LINEE

When you leave a job in difficult circumstances, it can come as a huge relief to be out of a stressful situation. But that relief can be short-lived when you come to applying for a new job and are worried about what will happen when your prospective employer asks for a reference. We set out some guidance that may help you handle the situation.

These days it is very common for an employer to give a basic reference covering job title and dates of employment, whether things end amicably or otherwise. These are so common that a reference like this is unlikely to harm your chances of finding a new job. The bigger the organisation, the more likely that they will have a policy of just giving this sort of reference. So however badly things ended, you might not get the negative reference you are worried about after all.

There’s no obligation on an employer to give a reference, but if they do then the reference should be true, accurate and not misleading. In practice, that’s not tremendously helpful; employers rarely lie, they just say “we think they were useless” or similar. That’s their opinion and it’s difficult to say it’s false. Commonly, the problem is not with the written reference, which may be bland, but if someone telephones your previous employer they may get more information in the call and it is very difficult to get evidence about this. Again, the bigger your former employer, the less likely this is to be a problem; the call is more likely to get directed to HR, who won’t know you personally and who will be less likely to expand on the written reference. Read more.