What to do about a bad reference from prior employer?
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What to do about a bad reference from prior employer?
I worked with a company for almost 6 years. It was a call center and being on the phone that much is very stressful so I started missing a lot of time and was fired because of this reason. I applied for a job in the same building and was told there was people with more experience than me. They were hiring over 100 people I cant believe that many people were more experience than me when i basically did the job they were hiring for on my previous job I was fired from. The supervisors talk to each other on a personal level from both companies. Is there anything that I can do about this?
Asked on July 31, 2012 under Employment Labor Law, Pennsylvania
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 11 years ago | Contributor
An employer is allowed to give you a bad reference, as long as it is truthful or an opinion. So, from what you write, your prior employer could say that you missed time without approval or were fired for missing time (since that is true); they could also say that they felt you did not handle stress well (since that is an opinion). The only thing they can't do is make untrue factual statements about you, so they could not, for example, say you were fired for theft or drug use, if that was not the case.
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