I\u2019ve always heard you can\u2019t say anything about a previous employee who puts you as a reference. All you\u2019re legally allowed to do is confirm their job title and dates of employment. Doesn\u2019t that make checking someone\u2019s references basically useless?<\/b>\u2014LinkedIn Park<\/b><\/p>\n
Even tight-lipped references like these can be revealing, Linked. For example, if a prospective employer learns that the position listed on my r\u00e9sum\u00e9 as \u201cchief of thoracic surgery\u201d was better known around my old office as \u201cparking attendant\u201d\u2014well, I think they know me better now than they did before, don\u2019t you?<\/p>\n
Still, such terse descriptions are a far cry from the detailed reviews of employee performance that managers are hoping for. The good news (for them, anyway) is that the dishy, tell-all descriptions they crave are perfectly legal. The bad news is that widespread misinformation about the law (along with the propensity for ass-covering for which HR departments are famous) means many employers still aren\u2019t dishing.<\/p>\n
It all started back in the 1980s, when disgruntled workers began winning lawsuits against various former employers for defamatory statements made while giving references. This could have been avoided through scrupulous honesty (truth is an ironclad defense against charges of defamation), but HR departments decided that just saying nothing was way easier, ushering in a regime of \u201cjust the facts, ma\u2019am\u201d policies that still persists today.<\/p>\n
Even silence didn\u2019t always work: The 1990s saw several cases of \u201cnegligent referral,\u201d where the referrer was held liable because he or she DIDN\u2019T mention negative information about a former employee. Such cases seem mostly to have been about violent or sexually creepy behavior and not, say, a predilection for hourlong bathroom breaks, but still: Damned if you do, damned if you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Eventually, corporate America deployed its army of lobbyists to remedy this situation. State legislatures responded with a host of \u201cemployer reference immunity\u201d laws. Oregon\u2019s, passed in 1995, is typical: It grants the employer a \u201cpresumption of good faith,\u201d which basically raises the standard for defamation from \u201csaid something that was false\u201d to \u201csaid something they knew was false just to be a dick.\u201d <\/p>\n
The upshot is that bitchy, one-star Yelp reviews of former employees are on firmer legal footing than ever, though most employers still don\u2019t seem to realize it. That\u2019s tough luck for hiring managers, I suppose\u2014but it\u2019s music to the ears of parking-garage cardiologists everywhere.<\/p>\n