Slashdot Mirror
How To Handle Corporate Blackmail?
An anonymous reader writes "I have been in a software engineering position at a large company for approximately seven years. Recently, for a variety of reasons, I accepted a new job working for a local software company. I have given my employer three weeks' notice, instead of the standard two, as a courtesy.
In return, it has been implied that, in spite my record of above-average performance appraisals and promotions, I will be marked as leaving the company 'on bad terms' if I refuse to extend my departure date further. With only three weeks remaining, I am hesitant to rock the boat by contacting our HR department, but this concerns me and seems like an extremely unethical practice. I live in an 'at-will' employment state, so I know that they have no legal recourse to keep me. I am concerned about the references they could give in the future; having spent a large majority of my career at this company, I will be dependent on them for references to verify my career experience.
Has anyone ever run into this kind of situation before?"
Very few companies will do anything other than confirm that you worked during period X. Otherwise they are opening themselves up to all kinds of legal trouble.
If that's the kind of people they are, they'll slag you off no matter how long you stay.
Make sure to keep any copies of performance reviews, etc., but don't give in to that kind of bullshit. Probably won't matter in the long run, anyway - if they're run by assholes like that, they'll be out of business in a few years.
there is no law saying the references you provide have to be in your direct management chain.
That's true, but there are a couple of gotchas. First, the folks in your direct management chain will (typically if not necessarily appropriately) carry a lot more weight with the hiring managers than your peers. Second, at least at my company, there are company policies regarding (and sometimes preventing) official references given from people that you don't have a solid-line connection to on the org chart. Dotted-line connections and peers may give personal opinions on the person they're asked about, but could face disciplinary action if they give professional opinions that may be inferred as company endorsements.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
Leave immediately and never go back.
Contact an employment lawyer, and have them write a "lawyer letter" along the lines of "In response to your threat to provide unfavorable references unless our client agreed not to leave your employment on (date), our client is leaving your employment immediately. Any action on your part to defame the character of our client will be dealt with appropriately". Should cost you about $100.
One of the standard legal services is writing such letters. Basically, you can pay a lawyer to write what you want in legal language and send it on the lawyer's letterhead for a modest fee. This is useful when faced with annoying threats or recalcitrant vendors.
Depending on where you live, recording a conversation without letting the other party know that it's being recorded might be illegal. If you decide to follow the parent comment's advice, you should probably check into that, and if necessary let the other party know that the conversation is being recorded.
I'd try to get it on paper somehow.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
Just make sure they pay for that mile. As in, the contractor rate is 10x the salary rate. See how much they really want to keep you.
As to the question in the original article- I've never had a job last more than 5 years, and I left that employer on REALLY bad terms. I've found that two things are true with respect to long term jobs and references:
1. You can always find somebody outside your chain of command that you did a favor for once who is grateful enough to be a reference, even if they had nothing more to do with your department.
2. Nobody bothers with references further back than the last job anyway.
So therefore, I wouldn't worry about it- get good references from the people you helped, fuck HR, and tell them that if they want you past X date, it'll be $1000/hr.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
You won't get it in writing from them, but I doubt you'd need it.
Just go straight to HR and explain that you feel your boss is implying blackmail. Write up these suspicions in a letter and hand it to them so they have a nice neat copy to review...i.e you're holding onto an original.
That should give you some piece of mind, giving you a bad referral would be an incredible risk for them at that point, it's just now worth it to try to pressure you.
But most companies don't even give referrals. Not even good ones(in case you turn out to suck at your new job and the new company blames the previous company for a misleading referral). Nowadays you just get start of employment, end of employment, and pay level from a reference.
Actually, the best reference I got from a former employer started out as sounding negative:
New company HR: "What was geobeck like as an employee?"
Former supervisor: "He was lazy."
New company HR: "Um... really?"
Former supervisor: "Oh yeah, definitely. If he had an inefficient process he had to do over and over again, he'd do everything he could to make it more efficient so he wouldn't have to do as much work."
Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
Oh God dude, NO HR department person is on your side. Anywhere. Start with that assumption and you'll get along just fine.