Below is the email sent to my wife today. Young lad of 17 her company had to let go after things not working out. Adding stuff to peoples drink was a favourite ! Enjoy....... I checked my emails today and it seems I have not yet received a reference from you perhaps you wrote my email down incorrectly, so therefore I would like you to reply with the reference as an attachment I would really really really really really really really really really really really really would love to finally receive it so I hope you read your emails unlike answering your mobile phone though I understand your busy (hmmm.......) things are going better for me personally than working for *********, i've decided to change career paths because I don't want to spend the next 50 years just typing databases, answering phonecalls and being nice to the people I work with but In fact dislike completely, I want to do something rewarding with my life so i'm going to decline your offer of coming back but honestly I really hated working there so it wasn't the hardest desicion to make in the world, i'm currently working at the moment things are going really well there I enjoy being around my work colleagues plus no one has accused me of trying to drug their coffee but hey no one is that paranoid are they???, Overall can you please please please please please send me the reference I will be most grateful thankyou.
"XYZ was a valuable asset to our company in his time here. I don't know how we would've gotten on without his brutal honesty!"
"As passive-aggressive, obnoxiously immature teenagers with a narcissistic sense of overentitlement go, you will not find a more sublime example than XYZ. The generous size of his ego and the multitude of character flaws more than compensates for the minuteness of his talent, professionalism and dedication. I would strongly recommend him for any position that carries a high occupational health hazard and risk of injury or death. To facilitate his premature demise would be a community service that contributes to the betterment of humankind."
Did anyone else notice that the only full stop (period) was at the end of the paragraph (if you can call that a paragraph)? I would be embarassed just knowing that email came from me, and not because of the drugging, pleading and obnoxious behaviour, but because of the grammar/punctuation alone.
Thanks? Agreed. I could only take small solace in thinking that he just didn't care now that he'd gone anyway.
The kid is 17 and in low level employment, no one will bother to ask for more than one reference, so why not just ask someone at the current job for one? Pretty much the only explanation is that the working somewhere else now part is as real as dogshit flavoured M&Ms.
Best thing to do in this situation is just provide a statement of service. Companies aren't strictly allowed to give a bad reference, but they can refuse to give a reference, which can be just as bad: in a previous company, we were contacted by someone wanting a reference for an ex-employee that we had sacked a couple of weeks before. We refused to give a reference because anything we said wouldn't be positive at all; the company phoned back five minutes later begging us to tell them why we refused to give a reference. Needless to say, we refused again.
The only references I've ever had were along the lines of "[name] was employed by [company] as [job title] between [start date] and [end date]"
Written references aren't really used now - employers just as for contact details and then email out a form in most cases.
Firstly, reference requests should come from the potential employers, not from a former employee (i.e. the kid in question). Secondly, from a legal stand point you should never volunteer anything in a reference you aren't directly asked for (i.e. the vast majority of companies will send check-box references asking specific questions or for specific ratings). Thirdly, you are not allowed to give negative references - the way around this is to either refuse to give a reference of just issue a statement of employment: a simple dated reference that is considered by most employers to be a negative reference. Finally, since the tories changed laws around employment tribunals a member of staff cannot take a company to tribunal for anything less than gross misconduct unless they have worked for that company for at least 2 years....so unless it was a very long work experience placement, I'd politely tell then that you do not feel comfortable giving them a reference.
This is what I was referring to as a bad reference, if I see one of these the person definitely isn't getting the job!
Then you're potentially losing out on some good employees - many companies, especially larger companies, will only provide statements of service and will respond to any reference request with a generic "we only provide SoS" statement. In a lot of these companies, individual managers are not allowed to provide references. It's wrong to assume that any employee with a statement of service as a bad employee or the statement of service itself as a bad reference.
Not a good option. At the end of the day, writing an actual, meaningful reference takes time, and as an employer, there's absolutely no positive from doing it (unless you write a glowing reference about a **** employee that you'd like to get shot of). As such, a basic politeness reply and nothing more is the norm for a lot of companies.
I can see the reference now since Mr XYX left our employment both he and the flying pink unicorns have been sorely missed the coffee has also been rather lack luster. In conclusion ummmm yeah flying unicorns and dragons on unicycles dude
