Re: Letters of Reference Rosemary Burgos-Mira 23 Feb 2004 21:36 UTC
This is not new. I worked in a business library in the late 80's, early 90's. In 1995, when I applied to my first university library position, I was told by my former supervisor, that she could not give me a reference due to the company's policy. This was a person that thought I was a good employee, but she felt obligated to the company. I was fortunate that I had other references, but I think that the academic world will have to accept the fact that this is a reality in the business environment and should not put that much weight in references. Rosemary Burgos-Mira LIU- CW Post Campus 516-299-3526 rosemary.burgos-mira@liu.edu -----Original Message----- From: Marilyn Miller [mailto:miller.129@OSU.EDU] Sent: Mon 2/23/2004 3:48 PM To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU Cc: Subject: Re: [SERIALST] Letters of Reference I find this thread fascinating since I was not aware that this was happening in the library world. I do know why this sort of thing is happening in general. Several months ago I was talking with someone who is job hunting in the business career world. He told me that he cannot get a reference from his previous employer because they are not allowed to give references. It seems that another former employee in the company sued his former employer big-time because a bad reference was given and that person did not get the job because of it. So the blanket rule was made for everyone in the company - no references are to be given. What a shame that in our litigation-happy world employers cannot obtain references for people they are interested in hiring! I will be looking forward to advice people on this list give to job hunters so that I can pass it along to the job-hunting person who first told me about this. Marilyn Miller At 04:35 PM 2/20/2004 -0500, you wrote: >I haven't had much luck searching the archives of AUTOCAT or SERIALST on >this topic, so I thought I'd post to the lists. > >Recently one of my references informed me that the new Human Resources >policy at his institution restricts him to simply verifying my dates in >employment when contacted by potential employers. He suggested that >because of this I should find an alternative reference in the future. > >I know this restriction is not new to the workplace, but it is the >first time it has affected me personally and I would like to know how >other people are handling or would handle this situation -- whether you >are seeking employment, on a search committee to fill an open position, >or someone who writes or has written letters of reference (with or >without this institutional restriction). > >I am also feeling at a loss because this particular reference is the >only person who can comment upon certain skills that I acquired while >working at his library (i.e., in my work experience, they were unique to >that position). > >Thanks in advance for any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations, etc. >you can give me! > > > >Karen Nadeski > >Project Cataloger, Connecticut History Online >Connecticut State Library >231 Capitol Ave. >Hartford, CT 06106 >860-757-6544 >knadeski@cslib.org >http://http://www.cthistoryonline.org/