Disappearing work referees

[Mich the Tester]

If I go back for into permidom for referernces - most of mine are dead

A fair number of mine are too...

One place was demolished & replaced with a housing estate.

Another one went bust.

One of the places I contracted at for a year went bust & is now a tyre retailer...

Another one has just been acquired.

A semiconductor manufacturer I worked for was bought by private equity (doomed doomed doomed).

AB A*t*m*t*ve were closed down.

The fruit machine company went bust...

There's a lot of it about.

Are you both applying to join Hezbollah or something?

[tim123]

For those occasions when you actually do want to give out referees, do you find difficulty in doing so because they are no longer available? They move on, or the organisation ceases to exist.

My wife is applying to go back to college to do an MA and needs two academic referees from just a few years ago but she can't even find her lecturers any more.

In my case, from most recent going backwards, the referee I would use:
1. is about to change jibs
2. has left
3. has left
4. has retired
5. has left
6. the business folded
7. the business ceased to exist
8. the agency merged into another and the referee retired
9. left and the business folded
10. the organisation has ceased to exist and the referee left
11. has retired
12. the business has ceased to exist

I have felt for some time the whole "referee" thing has been made meaningless by the mobile workforce concept and the rapidity of business takeovers.

What is your view / experience?

I think you do better than me.

Of my last 12 gigs, 8 of the companies have either gone bust or have completely closed down their UK offices, so you couldn't even get an HR reference from them (even if HR kept such details for contractors).

Though for the other 4 all my managers are still "in situ".

A friend of a friend was once offered a job by Oracle (as a senior "consultant"). And I was told that they wanted to to reference his complete CV. I would be knackered by such a request.

tim

[zara_backdog]

That would be mine for sure

I was offered a permi role before Xmas and they wanted references for my entire work career !

When I was a permieat ADT, they obtained by NI history - to track my employer NI contributions - you should have seen the size of the document

[Mich the Tester]

I was offered a permi role before Xmas and they wanted references for my entire work career !

What kind of freaks are they hiring? The only people who can provide positive references for every job they’ve ever had have either only had one job or are the kind of brown-nosed conformists that can’t possibly be of any use other than to service the HR department with analingus or approve dodgy deals involving over the top mortgages to unemployed chavs; precisely the type of people who’ve allowed businesses to get into the mess we’re in now.

[chicane]

Of my last 12 gigs, 8 of the companies have either gone bust or have completely closed down their UK offices, so you couldn't even get an HR reference from them (even if HR kept such details for contractors).

Bad news for references but great news if Hector ever wanted to do an IR35 investigation in relation to any of those gigs!

[expat]

What kind of freaks are they hiring? The only people who can provide positive references for every job they’ve ever had have either only had one job or are the kind of brown-nosed conformists that can’t possibly be of any use other than to service the HR department with analingus or approve dodgy deals involving over the top mortgages to unemployed chavs; precisely the type of people who’ve allowed businesses to get into the mess we’re in now.

I think you've got it.

[dang65]

My wife is applying to go back to college to do an MA and needs two academic referees from just a few years ago but she can't even find her lecturers any more.

Has she tried Facebook?

[gingerjedi]

1. is about to change jibs

Using a sailor as a reference is not good practice, they're never in.