Unjustified Bad Reference

B

bb12

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I've just found out from an ex-workmate from a company that I worked at several years ago, that my then superior has been saying negative things about me there. I was going to use this person as a reference as I never had any problems with him when I was at that company and had an excellent work record as is evidenced by my yearly reviews which I still have. I actually believed we had a very good working relationship!

I was quite shocked to hear that this former superior of mine told my ex-workmates that he would have no problem giving a good reference about me to someone he didn't know but if he knew the person he would give a bad reference! I'm still trying to wrack my brains to find out if we ever had a problem and I can't come up with anything. As far I knew we were always on friendly terms and I always did my job excellently. As well as being downright hurt by these comments, as I take my work very seriously, it also leaves me stuck for a reference as obviously I won't be able to trust him anymore. I'm sure I'll be able to use someone else from the company but can people really get away with this type of behaviour?

I used to work in the States and companies there have a policy of never giving references as there is a fear of litigation. Maybe Ireland could do with a similar policy. I feel totally hard done by in this instance through no fault of my own.
 
I dont think he has got away with anything. Sometimes these things happen. It would be naive to expect every superior to behave in a prosfessional manner. There are several ex managers of mine who would definitely not make it onto my list of referees. They may act professional in the work place but as they are human, they take issue with people and can use their position to do what they like. I suggest you let it go. Use someone else as you have already decided. He's not worth it.
 
It's upset me so much that I'm being bad-mouthed to my former work colleagues (and friends) like this that I'd even consider whether I should call my company's HR department to complain. I have an excellent work record on file there.Or would that be over the top? This person is being extremely unprofessional. Maybe he needs to be pulled up by his boot strings a little?

The industry I work in is a small one and bad news travels quickly. I'd be concerned that this type of comments to my former peers could somehow damage my career in the future.
 
How can it damage your career in the future? Just dont use him as a reference. If you report him to the HR department you will get very little satisfaction. They are likely to say 'we'll look into it, thanks' You would be unlikely to hear another thing about it. TBH the guy sounds like a prat and will most likely be seen as such amongst his peers.
 
If you can get a witness then you could always pursue him for defamation/slander.

The title of this thread seems to be misleading in that there doesn't seem to be any "bad reference" involved.
 
how trust worthy is the source of this information?
You seem to be going on hearsay.
 
Bahman is right. People say all sorts of rubbish. It seems unlikely that someone you know well and with whom you worked well is saying bad things about you all of a sudden. It could be true, but you would need to verify it before taking any action on it.

If it's true, you could show copies of your performance reviews to potential employers and suggest that they contact HR for a reference. HR tends to give vague references.

If possible, you should also challenge the guy making the negative comments.

Brendan
 
I think its dangerous to suggest that the OP challenges the guy. Its best to let it go and not make an big deal out of it.
 
rkeane said:
I think its dangerous to suggest that the OP challenges the guy. Its best to let it go and not make an big deal out of it.
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If someone is slandering your name you should take action to correct this.

If the person can be independently proven to be given unfounded references or misleading information then they should be called up on this.

C
 
Capaill said:
If someone is slandering your name you should take action to correct this.

If the person can be independently proven to be given unfounded references or misleading information then they should be called up on this.

C
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But all he said was we WOULD give a bad reference. There has been no reference and no mention of anything else. The quick, easy and painless fix is to simply use another referee.
 
Brendan said:
If it's true, you could show copies of your performance reviews to potential employers
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Do not do this under any circumstances. I interviewed someone once who brought in performance reviews instead of providing a reference. It reeks of desperation. As someone who works in HR I, rightly or wrongly would be very suspicious of a candidate who said - I can't give you a reference but here are some of my performance reviews. As far as I know the candidate could have been fired for theft after the performance reviews were completed.
 
Thanks all for the input. I'll just use another reference and move on. However, my whole memory of working in that company has been completely tainted as a result of this and I had considered it one of the best companies I have worked for! This person was my direct superior so he would have been reporting back to higher management on my performance there, so now I'm wondering what was really being said behind my back. My source giving me the information has been completely trustworthy so I know that the information I have is true.

I did so much good work for this company, was very loyal to them and now I really feel like I've been kicked in the teeth. Very demoralising at the end of the day. Especially when all this came out of nowhere! There was a time when I would have liked to go back to work there but now I'm so relieved I left when I did!
 

Your idea of loyal and this supervisor’s idea might be different. While you worked with this company for a number of years you did leave eventually. While I don’t think this is necessarily disloyal perhaps your former supervisor felt differently and this is the cause of his ill feeling?
 
Isn't this a bit of an overreaction given that (a) the allegations against the individual are second hand and not obviously corroborated and (b) even if the individual is saying things about you it's not necessarily the fault or responsibility of the company itself?
 
Did this person agree to be your referee when you left ?
If so, and you think he's now changed his tune, why don't you cut to the chase, get a friend to ring up pretending to be from an agency or a company, have a few questions lined up and see what he says.

References should be taken with a pinch of salt, one of my best mates is one of my referees, but only if they ask for more than 2 referees.
 
One final point I'd like to add is that, no matter who you are using as a referee, make sure to call them up asking for their permission just before a potential employer calls them. If they agree then you can just say 'thanks very much, I really appreciate it as I know I can rely on you'.
 

Just to add to this - out of pure courtesy you should also ring or write to them to thank them when they have been contacted by your perspective employer.
 
There is a danger in over-reacting given that the original report is hearsay. You could try making a call to the guy and explicitly asking him if he would give you a positive reference.
 

I've had experience of this many years ago. A colleague, whom I respected and liked, approached me and was very upset and angry. She had to ask me why I was saying such terrible things about her, she thought we got on well etc. etc. I had NO IDEA what she was talking about. She didn't believe me, no matter what I said and out of loyalty to a friend, would not tell me who was filling her head with such rubbish.

In my turn, I confided in someone whom I considered my best friend in the organisation. This person assured me it was a storm in a teacup and that the woman in question was probably making it all up to gain attention. Although I never mentioned it to anyone else, people in the company suddenly knew about it and 'sides' were taken. My 'side' were annnoyed with me as I still wouldn't bad mouth this person. I knew she was genuinely upset!

To cut a very long story short (it eventually went to top management level) it turned out that 'my best friend' was the one who had told her this story. It all came out in the end but I left the company shortly afterward.

It had a really bad affect on me..didn't know who to trust...didn't trust my own judgement of people etc. etc. Was too young and naive to believe that someone I called friend could look me in the eye and tell bare faced lies. Anyway I got over, had to, can't function in an organisation otherwise,
 
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