How to deal with Negative Job reference?
 

Hello Everyone!

I was just wondering if anybody has had a previous employer write them a negative job reference and how to deal with it during an interview.

My past flight instructing job boss has written a bad work reference for me. I found this out after I was hired at my current 135 job. The director of ops called me up and said my past boss had written some negative things about me on the job verification form they sent out. This totally caught me off guard because I thought I left on better terms than that. He basically said I had shown up to work late multiple times, didn't fill out 141 paperwork correctly, and bad mouthed the company. I explained this to my current employer and still have my job but am very bothered by it and worried about future interviews.

I have a thread about my flight instruction job here:
http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/av...uctor-job.html

I basically didn't agree or see eye to eye on how things were done and how we were treated and threatened while working. Anyways I do have an interview coming up and would like very much for it to go well but this skeleton in my closet is stressing me out.

Thanks for any help!!

Did you show up multiple times late? Did you run yo mouf about the company? If so, I'd come up with a good reason as to why. I'm sure it won't be too hard to muster up. It's not even going to be your most recent employer on the next interview. I wouldn't sweat it.

Im not a perfect employee and have been late due to traffic and what not. Over of 2 years of flight instructing and working 7 day weeks burnt me out waking up for day 7 of work.


I guess I will work on my explanations with out sounding too negative

Employers are generally very cautious about badmouthing a former employee. Typically, when speaking of a former employee, an employer will either give a positive reference, or at worst, say "he worked here." Giving a negative report can have legal ramifications to an employer.

If you were late multiple times, didn't fill out the paperwork correctly, and badmouthed the company, and it's been documented, then there's no amount of explanation that you can do to change that. The best defense your former employer will have is documented truth. Do you have documentation to show differently?

Don't try to come up with excuses or explanations. Its either true or its not. We don't care if you don't like to get up in the morning. We don't care if you were burned out. We don't care if you had a slow car. It's either true or not true. Your comments here sound like you're looking for an excuse, and that your former employers comments are true.

The best thing you can do for yourself at this stage is to prove that you're not what your former employer said. That is, put distance between you and your former employer. Put some solid work history between you. Get a good track record going and plan to leave your current employer with a good recommendation. Don't be late. Do not badmouth your current employer. Show up early. Make a point to compliment your employer or be constructive, or say nothing at all. Never pass up a perfectly good opportunity to keep your mouth shut. Watch your paperwork and be more careful.

Remember the old saying that attitude determines altitude? it's not just a matter of pointing your spinner at the sky.

This is precisely why you don't work 7 days a week. You obviously need to turn it into "I wanted this place to be a better place to work", but you shoot yourself in the foot by accepting work 7 days a week. You can never let an employer run over you like that and you're life and future life is worth much more. You can do all sorts of things, like file complaints with state/federal labor agencies, report them to the IRS for the "contract employee" loophole that they've used over the years, and so on. It's only when you really start to care and get involved do you see there are lots of avenues to pursue. The worse they could do is fire you and then you got a pretty cool story as to why you were fired, attempting to remove a dirtbag operator off the street.

Have to agree with John Burke on this one. Sounds like you're making excuses, and that your former employer may be correct about some issues. Count yourself lucky you landed the new gig anyway, and use this opportunity to make yourself the "perfect" employee.

As for employers being careful as to what they say about former employees, I'm guessing that, sadly, is also true. I know a guy who has lost two jobs due to an over abundance of alcohol indulgence, but, yet, is able to move from job to job without the new employer finding out. Very upsetting that it is allowed to happen, but I'm guessing that the companies don't want to answer to the FAA, so they keep their traps shut.

Kinda got off subject there. Sorry.

This is great advice and for the past year I have been working very hard at my current job to produce a good record. Thanks for the help and I will keep on trying harder!

You'll get there. We all have moments at some point in our career that are better than others. The best insulation from the lesser times are to put distance between yourself and the former experiences. Everything works out in the wash.

You need to be a model employee now!


That is the best thing you can do to help yourself. Don't make excuses, and don't bad mouth the previous employer.

Bill