Previous Employer Giving A Bad Reference!
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can Someone Advise Me What I Should Do?
I Use To Work For A Council And Last Year I Left After Being On Maturnity Leave. I Now Looking To Retun To Work And Found A Job With Another Council And They Offered Me The Position Subject To Satisfactory Reference. To Cut The Story Short I Got A Reference In Writing From My Manager Where I Use To Work Before I Left And The New Employer Wrote To The Same Person And Gave Me A Bad Reference. So I Have In Writing A Good Reference And The Same Person Has Now Given Me A Bad Reference. What Should I Do. Unfortunatley The Job Has Been Retracted Because Of This Bad Reference Now.
I Use To Work For A Council And Last Year I Left After Being On Maturnity Leave. I Now Looking To Retun To Work And Found A Job With Another Council And They Offered Me The Position Subject To Satisfactory Reference. To Cut The Story Short I Got A Reference In Writing From My Manager Where I Use To Work Before I Left And The New Employer Wrote To The Same Person And Gave Me A Bad Reference. So I Have In Writing A Good Reference And The Same Person Has Now Given Me A Bad Reference. What Should I Do. Unfortunatley The Job Has Been Retracted Because Of This Bad Reference Now.
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If not, then it is defamation (provided it is sure that you have lost the offer due to the reference) but would be costly bringing charges against them and you probably wouldn't get much anyway, and you probably wouldn't get the offer as they would have given it to a second choice or something.
Are You Sure It Is The Reference Or Might It Be Down To You Starting Every Word With A Capital Letter Regardless Of Whether It Starts A Sentence Or Is A Proper Noun?
In reality I'd move on and look for another job.
This post hurts my eyes:(:confused:
Do you have any idea as to what the problem may be? It could be something that the new employers have taken as bad, but your old employer didn't think so (eg number of sick days, strengths/weaknesses, official warnings).
Find out more.
I appreciate that you don't want to go in to details with strangers, but you need to know those details for yourself. Do you?
EDIT: off topic but:
I don't get it either! It must be some sort of internet fad. Meanwhile, what does ":S" mean?
http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover/data_protection.aspx will give you all the info you need.
I'm a bit confused as to why they would give you a good reference, and then a bad one, though.
Until you can obtain a copy of both, I'm not sure there's much you can do. Once you've got them, I'd make an appointment to go to your local CAB to discuss it with one of their legal advisors.
on another note instead of offering advice why do some people criticise the other posts that doesn't help in any way and is quite annoying and rude.
See post #12. I've already said you have the ight to obtain the references your old employer gave. You can ask either them or the people who turned you down for a copy of it, as both are bound by the DPA.
As I don't know your situation, I can't say if this is the case, but I do know of employers who have given someone a good reference (even though they were crap at their joob), just to get them off their hands. But to then follow it up with a bad reference doesn't make sense in that scenario. Could it have been sour grapes or jealousy on your old boss' part? Have they done anything like this to you in the past?
Alternatively, !!11oneone's theory is quite a good one.
welcome to ds tiggi!
from what i know, no employer is allowed to give a bad reference by law ( it might have changed, but that was certainly the case before i was self employed)
they can refuse to give you a reference, but they are not allowed to give you a bad one.
Like I said, I think it's quite a grey area.
EDIT - it's one of those "laws" that everybody quotes with absolute certainty, but I have never been able to find it written down in any Acts, Satutues or case law. I've worked in recruitment for several years now and have therefore had to learn various areas of employment law, but this has never been part of the courses. I'm not saying you're wrong, just expanding on my "it's a grey area" comment.
Find out what the "bad" reference was. If you have a poor absence record, are late, have been on warnings, have been on disciplinary or capability then your ex-employer is entitled to pass this on.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=22508923&postcount=19
The situation seems to be that an employer can give a bad reference, but must be able to provide evidence to support any criticisms of the employee that it contains.
oh wow, i never knew that :eek:
well, you learn something new everyday
Let's hope it's not a typing job you're going for
Sounds like your old manager is taking the piss. The good news is that it sounds like they are a coward - writing you a good reference when you ask in person and then a bad one behind your back. Sadly I think this job is a lost cause, but you can prevent this happening again with the next job you go for by phoning up your old manager and explaining the situation, tell her if she does it again you'll break her legs. Make sure you make this call from a public payphone and that your old employer does not record their calls. Otherwise you might have to go in and say this in person when there are no witnesses hanging about.
Alternatively, don't give her name as your reference, give someone else you worked with and if necessary lie and say they were your supervisor or something - be vague, so if anyone queries it (unlikely) you can claim 'they supervised my work unofficially once'.
To be fair the way the op had posted was very distracting and difficult to read. I have never seen anyone write like that.