Hiring Managers, Has A Reference Ever Cost Someone A Job? (r/AskReddit)

employers hiring managers HR people of ridet has anyone ever given you a reference that ended up costing them the job if so what happened I used to work in a nursing home we briefly employed a young girl about eighteen years old who was useless she would wander around the place with no shoes on she would shower one resident in the time it took other carers to shower five when an old lady fell over in front of her happens all the time old ladies are not known for their ability to remain upright she actually ran away screaming with her hands in the air leaving the old lady on the floor then she went and had an extent of cigarette break to calm her nerves she did not pass her probation for some reason another staff member who had the same position as this girl was not her supervisor in any way gave this girl a glowing reference that got her a job at a different nursing home she did about as well there as she did with us not long after the lady who gave the reference applied at the other home they actually laughed at her and told her there was no way they were giving her a job after she sent them that girl I was the reference that cost someone a job this dumb boss was my roommates boyfriend I hired him on at my shop because he needed some extra cash he barely worked for the two months he worked for me like most of our lazy employees we just fazed him out rather than fire him anyway he applied for a job in his field at a petroleum engineering company or something it was a management position and he needed management experience he put himself down as my supervisor well they called me because they wanted to know what it was like being managed by him I thought it was a mixup and they said no he put himself down as the manager of the shop yet no I told them that was a straight-up lie he didn't get the job ballsy little crap he was not me but a friend was called as a reference he simply said legally I can only say that he did work here and that we would never hire him back next day the guy that used him as a reference called begging him to recant I've used that line I can tell you he worked here from X to Y and that he is not a candidate for rehire usually the responses are got it I had an employee that I fired used me as a reference the HR group that called asked about specific things on his resume he put down stuff that even I as his boss didn't do he apparently managed an eight million dollar department I managed a two million dollar department he managed zero of that he was responsible for eight employees I have six at a time including him he had zero reports he was in charge of safety for our 500-person plans we have a team of four full-time safety employees I am NOT one I told them why I fired him he was a chemist verified his degree in chemistry he mixed ammonia and bleach to clean his workstation he did not get the job I called this girl's reference and left a message the lady called me back immediately asking I wanted a wat for who now when I finally explained it to her she tells me that the girl had worked for her as the only other employee in her doggy daycare then stopped showing up to work still a bunch of money and supplies and tried to report the lady to a licensing board for god knows what which was dismissed she couldn't believe the girl actually listed her as a reference guest she was gambling that I wouldn't call I sometimes have to call the applicant and ask for someone else besides their parents this is still a difficult thing for me even though I am 24 since my dad was my boss for a couple years he was harder on me than anyone else so a recommendation would actually be good from him not that anyone would see past him being my dad my stepfather however gives me a glowing reference even though I have only worked for him a handful of times HR person here in a past job I did a lot checking references called a reference for someone who was starting in a week or so first employer is small company person who answers the phone tells me they want me to talk to the owner when I say the former employees name owner comes on and is super friendly I tell her the former employee in that I just need a quick reference she tells me I wish good things for all the people who've ever worked for me I do not wish good things for her of course I ask I and she tells me a whole list of issues including her walking out in the middle of conversations to go smoke never showing up to work on time and on the days she did show up on time she would ask to leave early she goes on for about five minutes on all the reasons she was fired from the job at some point it's too much and I stopped taking notes at this point in my career I've never gotten more than a generic yes they worked here for dollar-sign XR in that's all I can say so I asked my manager how to handle this she tells me try calling two more of the references and see what they say call a lawyer's office who had hired her a temp contract employee for three months they told me they'd asked her to leave one one stroke two months in because the head lawyer said he couldn't deal with her anymore she couldn't even finish out the contract same basic issues as the first reference call the final one it was a franchise of the chain and the franchise had closed so dead-end call corporate and they can't verify because it was a franchised location my managers calls the candidate and tells her that she needs to give us something else to go off the reference since we've got not-so-good one so far she cannot give us anything and the ones we had were awful so we decide not to hire I've been involved in the hiring of hundreds of employees and this was the only time I've ever had someone given honest reference and I was so glad we sidestepped that minefield yes the reference said the applicant was lightly involved in projects that during the interview he took full credit for dodged a bullet there always always always check references you misunderstood my greatest weakness is being humble I had the opportunity to but I declined I was worried the guy was going to sue me he was extremely paranoid when he worked for me I coached him into doing his job better but he quit unexpectedly he left a 13-page Unabomber style manifesto with both HR and my boss about how terrible I was in how I was an arrogant narcissistic Bartol and how he was the only person on my team who did any work six months later I got a call from an unknown number I let it go to voicemail since I was busy same number called seven more that hour before I finally picked it up to find out what was so freakin urgent turned out it was manifesto guy asking for a reference not touching that one told him to contact HR row some people are really clueless it didn't cost him the job though he still did not get it but it was kind of a weird story it happened this past summer I was hiring for a warehouse worker position and was responsible for checking references we had this one guy had a three year gap in employment normally this isn't really a big deal as long as you have a good excuse school sick taking care of someone is usually valid once he said he took a sabbatical to deal with the untimely death of his parents so we called one reference it was his former boss at a gas station he worked at in Utah guy answers the phone and tells me that he has been missing for three years after he and his parents got into a car crash and the parents died according to the police he left the scene was not driving from what they could tell and walked into the forest so I call the guy back in having notified the police who were sending people down to talk to him I talked to him for a good while about the incident he went into shock and left by the time he realized what had really happened he was on the run for like a week and didn't think he should go back but dudes spent three years living off stolen food money under the table jobs and living in a tent in cars finally moved out here thinking he could apply for a job without anyone asking questions he used an old resume he had on Google Drive and didn't realize it had the reference he went back I think served some time for running away it was forgiven and last I checked up on him on FB I stalk from time to time he is back in Utah are working at a landscaping company not quite what you are asking for but my ex co-worker asked me to be a reference I said it probably wasn't the best idea because I wouldn't lie for her she used me anyways so when the new potential employer called me I told them that she was late a lot sick a lot didn't contribute a lot and had a personality that made people want to hit her I'm pretty sure she didn't get that job I thought I was going to be the reference that cost someone a job I used to work at a fast food place that almost nobody ever got fired from but there was one manager who got fired for drinking on the job looking at pee in the office instead of making food and basically being a colossal screw-up a few weeks later I got a call from a retail store asking about him he puts us down as a reference after all that I couldn't disguise my shock and said he put this job on his work history then I said he was not eligible for rehire but I couldn't give any details they hired him anyway I heard from someone who worked there that he stole a bunch of crap from them and they fired him within six weeks I didn't feel too bad for them they should have known better when even the stoners staffed fast food joint wouldn't give a good reference not me but the best story I have heard I was working at a law firm and I found out that my boss's boss financial officer had applied for the job above him operating officer at the firm he was the only candidate and was in the final references review and gave out someone's name during the reference call the guy actually convinced the firm that he was better for the job than the candidate and ended up getting the operation officer job over him and then hired him as a subordinate financial officer I can't believe the guy actually took the job after that he got Robert California company policy at the time was to contact both references his first reference pulled the old Dilbert on me I can't speak about this employee directly it asked me about something else basically told me that people generally get fired from this position because they are rude late lazy or a combination of all three his second reference didn't even know he was going to be a reference in fact the guy hasn't shown up to work for the past five weeks I had it happened twice for the same role we had the guy we thought was perfect but in two separate references from two different companies we were told he was aggressive and argumentative wouldn't get along with others and when asked if they'd work with him again both said no what was the worst who was speaking to the next best candidate and being told he was about to be fired for poor performance without any reason in a jobless differed than the one he was applying for nopers I've had some former managers reach out to me and shed some light on some things but I've never had someone say here call these people and have them trash the person that being said nowadays most companies won't give recommendations they are too risk adverse the firms I've worked at if you call for a recommendation all they can do is give you an employment verification hotline number that you can call and it will tell you when the person worked there there's a tenant count here don't just blindly put your past landlord apartment-complex his number on your lease application I own a couple rental properties and holy crap landlords are eager and willing tell you story after story about how horrible their tenants were I called someone who was surprised he was put down as a reference for the candidate this man was elderly and took his sweet time explaining everything the candidate did or didn't do in great detail for example she barely came to work and was never reachable by anyone and to top it off she decided to not come to work one day and never came back I still don't understand why she even put that man as a reference I didn't get a job because of one of those references still not entirely sure why to this day 20 years later the interviewer said she had called to check my reference and was informed that I was not eligible for rehire and could I tell her why I was stunned speechless and nearly started crying right there these people I worked for previously were like family to me and I gave them three months notice before I relocated to another state there were gifts and tears and hugs when I left I felt so betrayed by them that I never bothered to ask why our application process requires three references I once had an applicant put her sister a friend from her Bible study and a previous employee who quit after three days as her references the sister did not know she was the reference and said they got along well but had never worked together the Bible study friend did not know she was a reference and said the applicant was usually on time for Bible study and had a really nice heart I didn't bother calling the previous employee it was already an O from a dog working as a recruiter I've had some great ones reference said to me are you serious she gave my name then proceeded to say she was the worst consultant she ever had then followed up via email with the testimony of someone else in her team on how awful this person was we had a guy put my colleague on an application for a government job saying that he was his boss a text Department he most certainly was not I had a guy with overseas references so I sent each of them out and played to fill out since we only had a few hours per day to connect during business hours each reference comes back virtually identical I call up buddy and read it back to him and he insists it's a coincidence same spelling mistakes and in most cases the same word-for-word remarks this comes up more often and in more ways than you think people are not intelligent holy crap you really have to be dedicated to not only give a terrible reference but to actively seek out testimony from a second source and provide that as well I was on the receiving end of one of these a young woman submitted a resume for an assistant position and her qualifications were impressive she listed a self as executive assistant to the CEO of a well-known company in my industry so I called my friend who worked for a VP at the same company I wanted to know why she was leaving since their job at my company was not at all as good as the job she was currently in after a brief pause I learned that the applicant had been a receptionist not an assistant and she had been sleeping with the CEO once the CEO tried to end their situation the applicant threatened blackmail she was fired immediately after that I sent her resume back to HR and that girl was blackballed from my company in the placement agency that submitted her I once gave an honest reference for a former coworker who'd applied at my previous place of employment but the guy was done as a sack of doorknobs ruined another co-workers left hand drill bit set I couldn't figure out why it was drilling so slow so I just went faster and I once walked in on him draining fuel from an airplane not an uncommon task by himself from four or five points simultaneously in two ungrounded plastic pails several of which were overflowing and spilling all over the floor and running into the floor drain serious explosion hazard the other place hired him anyway called me again a couple months later to let me know he was working out really well guess the guy just needed more supervision not HR Byrd was a director owner of a games development studio anyway got a CV once that listed all the games this guy had written oddly though one of the games was one that another of the company directors had written HR would not let me bring him in for interview and grill him dang that would have been gold not a HR person but a reference has cost me getting a job once almost cost me a second time I'm a teacher in the UK in three or four years into my career I had applied for a promotion to head of department in a different school my current school tried to convince me to stay but they couldn't offer me the promotion so I went for it I thought I aced the interview and got down to the final two but I was passed over for someone else the deputy head of the potential new school told me that he would have usually given his right leg for a teacher like me but that I should get my current had to write me a better reference next time I chalked it up to experience with less than 12 months later the same position in my current school opened up and I was given that job as part of the handover off paperwork from the current head of department I found the reference I had been given it was shocking it literally said that I couldn't do the job I couldn't do the job that they had just given me I did that job I thought very well for the next six or seven years but things change them so I applied for a sideways move to a different school again my current school wanted me to stay and try to tempt with all sorts but I stood firm and went for interview this time the head at the new school who I will always thank for this bought up my reference an interview and said that he was confused because my reference was so poor but what he'd seen had been much better literally everything that was in there I was able to put the other side too I got the job my old head was obviously writing bad references for those teachers he wanted to keep I hear he also wrote references for those he wanted rid off as well you have been visited by the distinguished dog our delicious delicacies comment tasty supper poplar and be blessed with delectable dishes for the next decade if you are new to the channel you can 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Channel: Updoot Studios

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Keywords: #updootst, updoot, updoot reddit, updoot everything, reddit on tap, toadfilms, pewdiepie, reddit, askreddit, funny reddit, reddit stories, top posts, reddit top posts, reddit cringe, comedy, reddit compilation, /r, r/, r/askreddit, top posts of r/, askreddit reading, best reddit posts, top posts of all time, people of reddit, askreddit question, ask reddit, subreddit, sub, job references, job reference letter, employers of reddit, reddit jobs, HR people of reddit, reddit job stories

Id: WsLFEpLIlzk

Length: 18min 14sec (1094 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 24 2019