ere everyone, my partner of nearly 12 years reads this board daily and suggested I create an account to have a question that is nagging on my brain.
I’m probably not the most eloquent writer as many on here are, but I’ll do my best to consider writing well an ultimate goal as well during my time here.
My question concerns submitting references when asked by a potential employer.
Long story short, I became laid off recently from my employer and submitted a resume for a company that has two openings that match my skills set.
I received a telephone call from the potential employer’s HR recruiter asking me six or seven questions likely to get a feel for the person I am and for them to better understand my experience and match with their company.
At the end of the conversation, the HR recruiter asked me to email her a list of names, email addresses, and telephone numbers of managers, supervisors, and co-workers I had with my last job and the previous job to that one.
I thought about it and wrote up two separate word documents with this information and sent it to her the same day.
She replied early the following morning to say thanks and that she appreciated by fast work on getting the information she requested and that her hiring manager would use to further screen the potential pool of candidates.
She said she was going to use this information to call upon the prior employers to determine my work ethic, experience, and personal character while I was an employee at both companies.
After sending the email to her, I began to wonder if my second to last employer would try to downplay my character or experience for this reason.
In my second to last position I was the lowest person in the department hierarchy but I was part of a team effort within the department.
I was a Help Desk agent which involved taking all phone calls and logging tickets for the company with any type of computer related or telephone issue.
A great deal of the time I worked and resolved a great number of issues by the telephone which created a good level of satisfaction with my abilities over the two years I was at this company.
Toward the end of the time with this company, my father became ill and I wanted to ask for a couple of days off for vacation to help be with him and my mother at the doctor’s office. I had the approval of my supervisor as long as I could find someone else that would volunteer to work in my spot while I had the time off.
This was always his policy toward me ever having time off schedule with the company. I was responsible for begging and pleading with my co-workers to work for me so I could take time off but nobody else in the department was held to this same rule by my supervisor.
I had made a good number of friends with the IT staff at another location of the same company that quickly volunteered to fill up two of the three days I requested off, however, the most important day when my dad was scheduled to actually see the doctor, nobody stepped up to want to work for me.
I included my supervisor in the emails explaining exactly the days, why I wanted the time off, and the pleading for time off but nobody wanted to work that third day.
When I couldn’t get that third day off, I went back to my supervisor and explained the situation that I could find someone to work for two of the three days off but nobody would take the third day so I didn’t need any of the time off.
His response was simply, “Okay” without any effort to ask the people he oversees to step up or require anyone to fill up that extra day so I could have the time off.
I even asked him if he’d help schedule someone to fill that last day for me and he responded that it wasn’t his job to do so.
A week or two after this, I turned in a notice of termination with the company so I could help my mother with my father and his ailing health, and further assist my partner in the construction needs of the home we have now.
I mentioned the situation above to the HR manager of the company and the HR recruiter during my exit interview and they became very disturbed of me having to beg and plead with someone to work for me before I could have any scheduled time off. They felt my supervisor would be the one that would need to manage and fill those vacation time slots instead of me having to do so.
Both said they’d meet with him in about two weeks after I left the company to try and understand where his logic was in that managerial process.
So, long story short…would you email back the HR representative at the new company I submitted a resume to that expressed a good deal of interest in me as an employer and let her know what happened?
I’m not sure at all my previous boss would tell her things to show me in a negative light but given the situation, I feel a new potential HR recruiter would want to know this prior supervisor’s management style.
All she has now is a copy of an excellent resume and what I feel is a good feeling about me as a potential employee with this new company.
For my boss to speak of me negatively would be unwarranted given two good annual reviews I have in my possession speaking well of my work ethic, skills, and character.
Does anyone have any thoughts on what I should explain if anything to with this new HR recruiter? I feel I should email her and explain that situation and keep the email positive about my past supervisor.
However I feel I also should explain that situation without her having to find out something negative my boss could possibly present to her by email or telephone as punishment for me discussing his lack of managerial abilities as my supervisor.
One other thing worthy of note, I spent $39.00 to have a company call my previous supervisor to ask questions related to my work experience, character, and skills, and he said nothing negative during that telephone call.
I’m just wondered what I should do next with the new potential employer.