Redundant - ex boss contacting other companies about me 8 July at 12:29AM in Redundancy & Redundancy Planning 16 replies 951 views

bel222

Hi Everyone
I have recently appealed a decision regarding my redundancy and received the letter today saying it had been rejected.
In the letter, the person who dismissed the appeal (my soon to be ex MD) states that they have "consulted with other operators in the area" on my behalf to see if they were recruiting but apparently they aren't.  Is it right that they are calling other prospective employers of mine ahead of me and saying it as if they're doing me a favour ?  The redundancy has been quite heated with me and several other employees so we're struggling to believe that they are actually being helpful.  Especially as no offer of such friendly help has been made before, so it seems a little suspect to us.  Frankly we think that our names will have been made out as mud to these other operators and will sabotage our chances of employment with them.  It is quite a niche field we work in so alternatives in the same city are limited to say the least.
Anyone had experience of similar to this ?  

getmore4less

They probably told you because there is a chance you would find out anyway. 

If it a niche field you should have networking contacts to progress opportunities, and inquire if the enquiries have been positive. 

IME others in a field know about the reputation of other people in the field especially managers that are disruptive. 

bel222

getmore4less said:

They probably told you because there is a chance you would find out anyway. 

If it a niche field you should have networking contacts to progress opportunities, and inquire if the enquiries have been positive. 

IME others in a field know about the reputation of other people in the field especially managers that are disruptive. 

I get that. I'm just stunned at the fact they are telling me they've contacted prospective employers on my behalf without any authority to do so. I'm also expected to just trust that they haven't called them simply to bad mouth me and harm my chances.  
Makes no sense to me and seems completely unfair.

Comms69

bel222 said:

getmore4less said:

They probably told you because there is a chance you would find out anyway. 

If it a niche field you should have networking contacts to progress opportunities, and inquire if the enquiries have been positive. 

IME others in a field know about the reputation of other people in the field especially managers that are disruptive. 

I get that. I'm just stunned at the fact they are telling me they've contacted prospective employers on my behalf without any authority to do so. I'm also expected to just trust that they haven't called them simply to bad mouth me and harm my chances.  
Makes no sense to me and seems completely unfair.

Just curious do you believe people need your permission to talk about you? Because you're in for a shock!

bel222

No, i'm just curious how it's apparently ok for my boss to call around potential employers bad mouthing me.  
I'm 43, i'm not a child so don't speak to me as one thanks.  

zx81

How has he 'bad mouthed' you?

It's not clear from your post that he has said anything bad - or indeed even necessarily mentioned your name.

Undervalued

bel222 said:

No, i'm just curious how it's apparently ok for my boss to call around potential employers bad mouthing me.  
I'm 43, i'm not a child so don't speak to me as one thanks.  

It is "apparently OK" in that he is unlikely to be breaking any laws.

If he says something about you that is provably untrue then you might have a legal claim for defamation. I suppose also there is certain information he may have as your employer which might break the GDPR rules if he reveals it without your permission.

However otherwise he is doing nothing wrong, any more than you would be if you rang up somebody and said "Can I tell you about my boss".

bel222

Well of the two companies i've contacted so far since this morning, the one i've been able to actually talk to in the last half hour has said that my boss called last week advising them to steer clear of myself and 2 others also made redundant as we were all apparently unreliable and untrustworthy workers. All of us have completely clean records with no disciplinary or performance issues in the 15 or so years of employment. 
Also, i did post above that in the actual letter he states that he rang around other companies specifically to see if they had work for me.

Undervalued

bel222 said:

Well of the two companies i've contacted so far since this morning, the one i've been able to actually talk to in the last half hour has said that my boss called last week advising them to steer clear of myself and 2 others also made redundant as we were all apparently unreliable and untrustworthy workers. All of us have completely clean records with no disciplinary or performance issues in the 15 or so years of employment. 
Also, i did post above that in the actual letter he states that he rang around other companies specifically to see if they had work for me.

If that is provably untrue and the company he rang is willing to go on the record and confirm that is what he said then I suppose you might have a claim. Defamation (libel / slander) cases are very expensive to bring as they have to be in the High Court. There is also a possibility of making a claim for negligent misstatement (IIRC) which can be brought in the county court. If you wanted to pursue this you would need legal advice.

He could (and probably would) argue that was his honest belief. The absence of formal disciplinary record helps you a little but doesn't in itself prove that is not what he genuine believes.

Not easy I'm afraid.

What nobody can do is force him to provide a reference. A refusal is in many ways just as damming as a bad one.

bel222

Undervalued said:

bel222 said:

Well of the two companies i've contacted so far since this morning, the one i've been able to actually talk to in the last half hour has said that my boss called last week advising them to steer clear of myself and 2 others also made redundant as we were all apparently unreliable and untrustworthy workers. All of us have completely clean records with no disciplinary or performance issues in the 15 or so years of employment. 
Also, i did post above that in the actual letter he states that he rang around other companies specifically to see if they had work for me.

If that is provably untrue and the company he rang is willing to go on the record and confirm that is what he said then I suppose you might have a claim. Defamation (libel / slander) cases are very expensive to bring as they have to be in the High Court. There is also a possibility of making a claim for negligent misstatement (IIRC) which can be brought in the county court. If you wanted to pursue this you would need legal advice.

He could (and probably would) argue that was his honest belief. The absence of formal disciplinary record helps you a little but doesn't in itself prove that is not what he genuine believes.

Not easy I'm afraid.

What nobody can do is force he to provide a reference and a refusal is in many ways just as damming as a bad one.

Appreciate the in depth reply, thanks

LittleVoice

bel222 said:

Hi Everyone
I have recently appealed a decision regarding my redundancy and received the letter today saying it had been rejected.
In the letter, the person who dismissed the appeal (my soon to be ex MD) states that they have "consulted with other operators in the area" on my behalf to see if they were recruiting but apparently they aren't.  Is it right that they are calling other prospective employers of mine ahead of me and saying it as if they're doing me a favour ?  The redundancy has been quite heated with me and several other employees so we're struggling to believe that they are actually being helpful.  Especially as no offer of such friendly help has been made before, so it seems a little suspect to us.  Frankly we think that our names will have been made out as mud to these other operators and will sabotage our chances of employment with them.  It is quite a niche field we work in so alternatives in the same city are limited to say the least.
Anyone had experience of similar to this ?  

Quite honestly I find it difficult to believe that someone would go to the trouble of phoning potential employers purely with the intent of preventing a soon to be former employee obtaining work with them - unless those employees had so much knowledge and skills that their working for the other company would disrupt the ability of the employer to work profitably themselves.

However it now seems that the person has done what you suspected if your conversation with the prospective employer was not some kind of joke in poor taste.

If you had been offered a job with a new company, would they not have wanted to contact your employer to obtain a reference which it when they could have said whatever they wanted.