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A Word to the Wise

By Alfred G. Feliu
April 01, 2003

Management counsel has become quite predictable when asked by a client: “Can we give a job reference for a former employee?”

“Thou shalt provide only name, rank, and serial number,” counsel boldly announces. Translated, the employer is being counseled only to provide dates of employment and last position held by the former employee. Occasionally, counsel may go out on a limb and allow his or her client to provide the former employee's last salary or like information, if authorized by the former employee in writing. The assumption here is that it is safer to offer verifiable facts than opinion.

The reason for counsel's caution is, of course, fear of a defamation suit. To disparage one in his or her profession can be defamation per se. Further, there is a prophylactic effect as well of such a rule. If the employer strictly abides by its no job reference rule, then a former employee who does not get a new position applied for will have less cause to suspect that the former employer's actions had something to do with it.

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