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?"

Comments

They're setting themselves up for a lawsuit

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:They're setting themselves up for a lawsuit

[bladesjester]

You MAY wish to obtain copies of your reviews and other praises prior to leaving the company.

I second this. Remember that you have access to your personnel file. Make a copy.

Just go

[Reality Master 201]

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.

Never go there again.

[Animats]

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.

Rely on coworkers, not managers.

[rjh]

1. Tell your friends that you're quitting, and ask if they would be willing to be references for future employment. Get their contact information and hold onto it.
2. Get copies of your performance reviews from HR. Once they are in your hands, tell HR what your manager is doing.
3. Tell HR that effective immediately you quit, and you are quitting because of the pressure your manager is attempting to bring to bear upon you. Tell HR that if your manager had played nice, you would've played nice — but if your manager is going to play hardball, then you have to, too. Be very nice to HR. Be apologetic, even. Make sure HR recognizes you're angry at one specific manager, and not at the entire company.
4. Walk out the door and enjoy your new job.

Re:contractor position?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

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.

References (slightly OT)

[geobeck]

For that reason most corporations say nothing, except to confirm "yes this guy worked here starting ____ and ending ____". They don't want to get sued so they avoid saying anything negative.

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."