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Comment by DoubleGlazing | Hacker News Reader

That would cross my mind. Most potential employers I've encountered have usually asked for references from my last two jobs. On another occasion I had to undergo a background check which involved contacting my last 15 years worth of employers. So no matter how much I may have disliked an employer I would be unwilling to burn bridges until I knew I would never need to rely on them again.

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This is why you cannot get anything more from your previous rmployerd than a certificate of work in France.

If they call and ask they are in complete, dangerous illegality (I had once an American company czll me about an ex employee and they could not understand that).

Some companies used to ask for references, they were referred to friends and they do not ask anymore (this is a general case).

If you run into one of those where you don't have a choice, the best phrasing I've found to explain why I left was "hostile work environment."

I had one of those for about a year and leaving after just over a year was a question I got used to answering.

Most people won't give a bad personal reference anymore because they are too afraid of being sued. We just say yes, the person worked here from this time to that time.

>because they are too afraid of being sued

This is a cliche but it can't possibly be true. I mean, it is extremely expensive to file a lawsuit, you probably lose, and nobody will ever hire you again, because it is public record.

Even if they're being a bit unreasonable, the momentary satisfaction of telling them to F Off is probably not worth the risk of it coming back to bite you some day.

If you don't want to tell them to F Off for this reason, you can contact their line manager, HR or customer service department and ask them to do it for you.

The kind of person to lay into you like this is not going to give you a glowing reference whatever you do.

That is probably true. What I meant is that I would simply break off the conversation at that point. And, yes, if they kept pursuing it, I would either contact their manager if I had a good relationship or have HR tell them to knock it off.

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