Consider this scenario: You’ve gotten confirmation – perhaps through a reference-checking firm like AllisonTaylor.com Reference-Checking – that a key reference(s) is relating negative things about your employment with the company. Worse still, this reference is not one that can be easily excluded from consideration by a prospective new employer. How do you stop that reference from continuing to damage your prospects for future employment?
Once such negative commentary has been identified, a powerful tool for job seekers to address it is to serve notice to their reference – via a “Cease & Desist Letter” – that their continued negative comments may ultimately result in legal action being taken against their organization. These letters are issued by an attorney and sent to the senior management of the company, alerting them to the negative reference’s identity and actions. Oftentimes, the very act of offering a negative reference is against corporate guidelines, as typical policy is that only a former employee’s title/dates of employment should be confirmed. In the interest of self-protection, the company will usually caution the negative reference not to offer additional comments or negative commentary again. Out of self interest, the reference will almost surely decide it is in their own best interest to “cease and desist” offering any future negative references about the former employee.
There is also a generic version of this letter when negativity is suspected, but not confirmed with a specific individual. In this instance, the CEO or other letter recipient is instructed to review appropriate corporate policy with any prospective reference (e.g. former supervisors or Human Resources personnel) that might reasonably be contacted for a reference. They would be reminded of typical corporate policy to only confirm the employment dates/title of former employees – period.
In offering this service, Allison & Taylor works with attorneys well-versed in employment law who will review the client’s report from a negative reference, speak directly with them to discuss protocol and options, and then issue the letter to the organization where the negative commentary arose. As part of the overall fee, Allison & Taylor then re-conducts the original reference check to determine if the negative reference is continuing to offer harmful commentary. This rarely turns out to be the case – the documented “success rate” of this letter is extremely high.
For further details on services and procedures, plus C&D letters, please visit www.AllisonTaylor.com.