Defamation of character

Uncertain

angiem287 wrote: »

I feel very insulted. I remained professional at all times despite this support worker shouting at me, belittling me in front of other staff member and the service users, continually undermining me. Lots of people have left that employer because of this lady. I am upset and angry. I was told many times not only by my line manager but also all the other staff members that I was doing an excellent job, not to mention her putting me in danger by breaking procedures which I complained about and nothing was done. So I feel very very angry about being average when before all this I was excellent!!!!!!

Did you actually want opinions or are you happy to just have a rant?

Is it defamatory? - No!

Could you afford to do anything about it if it was? - I doubt it!

k12479

angiem287 wrote: »

the reason im upset is that according to the reference my reliability, flexibility and time keeping were all good, my honesty integrity, conduct, team membership and personal relations are all average!!!

I feel very insulted. I remained professional at all times...

A reference or appraisal that says someone's good/above average for everything is unconvincing. If they are so good in all areas, they should be in a higher job. Perhaps read 'good' as strengths and consider that Averages + Goods = Above Average.

angiem287

Uncertain wrote: »

Did you actually want opinions or are you happy to just have a rant?

Is it defamatory? - No!

Could you afford to do anything about it if it was? - I doubt it!

Yes I did want opinions and yes im probably clouded at the moment as I feel ive been rough trodden by the company and yes the rant has made me feel a little better thank you

angiem287

angiem287 wrote: »

Yes I did want opinions and yes im probably clouded at the moment as I feel ive been rough trodden by the company and yes the rant has made me feel a little better thank you

Could I afford to do anything about it? probably not but it may just push me enough to retake up my Law Degree and go back and work as a voluntary advisor at the CAB like I was doing and had to stop due to my old employer demanding me to work more and more hours !!!!!

angiem287

k12479 wrote: »

A reference or appraisal that says someone's good/above average for everything is unconvincing. If they are so good in all areas, they should be in a higher job. Perhaps read 'good' as strengths and consider that Averages + Goods = Above Average.

Thank you k12479 maybe I am being sensitive I pride myself on high standards at work and home and being a very truthful and honest person, but sensitive lol

FATBALLZ

You do know what average means right? It means that 50% of the population have less honesty/integrity than you. I can see why it maybe doesn't look great on a reference, but you aren't going to get anywhere claiming it is defamatory, as that would imply it is insulting to 50% of the population.

SueC_2

Frankly, I think it's little more than a badly worded question.

Honesty is a binary characteristic. You are either honest, or you are not. This could possibly be expanded on by asking whether you were always honest, usually honest, or never honest. But those do not equate to being above averagely honest, averagely honest, or beneath averagely honest. What on earth is the average for honesty?

And as for integrity... how is that even measurable? It's a concept, not a 'thing', depends entirely on the view of the person making the assessment and could never ever be susbstantiated.

LittleVoice

angiem287 wrote: »

the reason im upset is that according to the reference my reliability, flexibility and time keeping were all good, my honesty integrity, conduct, team membership and personal relations are all average!!!

I feel very insulted. I remained professional at all times despite this support worker shouting at me, belittling me in front of other staff member and the service users, continually undermining me. Lots of people have left that employer because of this lady. I am upset and angry. I was told many times not only by my line manager but also all the other staff members that I was doing an excellent job, not to mention her putting me in danger by breaking procedures which I complained about and nothing was done. So I feel very very angry about being average when before all this I was excellent!!!!!!

The green words are measurable - you did what was required; you did additional shifts at short notice or took on other duties; you turned up on time.

The blue words are difficult to measure - and hence "average" is the easy way out. It says these were not a problem (one expects they aren't a problem with most (= average) members of staff. If you think there is a way of measuring these qualities and that they were measured, you would still need to know what other people scored to know if you were better than average. Being concerned at being average on these qualities suggests that you have a poor opinion of your colleagues and people in general - which I don't expect is the case.

SueC_2

It's a bit like asking if someone is beautiful.

By whose yardstick are we measuring?

I might think the person is beautiful, you may not. Does that make them averagely beautiful, or just mean that there is no formal measurement for beauty?

cr1mson

What Littlevoice said!

If I was a completing a reference for subjective categories I would probably pick average (think reference badly worded though) unless I had a strong reason not to.

I personally would be more hacked off with whoever designed the reference!