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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.
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.
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....
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.