What are the chances your previous employer shit-talks about you when references are taken?

Judging my previous work, they do talk shit about all past employees amongst themselves but always make a positive references

I your case, oh oh :p I bet your employer can't stop talking. That is what happens all the interviews, they call your former boss :p

Very high... unless they're actually decent people && harbor no ill-will towards you for leaving. The latter one seems rare...

about (1/π)² I’d say

Depends what you did, I assume.

@Lensflare 10%

@D-4got10-01 Indeed...

Can’t be that high. Unless you were that terrible I don’t think they’d want to fuck you over when you’re trying to get a job unless they’re total assholes.

@TeachMeCode Mhm. The trouble is that sometimes they are total assholes...

Never use someone as a reference without asking them first. Always assure them you will never put their contact info on an application or resume. Only give references after an interview when specifically requests. Only give them to the company (if asked for by a recruiter, give it to the company and they can hand it off to the recruiters .. also fuck recruiters).

You want to know your reference will give you a positive response first. Don't just assume. It's like defense lawyers: don't put a witness on the stand unless you know what they are going to say.

I had a bad reference once and learned the hard way. It was a university professor too. Fuck that guy. There's a reason your wife left you asshole!

@djsumdog Hm, interesting.

I learned the hard way as well from having a bad reference. I'm only sure about half of my references.

@CaptainRant I called the reference I was worried about and asked them to only talk about the good parts of my employment. They said they would.

Now what HR might say is a different story. No idea and I have heard of people being burned by them. But that opens the company up to libel and slander lawsuits. Not smart on their part.

@djsumdog omg, I would have been so tempted to bang that professors wife and make sure he knew about it. lol

If someone accepts to be your reference and you've had a good (or just average) vibe with them, you can safely assume they will not shit-talk you!

But you might as well double check.

I've seen one person quit our company because they didn't get the role they wanted, our PM said they were rather annoyed with how that person behaved at the end. 6 months later they asked our PM to be their reference. The response was "OK...but just wanna let you know - I would be honest". And from what I heard they did kinda shit-talk by mentioning the person needed to "work on some things".

After hearing that I would check twice before picking a reference that is not fond of me.