In Feb my department was made redundant. One of the people who was laid off with me has asked me for a job reference. The thing is, I can’t honestly recommend her. She was nice enough, but a bad worker.
I gently suggested that she should seek her boss as a reference.
But I thought it would be fun to try to create something ambigous that could be taken either as a good reference or a bad one.
All I have so far is: You would be lucky if you could get her to work for you.
Note: I would never be so cruel as to send this out or share this with her, this is just to amuse me (or us, as it were.)
Most employees are in the middle in regards to work ethic, a small minority are excellent and a small minority are terrible. This one is one of the handful that employers are always trying to get their hands on.
If he’s so bad that the company would be more productive with the job unfilled than with him doing it, you could say “Nobody would be better for the job than him.”
The following are reputed to be standard for references in Germany (references cannot be negative here) - don’t know how they’d come across in the US.
… had the opportunity to do good work. [i.e.: but didn’t]
… tried his/her best to do good work work. [i.e.: but couldn’t]
… met our expectations [i.e.: did not do good work]
… we got to know him/her as a resourceful employee who could solve problems in his/her and his/her employer’s interest [i.e.: he/she stole from us]
… was honest and punctual [i.e.: but lazy]
… was honest and hardworking [i.e.: but unpunctual]
… was honest and punctual [i.e.: but dishonest]
… scrupulously carried out all instructions [i.e.: no initiative]
Generally in the US, you don’t dare say anything other than “Ms Perkins was employed by us from 1999 through 2005 as an administrative assistant.”
Adjectives will have a funny way of biting you when the employee sues you for libel/slander or defamation of character, or their future employers come at you for misrepresenting the state’s worst slacker as a stellar worker.
I adore the performance review generator on dilbert.com. And yes, i’ll confess to having used a few snippets from it once or twice in the past when i couldn’t think what to say.
zelie zelerton I wish I had known about this before!
**MikeG **and gotpasswords, when you work for a company you must follow their rules. Now that I don’t work for them, I am free to give a reference or not if I wish. In this case I chose not to because, although I wish her well, her work ethic was poor and I could not see myself clear to refer her. But I have and will give references to others. There is no law against doing so.
But she can sue you if she doesn’t get a job based on what you say. And so can the other employer, if they hire her based on what you say, and then are unhappy.
As my lawyer is fond of telling me, in America people can sue for any reason they wish. The question is whether they can win or not.
But I would require a cite for this claim. I have seen lawsuits on corperations, but have never heard of one on an individual. Can you offer a precedent?
