7 Reasons Your Former Supervisor Might Give You a Bad Reference

January 14, 2016
By Jeff Shane for BioSpace.com

Many of us are aware that a former employer is only supposed to offer limited information about previous employees—typically, employment dates and title. While the track record of corporate Human Resources is generally (but not always) consistent with this policy, it is a different story when considering former supervisors. While there are a number of reasons why your former supervisor might offer potentially damaging information about you, the bottom line is that you should never assume that your prior supervisor(s) is following company policy when they are contacted about offering you a reference.

What are the reasons why your supervisory references may be unfavorable? They include:

1. They may simply not have liked you, or your performance.

2. They may be unhappy that you left the organization (or are thinking about leaving the organization) and are either retaliating/discouraging someone else from hiring you.

3. They may fall in the “bad boss” or “bully” category.

4. They may have issues pertaining to your age or sex.

5. They may be having a “bad day,” offering more revealing commentary than they normally might.

6. They may think you are not qualified for the position for which you are being considered. They may even be envious that you are being considered for such a position.

7. They may simply be offering the truth as they see it, not being mindful—or aware—that they should not be offering that level of commentary about you.

Given the substantial number of negative supervisory references, what is a job seeker to do? A useful first step would be to determine if a former supervisor is indeed a reference problem, by having an organization like Allison & Taylor conduct a reference check on their behalf. If a former supervisor’s commentary is in any way unfavorable, the job seeker will have some form of recourse in discouraging them from offering such commentary again. (One such remedy is the Cease & Desist letter that has an extremely high rate of success.)

Bottom line, it is critical that the job seeker vet their references prior to seeking new employment. Sadly, too many candidates only become aware of a negative reference once a number of promising job opportunities have passed them by. With the advent of the New Year, consider making reference checking one of your resolutions to ensure a fast employment start for 2016.

Check out the latest Career Insider eNewsletter - January 14, 2016.
Sign up for the free bi-weekly Career Insider eNewsletter.