Can my previous employer contact my current employer and say bad things about me? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Can my previous employer contact my current employer and say bad things about me?

W

www.MotoMondo.ca

Member
No motorcycle content- but I need an opinion please

Merry Christmas to all!

I am on vacation (out of the country) and just checked my email, and I may have a problem and I don’t know how to deal with. Over the last couple of days, my previous employer (I quit this job 5 months ago) sent me a couple of emails asking me to call them asap to clear some issue, that as far as I know, has nothing to do with me (but no details were included in the emails, so I am in the dark, do not fully understand the problem, or why they want to talk to me).

In the second email my previous boss is warning me (actually, it sounds like a threat) that if I don’t call him he will contact my current employer (my previous boss met my current boss at a seminar or conference, connected through linkedin or whatever, so they happen to know each other)

So… Can my previous employer contact my current employer and say bad things about me? Without giving me a chance to understand the problem first?

* English is not my first language, so I do not want to call unless I understand the problem first --- communication over the phone is not my preference
* Also, I do not fully understand all my legal rights. Can he call my current employer and accuse me of anything he pleases? Is there any labour law protecting me? Or is it defamation law? or what?
* If I actually did something wrongly, shouldn't he be suing me or something by now? It sounds like he has a problem, but has no evidence or explanation of how it happened, and somehow he wants to blame it on me!

What should be my first step? I do not want to go back to work next week, and see that my current boss doesn't trust me anymore, for something I did not do!

Thank you all
 
Call your current employer and see where the crap has fallen out. don't admit to anything,just ask questions. Then you can plan from there. He says, she says is all hearsay, they can say what they want to each other!
 
Did you use your previous employeer as a refrence and he or she gave you a good one? And now becuase something has happened at your previous place of employment and now he or she is trouble wants to call up your present employer and say something bad about you? If your present boss is a good one, he will just brush of what your old emplyeer has to say and think he is an idot. ( Which he is )

No your old employer does not have the "legal" right to, but if the know each other and are not professional, then they may, but it would be worth a grain of salt.
 
just email your ex-boss and ask him to put his question in writing so there's no misunderstandings. You need information at this stage before deciding how to proceed.

Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk 2
 
dcx135 said:
just email your ex-boss and ask him to put his question in writing so there's no misunderstandings. You need information at this stage before deciding how to proceed.

Sent from my Nexus One using Tapatalk 2
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+1 to that.

You've taken time from your vacation to post this why not fire off an email explaining your on vacation and will be back on a certain date and will call then. Plus ask If they could explain in advance by email what this is about.
 
It's a free country so anyone can talk to anyone. However if they libel someone they can be sued. What will happen depends on what the old boss has on you and how much influence that information has on your present job. It all depends on how secure you feel. A phone call from out of the country is still a lot cheaper than a lawyer.
 
If your old boss tells your new boss anything that shows you in a negative manner and it effectives your current job/career path. The old company can be liable and you can sue them.

My company (big five bank) doesn't even do job references because they can be held liable if you speak negatively about someones character. For internal references, they only say whether the candidate would be a good job fit or not. You can't go into detail i.e. he's late often, I think he was calling in sick too much etc.
 
www.MotoMondo.ca said:
Over the last couple of days, my previous employer (I quit this job 5 months ago) sent me a couple of emails asking me to call them asap to clear some issue, that as far as I know, has nothing to do with me (but no details were included in the emails, so I am in the dark, do not fully understand the problem, or why they want to talk to me).
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No problem Mr Former boss, my consulting rate is $150/hour with a 4 hour minimum. I would be happy to discuss any issues you require my assistance with once I receive payment.
 
dcx135 said:
just email your ex-boss and ask him to put his question in writing so there's no misunderstandings. You need information at this stage before deciding how to proceed........
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++1. You can communicate through email. You're not avoiding him at all; you just want to communicate in writing. No need to phone him at all, esp. at this stage. It's easy to get sucked into saying something you regret esp. if English isn't your first language.

p.s. It's legal for one party to a phone call to record the call without permission from the other party.
 
strictlye said:
If your old boss tells your new boss anything that shows you in a negative manner and it effectives your current job/career path. The old company can be liable and you can sue them.

My company (big five bank) doesn't even do job references because they can be held liable if you speak negatively about someones character. For internal references, they only say whether the candidate would be a good job fit or not. You can't go into detail i.e. he's late often, I think he was calling in sick too much etc.
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While it is true that some employers will not provide a reference due to concerns with liability, that doesn't make it a reasonable practice. There's no reason that I can't provide a reference, if requested and authorized, to a potential employer. If you have a record of poor attendance, your potential employer will hear about it. Nothing wrong with that. It's just that the person (and the company) has to stand behind what they say.

And, as a hiring manager, if I don't get a positive reference from a current supervisor, I'm not hiring you.

For the OP, there's nothing preventing your previous employer with sharing information about you, so long as what they are saying is true and is not priveleged. If it is true, and is going to affect you negatively, you may want to consider discussing the facts with your curent employer before they find out from someone else.
 
Its illegal to ask someone to do something and if they don't do it they will suffer consequences, it's called entrapment and its illegal in Canada.
 
If it were me in that position, I'd call/email your current boss and give him the heads-up that your old boss is up to something, but that you don't have any details about what it is.

It may be a "fishing expedition" - an attempt to get you to admit that you have done something that violates an employment contract that you had at the previous employer, for example. This has happened to me, but because of the relationship between the various parties, we knew this was a possibility, and we had already consulted with an employment lawyer and followed his advice. The previous employer's nasty letter was responded to with a letter from our lawyer (basically stating our position that we had done nothing wrong, and to please provide details of the alleged infraction so that we may respond), and that was as far as it went - we received no response.
 
The two bosses are aquainted but are they buddies, enemies or neutral?

Was your ex boss a demanding control freak when you worked for him or is this out of character?

Was your position one that would affect as security or audit issue?

The big problem here is not knowing the facts and the real downside is that if you end up in trouble caused by the ex-boss the recourse is legal and expensive. Lawsuits suck the life and money out of you.

If you are very suspicious of the motives have a lawyer write a letter on your behalf asking the nature of the enquiry. Or email your exboss with a conspicuous copy to a promenent lawyer.
 
I believe your old boss can make negative comments about you but at the same time, if THOSE COMMENTS cost you your job, you can sue him for character deformation and wrongful accusation. If he cant prove it, you win the case. Again, your new boss has to admit that firing you is because of your old boss's comments.
 
g2teg said:
Its illegal to ask someone to do something and if they don't do it they will suffer consequences, it's called entrapment and its illegal in Canada.
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Actually the correct term would be extortion or, more colloquially, blackmail.

From this point onward all communications should be in written form; either email or written letter. If he has left voicemail messages on your phone then you want to save recordings of them.
 
ashkan said:
I believe your old boss can make negative comments about you but at the same time, if THOSE COMMENTS cost you your job, you can sue him for character deformation and wrongful accusation. If he cant prove it, you win the case. Again, your new boss has to admit that firing you is because of your old boss's comments.
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The catch is that the new boss who would have had to admit taking bad advice. He could get involved in a legal mudfest and end up wearing some of the mud. Since he would have already have done damage the clean up would be messy. Unless the new boss has serious ethics he might take the easy low road.
 
All good advice so far in this thread.

The worst that can happen is your old boss says bad things that are not true about you to your new boss and you lose your job. If that happens, then you can take your old boss to court if you can afford a lawyer while you have no job. So be careful what you say and what you email!

Keep all communication in email or writing. NO (ABSOLUTELY NO!!!!!!!!!!) Phone calls to your old boss.

Do make learning english a priority if you plan to continue doing business in that langauge. I really hope that your lack of english understanding does not hurt your employment or future, so do take classes for English. There are MANY places you can take English as a second language courses. In court, lack of understanding an official language is NOT an excuse, there is no forgiveness if you are ignorant of one of the two official languages of Canada. So do not rely on that or use it as a crutch, it will not help you.
 
Rob MacLennan said:
Actually the correct term would be extortion or, more colloquially, blackmail.

From this point onward all communications should be in written form; either email or written letter. If he has left voicemail messages on your phone then you want to save recordings of them.
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Thanks for the correction. I knew it started with an "e" lol.
 
This reminds me of a funny story with former/new employers.
I had a great relationship with my boss. He left for a new organization. A year later, his replacement called me into a meeting one day and said there was no longer a place for me in the organization, due to a reorganization and changes in the existing position. After some negotiation (I had a very good record), we came to a reasonable settlement and I was bound to confidentiality by that agreement.
Shortly thereafter, I sought and gained employment with - you guessed it - the organization my old boss had moved to. Ironically, the organization I left provided services under contract to my new employer, and it was my responsibility to evaluate those services and report not only to our board, but a higher regulatory authority. I was very specific about the shortcomings of the services offered, and as a courtesy we provided a copy to the organization before filing it officially.
The president of said company, never a fan of mine (I found out later the from the time my new boss started, she had been assigned the task of getting rid of me. It took her a year.), called my current boss and said in a voice mail that it was "inappropriate for someone who had been fired to be conducting the review." Since the terms of my leaving were confidential, and it was never stated that I was "fired", this was not a comment or thought that he should have been sharing. He got a call from my current employer to say that his outburst was not welcome, and a cease and desist letter from my lawyer that threatened action if he made any such comment about my employment record again. Apparently he took that seriously, because I never heard anything like it again and I didn't lighten up until they improved service ironically, after he had been fired.
 
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