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Employers
must be careful when responding to reference calls about a shiftless
crook of an employee you fired.You'll be in the difficult situation of wanting to tell the truth, but also worrying about being sued for defamation¹.
If you blatantly lie, you are liable for damages the new employer
suffers on your recommendation. We learn to walk a fine line, like this
call I took some while ago.
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Yes,
this is S. H. Long, how may I help? Phil Jones? Yes, I'm pleased to
say that he is a former colleague of mine. Uh-huh. Well, people
like Phil are hard to find, he's definitely a man to watch. Oh,
yes, I'd recommend giving him sweeping responsibilities.
Awards? Well, while he worked for us he was given numerous
citations. Would I hire him again? Oh, goodness, we're just a
small business; I doubt I'll ever be able to afford Phil again.
Well, it's been my pleasure. Tell Phil that not a day goes by that we don't think of him. .
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While not strictly correlative, I can see in my mind's eye Sun Times columnist Lynn Sweet
getting a call from Brock Obama, instructing her to print something
along the lines of "10 things to know about Bill Ayers. A primer."
On the one hand, she knows all Chicago is aware of Ayers's terrorist
past, radical presence, and relationship with BHO. But, since
sycophants never see themselves as shameless ass-lickers, Sweet
will want to protect what she thinks is her pristine reputation as an objective
journalist, while protecting her free-pass to Obama's sweet butt (and
her knee caps). Item's 9 & 10 are jewels of this discipline.
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