losing new job due to unfair work reference. Help Pls

Uncertain

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

[*]In any case, you have lost nothing - your current employer did not take notice of the reference and you did not lose your job, so you have no lost income and no loss of reputation (the reference was not published to the public, just to this employer who did not believe the reference)

I had missed that point!

OK, so let's think this through. Even if you found a solicitor who would fire a warning shot for a price you are prepared to pay where does that get you. They can't make them give you decent reference in future, most likely the firm would just refuse to provide one at all (which is their right). Refusing to provide a reference is often interpreted (sometime wrongly) as having nothing good to say so that hardly helps. Your only option, unless you can negotiate a neutral / good reference, is not to give them as a referee at all.

gavinh_2

hmm. well obviously i have taken this last employer off as a reference on my cv (ironically the person who did this agreed to be my personal referee and they were a friend before i started working under them), but most jobs want to contact your last couple of workplaces minimum.
and yes i am lucky they havnt done any damage and im still in my job, but its a job which i wasnt planning to stay in any longer than short term, so i will be looking elsewhere in the new year. so my concern is that this will all come up in my next job, or even stop me getting it in the first place.
its a real concern if theres nothing someone can do to stop people ruining your future prospects through spite

Uncertain

gavinh wrote: »

hmm. well obviously i have taken this last employer off as a reference on my cv (ironically the person who did this agreed to be my personal referee and they were a friend before i started working under them), but most jobs want to contact your last couple of workplaces minimum.
and yes i am lucky they havnt done any damage and im still in my job, but its a job which i wasnt planning to stay in any longer than short term, so i will be looking elsewhere in the new year. so my concern is that this will all come up in my next job, or even stop me getting it in the first place.
its a real concern if theres nothing someone can do to stop people ruining your future prospects through spite

The strange thing is, had you actually suffered a quantifiable loss as a result of this you MIGHT have found a solicitor who would have taken the case on a "no win, no fee" basis.

Assuming you won that would have got you some compensation and the solicitor a handsom fee. However even that wouldn't force the employer give a decent reference next time round. Most likely they would simply refuse to provide one at all.

You could take a gamble a spend up to a certain amount with a solicitor who would write to them threatening action which you would drop in exchange for a binding agreement to provide an agreed reference. It may well work but the firm might just assume you don't have the resources to follow through and ignore the threat. Equally, they could choose to defend what they have said as fair comment. Remember a reference enjoys qualified privilege.

Even if this was successful you still have to consider what would get round the "grapevine". Agreed references are fine up to a point. The real problem is any followup phone call or informal asking around. This depends a great deal on the type of industry you are in.

I sympathise, but you either spend some hundreds of pounds on a calculated gamble or you look for ways of providing alternative references.

j.e.j.

gavinh can you get a reference from someone different within the company? Or does it have to be ex-friend/spiteful former manager?

t0rt0ise

If it were me I would simply make sure the previous employer or ex friend knew that they hadn't succeeded and that the job was still yours.

What happened to me was that when a reference was asked for by the new employer, they simply didn't answer. Not daft enough to give a bad reference but thought that no reference would do. I got the job anyway and dropped the person who refused the reference an email saying how great the new job was going etc etc. That will have upset her and was enough for me.