Unsatisfactory job ref resulted in loss of job offer!

Eastender

Hi All,

Devastated to hear to hear that I lost a job offer due to unsatisfactory job ref from my previous job, which made me redundant.

The new company sent the ref form to my last employer and asked to tick box in usual category which includes time keeping and honesty and trustworthiness. The manager, who did not line manage us but oversaw the whole project from another town, completed the form. The line manager had left before the project wrapped up.

I was ticked 'average' on all counts. I saw the ref he gave, it started with tick box with 'excellent, good, average, below avg and worse than avg. That did not go well with new employer and added to insult that he was also asked if he would re-employ me, he answered 'no' as they don't have a similar project running in the region. The other ref was too slow to respond to the new employer.

I never had any disciplinary hearings or warnings. I even got a commendation for my performance, you don't give that to someone who is an 'average' employee. I spoke to him afterwards and he claims he did not give a bad ref just average and it should be good enough to the new employer and he was quite defensive.

No company would recruit an 'average' worker, they have to be good, if not excellent.

I wonder if I have legal grounds to take them to court and seek compensation. If he did not know me well enough to give full ref, as he was not my line manager then he should not have given a character ref and why did he tick boxes on all category to average? He himself gave me employee rewards voucher in one occasion. I never had a job withdrawn in my career.

Alice_Walker

Were you better than most of your colleagues? Average means you met the requirements of your job, did you consistently exceed them?

I can't see any grounds for a successful court action, there is nothing wrong with giving a neutral reference.

Eastender

Alice_Walker wrote: »

Were you better than most of your colleagues? Average means you met the requirements of your job, did you consistently exceed them?

I can't see any grounds for a successful court action, there is nothing wrong with giving a neutral reference.

As I mentioned I was given an employee reward along with selected others in the team and the prev line manager praised to the HR manager who visited our team that I was a hard worker and competitive. This does not give a picture of an 'average' worker. To make it worse, he said he would not re-employ me, which is unnecessary thing to say, even if they don't have a similar project in the region.

I left the company on good terms, to come from them is very disheartening.

Alice_Walker

Eastender wrote: »

As I mentioned I was given an employee reward along with selected others in the team and the prev line manager praised to the HR manager who visited our team that I was a hard worker and competitive. This does not give a picture of an 'average' worker. To make it worse, he said he would not re-employ me, which is unnecessary thing to say, even if they don't have a similar project in the region.

I left the company on good terms, to come from them is very disheartening.

I can understand how this has made you feel, it's a terrible position to be left in. Have you tried talking to the prospective employer, explaining how well you performed and the reward you received?

Your ex employer has basically covered his back, an average reference absolves him of liability to you or to your potential employer. It's very impersonal, but it's not unlawful.

Eastender

Alice_Walker wrote: »

I can understand how this has made you feel, it's a terrible position to be left in. Have you tried talking to the prospective employer, explaining how well you performed and the reward you received?

Your ex employer has basically covered his back, an average reference absolves him of liability to you or to your potential employer. It's very impersonal, but it's not unlawful.

I did communicate to the new employer in the hope of salvaging the offer but to no avail. They said I was happy for them to contact my prev employer at the time, and I should speak to them about the ref. Also the fact that they did not yet receive the other ref yet.

Undervalued

Eastender wrote: »

As I mentioned I was given an employee reward along with selected others in the team and the prev line manager praised to the HR manager who visited our team that I was a hard worker and competitive. This does not give a picture of an 'average' worker. To make it worse, he said he would not re-employ me, which is unnecessary thing to say, even if they don't have a similar project in the region.

I left the company on good terms, to come from them is very disheartening.

Sorry but without wishing to sound harsh if may well be his impression of you was not as high as you think.

You could argue that hard working is "average" in many people's books. Less than average and they may have disciplined or sacked you, above average and they may have promoted you. They did neither but have said they would not re-employ.

I don't think anything you have said here amounts to proof that the reference was provably untrue.

[Deleted User]

Eastender wrote: »

I left the company on good terms, to come from them is very disheartening.

It's happening more and more. Wherever this died out process seemingly still exists.. I was a "best employee" WHILE I worked for someone and left with flowers and worked required notice, pretty crushed to find they didn't believe in giving references. And moreso when I found it's sister wouldn't entertain me working at all at it's employed business side.

As it was redundancy do you not have a letter confirming the redundancy that could be provided in the absence of reference - have to say quite a few employers have accepted that from a situation I had back in 2013 where no one in the company now exists from my time there.

Overall I think you've had a lucky escape as when would you rather hear - now? Or when you are at a meeting trying to pass the company probation? My current places likes to wait 3/4 months before getting individuals involved in chasing any non replies :cool::o which I find very weird and crazy as I would rather be told sooner and then not forced into always being on probation and or pretty much at a companies mercy. Because someone months or years on doesn't want or can't provide a reference.

Find somewhere better. Perhaps it's even something for a company to hide behind to save face for something.

KiKi

How ridiculous to tick 'no' on the basis that there is no current project work. In most sensible people's minds, the points of asking "would you re-employ this person" is about whether you valued them as an employee, not whether there is practically any work for them to do.

Can you ask for a second opportunity to get two more references? And get one of them from your actual line manager (it doesn't matter that he doesn't work there any more?

How gutting, so sorry for you.

Unfortunately he didn't necessarily 'lie' about anything, but not sure whether there'd be law to support any case you may have.

KiKi

agrinnall

In this situation it's a shame that the manager decided to complete the reference at all, it would have been better for you if it had been passed to HR to respond with the bare facts of your employment (basically start and end dates). There wouldn't have been anything for your prospective new employer to find fault with, and had they still wanted a more personal reference you could have asked someone else to provide it.

TELLIT01

As said previously, your former employer is covering his **** by giving 'average' rating throughout. It's not a negative reference and they aren't risking any come back from a future employer if that employer doesn't see you as above average or exceptional.
It's possible that the major stumbling block was actually the failure of the second referee to respond. That could have been interpreted by the new employer as not being willing to provide a reference.

elsien

KiKi wrote: »

How ridiculous to tick 'no' on the basis that there is no current project work. In most sensible people's minds, the points of asking "would you re-employ this person" is about whether you valued them as an employee, not whether there is practically any work for them to do.

Or it could be that for whatever reason they wouldn't want them back, but don't want to give the real reason so have used the project as justification instead.
Correct answer with fudged reasoning that leaves them less open to any potential comeback.