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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?"
Would you be willing, and would your current employer be willing, to stay on a few weeks longer as a contractor at a higher pay rate? Would your new employer allow you to change your start date?
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
After you leave, have somebody posing as a fictional tech company call for a reference. If they make blatently untrue statements, it might fit under some defamation law and be worth a little extra lawsuit money.
In many companies, rank-and-file employees can be fired for saying anything positive or negative about a former employee other than confirming dates of employment. So much for relying on soon-to-be-former coworkers.
Former coworkers who have since left the company are fair game.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I got fired from a company I worked for for two years because my boss found some emails I'd sent to a friend of mine (who worked at one of our suppliers) calling him a complete asshole.
This obviously put me in a bit of a tricky situation with references, but luckily the general manager of the company was a good guy and knew that the guy in question indeed was an asshole, so agreed to give me a reference.
Your case is even more clear-cut than mine, in that you have obviously done nothing wrong. Given that some people in your company are obviously acting in a completely childish manner, can you find a sympathetic individual - who's not your boss but is someone high up enough - who can give you a reference?
As a final point, most companies shouldn't give good/bad references for exactly these reasons - they can be used to distort the truth to benefit the company in question. A lot of places just give a standard statement confirming that the employee worked in the specified role between the specified dates - this should be standard.
The above is excellent advice - always record what's going on.
I've had the same extortion racket happen to me before as well: "If you don't stay on, we'll give you a bad recommendation to future employers. Oh, and by the way, we're out of money so you need to work for less, and those hot checks we wrote you? Yeah we're not going to pay you for those.".
Go to your local electronics shop and pick up a cheap digital audio recorder, and when they say something incriminating just record it. Get a copy of your reviews from HR as well. If a company is serious about hiring you and they tell you that the previous employer gave you a bad review, give them the evidence.
You really should ask a lawyer though.
Insert witty
I've moved an left a few jobs, I've been fired from one. In the course of job doing data management, I found the general manager of the company embezzling $20,000 per month. I contacted HR & legal discreetly. Its a publicly traded small company ($150MM market cap). Doesn't matter. The GM fired me shortly thereafter.
Its a small industry, and when people call for references, they say bad things. "Doesn't follow through", "lack of focus", "wouldn't show up". General bullshit. I've lost several good jobs because of this.
Here's the shitter: I HAVE NO FUCKING RECOURSE. I fucking stumbled across some BIOTCH stealing, tried to do the right thing, and now I'm fucking paying the price for it. I've been out of work over a fucking year, and can't get a fucking job to save me. I've burned through ALL my life savings (I'm 38), and have no prospects for work. My wife is stressed and I have young kids to take care of.
So, I don't know what to tell you. Its very possible to get very screwed through no fault of your own.
Remember this, though: Nobody is looking out for you but you. NOBODY. There is no honor at company. No ethics, no morals. NOTHING. If you don't sleep under the same roof, expect nothing of people.
yes, I'm bitter and jaded. And I've earned it.
When I worked in HR calling references, more companies than I would've thought will badmouth you.
Sure it's against the law, but I'm not going to tell the applicant, "We aren't going to hire you due to a shit reference and sure, I'll gladly use my vacation days to go to court with you".
Instead your app gets filed away until it gets old enough to shred.
It may be a bit late to help you, but publicly traded companies fall under the purview of Sarbanes Oxley.
When I worked for a publicly traded company a couple years back, a letter was included in my new hire packet that provided the phone number of a third party I could call if I believed some kind of fraud was going on within the company.
See if any of this helps you too - http://www.sox-online.com/act_section_806.html
Some states, Illinois among them, require that an employer provide copies of a personnel file or any materials within to the employee, for up to one year following termination, upon employee request. If I were you, I'd go straight to HR and ask for a full copy of your personnel file. They already know you're leaving, they should have no problem with it. There is no federal legislation, so you'll have to check your state laws. I would put the request in writing, indicating that the request is in compliance with whatever statute you can quote. Don't make it a big letter, just a short note. Be sure to: ask for your *complete* file, including evaluations, promotions, and any other documentation they have; quote the applicable statute and paragraph; ask for the copies to be provided within 5 working days; date and sign the letter; keep a signed copy. If you don't get a copy within a week, send a registered letter before you leave, referencing the original, and keep copies of it. If you don't have a copy within a couple of weeks, you'll probably have to talk to a lawyer and show him your records. Most courts would find that 5 days turnaround to make a copy of a file is more than adequate. Disclaimor: IANAL....
Reference please? A variety of companies may have policies of this nature to limit their legal exposure, but any LAW of this nature would be a clear violation of free speech guaranties in the US constitution.
This is a classic tactic.. you have vertical skills that really cannot do without, have done no succession planning and find themselves with their arse hanging out if you leave. I am sure there is a scramble to get "bob" to mind meld with you for damage control. I have been on both sides of the fence with this one, both as the "valuable" employee who knows way too much, as well as a CTO with my "A" team members threatening to leave.. I handled the first situation thusly: "I cannot extend my employment beyond my original departure date. However, I would be happy to provide remote support on a T&M basis as long as you desire my assistance." Tell your new employer that you will be providing some off-hours support for your old company to ensure a smooth transition. This does a few things for you. It lets the old company know that you have no desire to leave them high and dry as a corporate knowledge keeper (giving them access to you after your departure), and lets your new company know that you are a stand up kinda person who "cares for the better of the business entity" (the one you are leaving). I have supported this arrangement when on the receiving end and have participated in it when on the departing end. It is a worthy compromise, not to mention if they really ping you hard after you leave, you get paid for every hour you work. This serves as a reminder to those of us in IT, train your replacements!!, document where you can and always have contingencies in place.. If "bob" were hit by a bus tomorrow, where would you be. SOL is not the answer you should be giving yourself.
"The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing
Don't worry about your recommendation. All a large company will do is confirm that you were employed.
In large companies they don't know who works for them, unless they are high up on the payroll ;)
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
I worked for a place and went way beyond my pay scale to do stuff. I told the guy who interviewed me that I would work there one year. As I found out after he quit, he was telling both sides what he figured they wanted to hear. At that point, I realized why he had quit so I didn't remind them that I was leaving after a year until that year was up.
At first they offered me a pay raise to stay since they were happy with my work and I said no. They then got pissy. I would figure any reference from them would say I sucked.
>>>I was going to suggest burning any leave you have accrued as your "fourth week,"
That won't work. At Lockheed Martin they consider your last day to be the last day you appeared in the office, and will not pay any vacation/sick days past that point (i.e. you can't take vacation your last week). I imagine most corporations follow the dame policy.
So if you do decide to take a vacation, do it immediately. Or just take the cash payout for the unused days.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I'm posting anon for obvious reasons. I worked two months shy of four years at one company. It was doing badly and I decided it was time to start looking for other work. I found another job and by that point layoffs were announced. My bosses all the way up to the subordinent of one of the vice presidents were doing very questionable things to get me to stay. I am not going to detail that because it would identify me, sorry.
Because of this whiff of no good I got from management I told the places I was looking in to that I do not want them to contact my current employer since I feared repercussions if they learned I was looking around for a new job. Most places agreed and contacted only my prior references after I sent them a pay stub to show that I actually was employed where I was claiming to be. I actually liked that since I was very well paid and it curtailed a lot of the BS I had gotten when I was looking for work before.
I called HR and they told me I did not need to give any notice but that 2 weeks was customary. I gave a month. Then I got the verbal warning from my manager, his/her boss, and the subordinent of one of the vice presidents that they would tell anyone that asked about how I was a bad employee. Then they tried to guilt trip me to stay (how they expected that to work after threatening me first I never understood), but I believed that the prospects for the company were very poor in the next few years.
I ended-up contacting the state AG (CA), they ended-up sending a letter to me and the company notifying them about various laws that they could be breaking if the allegations were true. By then my month was up and I was gone.
Then I kept in touch with coworkers of mine at the company, within two years (it surprises me to this day that the place is still around) all of those people in management were gone. Now I am confident that if I look for new work I would list that company and they would be contacted and simply state that it is true that I worked for the period stated.
If I had needed to look for work before then, that letter from the AG, my explanation, and the fact that I had worked there for nearly four years would have gone a long way I am sure (it is hard to explain why the company would keep a bad employee around for so long). In any case I do think that your managers are simply trying to scare you, just like they were me, and in reality they realize that they could get into a world of trouble (basically they fear losing their jobs) if they actually said anything negative about you. If they know that you have a letter from the AG, that will help convince them as well.
You caught your manager committing a crime?
And HR and legal BOTH put up with it instead of investigating?
Ok, your manager is a shithead, and HR and legal both either got their heads up their butts, or are in on it.
Since it's a publicly traded company, you may also want to escalate this internally. Tell the board of directors about BOTH the embezzling AND the fact that HR and legal didn't do squat about it.
Lastly, if it's not past the statute of limitations for embezzling, I would suggest you report this as a criminal offense to the local DA or SEC.
You have recourse and need to talk to a lawyer.
"The Corporate and Criminal Fraud Accountability Act is part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, enforced by the Department of Labor. It protects employees of publicly-traded corporations from retaliation for reporting alleged violations of any rule or regulation of the Securities and Exchange Commission, or any provision of Federal law relating to fraud against shareholders. Not only does this landmark Act criminalize employer retaliation, it also requires publicly-traded corporations to create procedures for internal whistle blowing. Additionally, it requires attorneys to become internal whistle blowers."
You absolutely need to let H.R. know the situation. Otherwise the company has a valid 'bad apple' defense -- that your manager was a bad apple and if only you had brought the issue to management's attention....
Continue to work for as long as they want, up to the three weeks you specified in your letter of resignation. In any case they'll have to pay you for all three weeks.
Then, have a friend call the company posing as a potential employer and ask for a referral. (If your state allows it, record this call.)
Either you'll have nothing to do as a result, or you'll have a very compelling case against the company.
Oh yeah, IANAL
A company that I left (because I was fed-up with the management) wanted to temporarily get me to consult on a project as a contractor that we hadn't finished yet. Since I had a new day job already, and I didn't really trust them to pay me in a timely manner (since they had stiffed other contractors when I was working there) and I didn't really need the money, I decided to work for barter.
Basically, the arraingment was that after work, I went back to the old company for an hour or two to consult on this project. After those couple of hours, I got to take my ex-coworkers out for a nice dinner on the company (the current employees had to pay and get expense reimbursed for the company and I'm pretty sure they didn't stiff their employees as that would piss them off).
With this scheme, I didn't get a 1099 (no self employment/income tax), got to take my ex-coworkers out for nice dinners every day I consulted on the company dime. Probably cost the company about $200/hour for my time. If later on, I needed a recommendation, I'm pretty I could have coaxed a good recommendation from my ex-coworkers even though the managment wasn't too happy with me for leaving and taking a new job...
I was a leading network engineer for A 3rd party maint (TPM) provider that does breakfix work for Cisco in the field... after they managed to get 505 billed hours out of me in one month and slightly less for 9 months prior they sacked me on the basis of non performance when I was 5 minutes late to an appointment . The appointment was 4 hours after I stopped work from the previous day at 2am and made with 2 hours notice...)... I was advised if I could not deal with this schedule I must be unsuitable!! Never mind the appointment I was going to was a rebook from another useless engineer the prior day (the whole day to do nothing) One hour after I arrived the whole national network was functional again..
After I criticized management regarding their excessive work practices and the personal results the HR person came in and wrote the most bogus rubbish in a pile of meeting notes and put them all in my file ... two of the meetings were annotated in retrospect. my replies weren't there either when I got the file...
This company (and most in Australia) would not provide any reference of ANY type
None of you have ANYTHING to worry about....
That refers to telephone conversations, not face-to-face conversations. There is no law that I'm aware of that regulates that.
You can point out to your boss that at work, there is no expectation of privacy. Management likes to use that against workers. You can now turn that slogan around.
I've run into a similar problem with a company recently that is basically a mirror of your problem... I was forced to resign by this company. The company I speak of is AVDS (Automated Voice & Data Solutions) ( http://www.avds.com/ )
I'm not the only one they have forced out, and in this market... Corporations with compromised ethics seem to be able to get away with this sort of behavior. Another guy they forced out is suing them for back pay, unpaid vacation and a few other things (last I heard).
I was forced to resign on Dec 22nd. Just 3 days before Christmas. I'm now penniless, and because of the market the fat-cats have crushed... I'm now finding it impossible to find another job. The sad thing is... AVDS is doing similar things to CUSTOMERS, not just to their employees.
I'm a Certified Interactive Intelligence, Inc. Telephony Engineer. I'm very good at what I do, and the customers I've worked with know it. I think AVDS simply wants to get rid of their top-paid talent to hire newly certified engineers willing to work for less than what us seasoned professionals are willing to accept.
The so-called Technical Support "Manager" (Michael Lavespere) while I was working there is an absolute control freak. Few (if any) of the customers like him, none of my ex-coworkers (from the original company, at least) like him. He has a propensity for lying and deceiving. He spends his entire day reading everyone's emails instead of trying to improve customer (and employee) satisfaction. Working there for the first three months or so was great... I worked from home. I have an entire office set up with several servers of my own that mirrored everything they could do in the office, but with much better results than they could have had with me in the office.
Unfortunately, from what I've experienced and heard from my ex-coworkers... Lavespere isn't the only one like this. Most, if not all, of the upper management are just like him.
I was available 24/7 and frequently received calls from customers directly because they knew that I could resolve their problems quickly. After all, I'd worked with many of them since 2006. I'm going to be writing up a nice long article about the company outlining the juicy details of the inner-workings of AVDS... Hopefully, I'll help someone avoid being put in the same situation I've been put in because of these jokers.
But either way... I feel your pain, just in a different way. Companies with compromised ethics need to be dealt with. Unfortunately, for the average person, it's not possible. We simply can't afford the teams of lawyers required to make these companies pay for their unlawful ways. All we can do is draw them out into the light for what they are and show the world just how corrupt and unethical they are.
There. My rant is done for now... Thanks for the opportunity to share my own experience alongside yours. Good luck with your situation... You're still better off than many of us!
"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." -Thom