ExEmloyer giving bad referance verbaly to new employer

John_Bains

I am totally lost and don’t know what to do. I could lose my current job that I have been in for just over a year because of an employer i worked for over 5 years ago. I believe a manager from the old company tracked down were I am now working from social media - Linked In. He has had several private meetings with my manager and a director of the company I now work for. Since the private meetings started, I noticed my manager distant himself from me. My current manager started referring to things that happened to me in the old company. Now I have been told my new employer might be letting me go because they don’t have any work for me. This is just a summary. I am British and this is related to my Dyslexia. My current employer is suddenly saying that my role requires perfect English. There is nothing wrong with my English but it’s the same excuse the last company gave me for firing me. They were aware of my Dyslexia but said they could not make reasonable changes to accommodate me. Truth is I was bullied out of the Job by the same bully boss who has suddenly Linked up with my current manager on Linked In and there is nothing I can do about it.
Any ideas?

KatrinaWaves

Did you make your new employer aware of your dyslexia? They can fire you for not having enough work for you. They can fire you if your work is not up to standard. They cannot fire you ‘because you have ‘dyslexia’ so what has actually been said?

You have no proof that your old manager tracked you down and is having meetings purely about you. That would be an extremely unusual thing for a manager to do for a random employee. That implies a real vendetta, why would he have such a vendetta?

I appreciate this is a forum and autocorrect comes into play and you won’t be concentrating as much as at work but you say your English is perfect but your post does not show that. You have three obvious spelling errors in the title and your grammar and punctuation throughout isn’t perfect. What is your job? Are you required to draft professional reports, emails etc?

Blatchford

John_Bains wrote: »

I am totally lost and don’t know what to do. I could lose my current job that I have been in for just over a year because of an employer i worked for over 5 years ago. I believe a manager from the old company tracked down were I am now working from social media - Linked In. He has had several private meetings with my manager and a director of the company I now work for. Since the private meetings started, I noticed my manager distant himself from me. My current manager started referring to things that happened to me in the old company. Now I have been told my new employer might be letting me go because they don’t have any work for me. This is just a summary. I am British and this is related to my Dyslexia. My current employer is suddenly saying that my role requires perfect English. There is nothing wrong with my English but it’s the same excuse the last company gave me for firing me. They were aware of my Dyslexia but said they could not make reasonable changes to accommodate me. Truth is I was bullied out of the Job by the same bully boss who has suddenly Linked up with my current manager on Linked In and there is nothing I can do about it.
Any ideas?

What you believe isn't going to give you any points. You need proof of your claims. If the employer is saying that they have no work for you, then you would need to prove that is not true, and that there is another reason for this, and that reason is unlawful. You yourself are not saying that - the dyslexia is a red herring because you say that the reason is because the former manager has been saying something to them. A former manager bad mouthing you isn't actually one of the reasons that you could use to claim unfair dismissal.

It seems a very determined action to track you down and literally physically follow you to get you sacked. A phone call would do the job so why would it require several meetings? And where have you been working in the intervening gap - you say this manager is from a job from several years ago, but this job you have only been in for a year. Your current manager has been referring to things that happened at the former employers - such as? Because it seems unlikely that they have been regaled with stories of how you were bullied there, so what is there to tell that might influence their opinion of you after a year of knowing you?

ACG

KatrinaWaves wrote: »

They cannot fire you ‘because you have ‘dyslexia’ so what has actually been said?

That is not quite true. They can fire them for that, but they may just label it as something else.


Are you sure you are not just being paranoid? If I had someone who worked for me for a year and they had done a good job and then their old manager got in touch to call the employee names, I would tell them to do one as they are a valued member of the team. You do not just change your opinion of someone after 12 months because someone has said they have dyslexia. Or at least any normal person doesnt.

And an ex employer does not go and track someone down after 12 months to slate someone who used to work for them.

I could be wrong but I am going with paranoid, there is a LOT more to this than "just" dyslexia or your old employer and your new employer are a bit mental.

KatrinaWaves

ACG wrote: »

That is not quite true. They can fire them for that, but they may just label it as something else.


Are you sure you are not just being paranoid? If I had someone who worked for me for a year and they had done a good job and then their old manager got in touch to call the employee names, I would tell them to do one as they are a valued member of the team. You do not just change your opinion of someone after 12 months because someone has said they have dyslexia. Or at least any normal person doesnt.

And an ex employer does not go and track someone down after 12 months to slate someone who used to work for them.

I could be wrong but I am going with paranoid, there is a LOT more to this than "just" dyslexia or your old employer and your new employer are a bit mental.

Considering the OPs old posts (particularly the Canon one) where he accuses people of using his dyslexia against him for literally no reason, I think paranoia is right...

shortcrust

I honestly think it might be worth chatting to your GP about this. I think it's obvious to everybody else that you're not seeing things as they really are. Thinking that your old boss, current boss and the director of your company are having a series of private meetings about you isn't rational. These meetings are about something completely different. Of course, maybe your history with the old employer might have been mentioned, but no employer is going to get rid of an employee they've known for a year based on five year old gossip.

Blatchford

shortcrust wrote: »

no employer is going to get rid of an employee they've known for a year based on five year old gossip.

To be fair, they might. It depends what the "gossip" is and whether it is true or not. If it's "did you know John had dyslexia" then no, I can't imagine any employer thinking that is much of a revelation. If it is "did you know that John was in prison for xxxx between leaving us and joining you" then yes, I can imagine they'd listen. But that conversation doesn't take one meeting, never mind several. It just takes a phone call. So I think that if there is a relationship between these meetings and the current employers change of heart, then the poster maybe knows why that might be. And needs to say so as that affects the advice they get.