of a positive review indicates you were average or worse.

This is a big mess because there was a case of a child molester (teacher) going to another school, and the past school was sued for not saying anything about his misconduct when his past was discovered after he molested another kid. I criticized the lawsuit because there was no legal way for the school to warn people of his child molestation because they opted to let him resign but not pursue the matter legally. No charges were filed. Nothing documented to PROVE he did what he did. So, they said nothing. They were more worried about bad press and allowed him to leave quietly. The school should have weathered the bad PR and had criminal charges brought against him. THEN, they would have documentation to say whatever they could prove about his criminal behavior.

employee privacy laws and defamation laws prevent what an employer can say about an employee. Factual information included... at least so says Noonan v. Staples
http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNL ... hbxlogin=1

If you are convicted of abuse and neglect you cannot work with people, or adopt. This would include teaching, nursing, etc. However, if he left and they dropped the charges then they probably signed a nondisclosure agreement. Which means that nothing within the law could be done. However, a due background check would have turned it up anyway, so it was the fault of the school that he moved to and not the school that he moved from. Many schools do not complete thorough background checks.
I have had several background checks. About 4 now.

The thing is, I'll never have any way of knowing what was said between a potential employer and the person I work for now.

Well, that's a civil case, not law.

Defamation law basically requires that what is said about you is FALSE.

That's a huge hurdle because the same law says that TRUTH is an absolute defense and OPINION is almost an absolute defense.

This is bad because you can misrepresent the truth (fact) and give a false image of someone.

Mr. Smith is an alcoholic. - True, but what if Mr. Smith has been in AA and sober for 8 years? The image created by the factual statement likely does not mirror the truth represented by ALL of the relevant facts.

In my opinion, Mr. Smith works poorly with coworkers. - What is the real reason why Mr. Smith did so poorly was the unprofessional atmosphere in your workplace? A prospective employer will likely choose to err on the side of caution and not hire Mr. Smith unless Mr. Smith can produce multiple references who will attest to the unprofessional environment which he could not partake in, and even then the statement may still harm him.

Can you win a lawsuit for defamation over these issues? There is no clear rule. It falls under the "false light" doctrine which courts have wildly varying positions on depending on where you live, and even then the courts act in favor to protect the First Amendment right to free speech.

Again, because employers don't want to get pulled into a lawsuit, they tend to not say anything that could open them to liability, but they could easily say what they want about you and even if it's a bald faced lie, if you don't have the MONEY to pursue the matter in court, you'll never get justice.

IT IS ALSO NOTEWORTHY that the odds of you EVER finding out what a past employer is saying about you is nil to none. Every time I learned someone was bad mouthing me, it was the result of talking to someone with "loose lips" that told me something they weren't supposed to. Odds of getting them to repeat it under oath at a trial would be nonexistent in most cases.

I debated starting a business that would do background checks on people for a singular purpose....so the person being investigated could find out what was being said and what was on record concerning them. It disgusts me that an employer can find out all kinds of dirt on you but they don't have to tell you what they found out. If you ask past employers for what they'd say about you, they are only going to say what's safe.

You can use a reference checking service.

you can ask. But there is no requirement for them to tell you. My husband had to go through training detailing what he could and could not say according to employee privacy considerations.