Bad Ref??

jencar01

..........

monkeyfudge

As much as I'd like to sometimes, you can't give out a bad reference.

About the worst you can do is just issue a reference that states that the person worked for you between certain dates.

connundrum

Do you not have a particular manager that you got on well with that you can give as a reference?

My new employers were happy to talk to a manager who had actually left the company in September 2006 - I just said that this man knows me best, and that my present manager would just know me as a number on a page.

Everyone was happy with it.

seamus

They can't really give bad references. Anything that they say must be backed up by evidence, or they leave themselves wide open to be sued.

You don't say whether this months' travelling was during your employment or immediately after. It was quite clearly their mistake. If it was immediately after you left, then the only person who was exasperated was some poor sod in payroll. Considering that you paid it back in good time, and at considerable hassle to yourself, I can't see how it could possibly be added to your employment record or otherwise dragged up in a reference.

I wouldn't worry about it.

jencar01

........

jencar01

......

seamus

Congrats!

Spitfire666

ever think that the mix up would look GOOD as it shows your honest?

Dave!

Congrats!

tHE vAGGABOND

I had a fair amount of part time people working for me over in London down the years. If I was ever asked for a ref for someone who was not good in any way I always just said, "sorry, its company policy not to give references"

If you give a bad ref to anyone, and they find out, they can take you to court and win very easily [in the UK anyway]

On the same line, if you give a ref to someone, saying they are amazing, and they turn out to be crap and cost the company money [or whatever] the company can sue you for giving a misleading ref. [I know, it sounds crazy, but a mate of mine in HR got into trouble as a result of this]

mick.fr

This reference thing in Ireland is nuts.

In UK they do not really ask anymore because it does not make sens actually.
In France, where I am from, it is forbidden by law.
What is mandatory in France is that every time you leave a company they give you a certificate of work on a company paper that stipulates your dates of employment, and role. This is to avoid people pretending they have worked for such and such company.

The thing is if your previous manager did not like you or if he is jealous of the new job you might get, positive feedback might not be great, even we the fact he is supposed to give a good one.

So what is the all point of giving references to somebody if it has to be positive ? They will always be positive.

Hiring somebody is like doing shopping anyway. You never really know what to expect even if you went through personality tests or so.

The guy could have performed very well in a previous company and be not that good in a new one because of a particular environment, processes, colleagues.

Hopefully in my case people do not ask me references anymore, I do not even meet the agencies anymore, they send me directly to their customers. But it took me 3 years...

r3nu4l

mick.fr wrote:

In UK they do not really ask anymore because it does not make sens actually.

While I agree with most of what you say, I can't agree with this. Any job interview I've done for jobs in the UK have asked for a reference, those job applications were with US companies, European Institutes and homegrown British companies.

mick.fr

r3nu4l wrote:

While I agree with most of what you say, I can't agree with this. Any job interview I've done for jobs in the UK have asked for a reference, those job applications were with US companies, European Institutes and homegrown British companies.

I did 2 job interviews in UK and they never asked me for references.
Plus I have meet one english consultant who told me they do not do that anymore in UK.
I am working in the IT industry, it is maybe particular.
But my 3 experiences can not be generalised.

r3nu4l

Well maybe IT is different but I've done interviews for 8 separate jobs(Science based) in the UK in the last 2.5 years and out of the 5positions I was offered I was asked for references each time.

Now whether those references were ever checked or not is a different story.

Kinetic^

r3nu4l wrote:

Now whether those references were ever checked or not is a different story.

It's a good point actually r3nu4l, they could be just asking to see your reaction and depending on it, depends on whether or not they call to ask about you.