Recent comments in /f/massachusetts

Hoosac_Love t1_jc0nzv7 wrote

Reply to Can a former employer mention that someone was let go in a reference in Massachusetts? by Limulemur

An employer can say whatever they like I know of no law restricting what an employer may say on a reference.

Some employers will choose not say you were terminated as not to hurt you but they can be as honest as they like.

That is why the scenerio is so common where a boss will confront an employee who has made a serious error and says:"resign or be fired" ,so the employee does not have to admitt being fired if asked in the future if he resigned.Almost all employers give the option to resign at higher level jobs,at low level blue collar jobs that option is often not given.

There is no guarantee what an employers will tell your future boss,you might want to use a different reference than that one.

I believe on thing that is true is that future employers can not contact a past employer without your permission unless you give them as a reference,so don't choose references that fired you because otherwise they can't contact past employers

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RevengencerAlf t1_jc0mur1 wrote

Reply to comment by nikneto in Can a former employer mention that someone was let go in a reference in Massachusetts? by Limulemur

This is just simply false. There is no law in Massachusetts or Federally prohibiting an employer from telling someone else that they terminated you. Most will chose not to do it because they don't want the drama but there's literally nothing stopping them from revealing the conditions of your employment ending unless those conditions are for something that might be protected under other privacy laws (for example if you ended employment due to disability or illness they may or may not have HIPPA obligations).

This feels like one of those things where people just repeat an outright falsehood authoritatively because they heard it somewhere else and they wanted it to be true so they just internalized it.

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RevengencerAlf t1_jc0mkbg wrote

Reply to Can a former employer mention that someone was let go in a reference in Massachusetts? by Limulemur

Legally a company in MA can tell a prospective employer looking for a reference as much or as little as they want about your employment history. They can say you were good, they can say you were bad. They can confirm if you quit, if you were fired for cause, if you were laid off. They can confirm if you gave what they deem to be appropriate notice or not and they can comment on your work quality. The only things they can't disclose are things that would otherwise be protected (for example health status that may conflict with HIPPA or other privacy laws since they're a benefits provider).

Now that said, most companies won't shit on you to a future employer asking for a reference unless you left a trail of smoldering ashes in your wake. They don't want to deal with that. What they will do however is simply confirm your dates of employment and make a point not to say anything at all beyond that, which depending on how they do it can easily be used to send the message that you left on bad terms. It's not really their problem anymore but some reading between the lines can happen.

Now THAT said, it's also worth noting that most companies I've ever worked for don't really care unless you have a notable gap in your resume. They're often just background checking to make sure your resume is accurate and are leaving that kind of feedback up to personal references.

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