Bad References a Good Thing?

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  1

  ingoodcompany

  06/16/08 | Report as spam

  Bad Reference

  The moral dilemma...its like selling someone a haunted house. The ghosts may or may not show up for the next residents. Employees perform poorly for many different reasons, not all of which are simply that they're incapable of doing the work. Sometimes its the rotten management and lunatic coworkers that create poor performance in an an otherwise competent worker. Simply identifying a former worker as poor performer may not tell the whole story at all...and it may tell as much about you and your company as a good reference for an employee that didn't just work out. Damning with faint praise is just as bad. Its best to just keep it neutral, validate what you can, and let the new potential employer make the decision based on what they see in the interview process.

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  Dorz

  06/16/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Bad References a Good Thing?

  What I have done in the past is just confirmed dates and then rung the prospective employers for an informal, off the record chat, highlighting my concerns about the individual (in one particular case the employee would have been working with those suffering from intellectual disability and I did not think they were suitable for this position).
  
  In this situation, under the freedom of information act, the employee can see the confirmed dates but does not have access to the contents of the telephone call.

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  3

  jazgutierrez

  06/16/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Bad References a Good Thing?

  Prospective employers deserve to know the how an applicant performed in the previous job. While we normally cite both the positive and negative. If the employee's bad points are too much, and saying good things about him or her becomes too challenging, then it is best not to provide the reference at all.

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  4

  newuser2008

  06/17/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Bad References a Good Thing?

  I agree that passing along terminally bad employees is not a great idea, either for the business or the employee for that matter. However....
  Sometimes it's the boss who's a zero -- someone who rewards people that socialize with him/her on a regular basis (and always find the time to tell them how much work they have, why they can't get it done, gain sympathy about the cost of raising a family these days, etc...) OR has no clue about their own job, let alone yours, and when you fail to deliver on their unrealistic plan (even though you've attempted to show them why their way might not be the best way), blames you for not making them look good. It's too bad there isn't a reverse reference process for some of these bozos, who somehow manage to continue to wreak havoc in every organization they become part of.

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  5

  HCCAdmin

  08/13/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Bad References a Good Thing?

  The problem with giving a bad reference is the supervisor could have been the problem.
  
  As a person who once excelled in a former-position until a new (disorganized racist ladder-climbing non-producing) boss came in...I was content to do her job too - until she made wild accusations about me to the HR Director. She had falsified information and supposed conversations...even deleted work from my computer!
  
  And now as a HR Manager, I KNOW that if a person fails to perform is it most likely because they were set up to fail!