Worried about reference from my old employer, help!

Guest101

I'll do you a few examples:


Dear sir/madam,


thank you for your request for a reference for Br0416, which I am happy to provide. Br0416 works for X for a total period of YY Months/years, between <date> and <date>.


Unfortunately his/her work did not meet our required standards. He/she was recorded late on XX occasions. Was his/her employment to have continued, he / she would have been subject to our internal disciplinary procedures. We cannot comment what the outcome of this would have been.


I hope he/she is a valued addition to your team


Kind regards

Br0416

I don't need your examples so please don't patronise me. I understand your point

Guest101

Br0416 wrote: »

I don't need your examples so please don't patronise me. I understand your point

Patronise? I give no patronage to you. You asked how they could do it, so I showed you.

I doubt they would though

Undervalued

Br0416 wrote: »

But as you said, it has to be truthful and factual. If it's not recorded anywhere and there's no evidence or proof then it's not factual and surely can't be mentioned

Ultimately they can say anything they like. Just because something is not recorded anywhere doesn't mean it didn't happen. Obviously if they don't have hard evidence to back up what they say then they are taking a certain amount of risk but that doesn't stop them from doing it.

If they wrote something provably untrue or deliberately misleading (and yes you can deliberately mislead without straying from the truth) then you could potentially take action against them.

However your would either have to sue for libel in the High Court or possibly negligent misstatement in the County Court. High Court libel actions are hugely expensive and few "ordinary" people can afford to take the risk. The County Court misstatement option, if available, is more realistic but still not without risk.

A more realistic risk is that they simply refuse to provide a reference at all. That is almost as bad as a refusal is generally interpreted as having nothing good to say! Furthermore there is absolutely noting you could do about that.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

bod1467 wrote: »

If you are expressing this in terms of a reference ... it probably won't happen. A former employer is under no compulsion whatsoever to answer any direct questions posed by someone's prospective new employer.

No they are not. But it's easy enough to do so, so a lot will, if it's presented as a few tick boxes that don't take up much of their time. Only of course where something is purely a matter of fact; not where it's a matter of opinion.

sangie595

Several people here seem to be confidently asserting that HR seldom write bad or detailed references, so there isn't much to be worried about. This is a myth that goes alongside the whole " employers these days only mention dates of employment". My industry employs hundreds of thousands of UK employees. HR never write the references. It is managers who write them. HR's only involvement would be if a manager wanted advice on how to correctly word a bad reference! I can name several of my colleagues industries that employ similar numbers or more, all of whom do the same thing. I can also list an entire raft of sectors within the industries where a basic, undetailed, reference would not be accepted.

Nobody here has any idea what the OP does for a job, or the practices of their employer. Assertions about what they cannot or will not do are therefore as useful as a chocolate tea pot. The employer will do what they do.