Referee not responding

sulphate

My husband was offered a job about 3 weeks ago to start in a month or so, the new employer has everything they need apart from 2 references. One of my husband's referees responded immediately but they are still waiting on the other one.

The other lady is a teacher and obviously term is now finished, my husband spoke to the secretary at the school this morning who said apparently her home internet is rubbish and she is having building works done on her house etc which might be why she is not responding but secretary is going to try and get in touch with her asap.

My husband asked new employer if he could give them the name of another referee to ask but the lady wasn't keen on this because apparently it's difficult to change the online system/form or something to set up a new referee request? This seems unreasonable to me?

The job offer is conditional on receiving this reference and my husband is now worried they are going to pull the job offer, any advice would be appreciated.

bryanb

Phone her?

sulphate

My husband doesn't have a home/mobile number for her and school is now finished so she is not in the school. The secretary said she would try and get in touch with her but my concern is what happens if she doesn't respond.

Takeaway_Addict

sulphate wrote: »

My husband was offered a job about 3 weeks ago to start in a month or so, the new employer has everything they need apart from 2 references. One of my husband's referees responded immediately but they are still waiting on the other one.

The other lady is a teacher and obviously term is now finished, my husband spoke to the secretary at the school this morning who said apparently her home internet is rubbish and she is having building works done on her house etc which might be why she is not responding but secretary is going to try and get in touch with her asap.

My husband asked new employer if he could give them the name of another referee to ask but the lady wasn't keen on this because apparently it's difficult to change the online system/form or something to set up a new referee request? This seems unreasonable to me?

The job offer is conditional on receiving this reference and my husband is now worried they are going to pull the job offer, any advice would be appreciated.

Changing your referees sounds dodgy as it makes it look like you have a bad one coming so if I were the employer I wouldn't allow a change either.

Takeaway_Addict

sulphate wrote: »

My husband doesn't have a home/mobile number for her and school is now finished so she is not in the school. The secretary said she would try and get in touch with her but my concern is what happens if she doesn't respond.

If you have an address why not go round?

sulphate

He doesn't have her home address.

Rachylou1981

I would still chase up that reference but give the company details of an additional referee (checking the new one can do it ASAP). Obviously you need to explain the whole situation to the new company, maybe an email to the person on the job spec? copy to the referee? I can understand it looking a little dodgy to the company but surely they have come across this kind of thing before, people leave the country at this time of year etc and so getting hold of people during their annual leave isn't an easy task unless you know them in a private setting and even then, getting a reference could be tricky if they are sunning themself in Spain for example (I know that is not the case here but it could be).

I lost out on a job once due to a lazy referee and had I not been at the other side of the world, I may have been able to rectify it with another person but it was too late and the job offer was retracted - do everything you can to prevent this.

sulphate

Thank you all for your comments. Turns out my husband had an out of date email address for the teacher but she got in touch with him and he has passed on the correct one now, he hasn't heard back yet about it but hopefully she will respond to this request asap. Don't think either of us will rest til he has the unconditional offer in his hands!