Question

Negligent referral  Currently many employers only give basic information for references. Do you think employers should be held responsible for not warning a future employer (if contacted for reference) if they know that there are problems with the applicant (past employee) ? Why? please discuss it in detail

Answer 1

I don’t believe that employers should be held responsible if they are aware of problems with the applicant. This is because it would hurt the employment opportunities of the applicant and disallow them to progress from their previous job. An employee-employer relationship is unique as it arises from an interaction between distinct individuals in a specific organisational framework. The course of this interaction forms the basis in which the employer makes judgments about the employee. In my view, this judgement can be very subjective. Sharing one’s personal observations at length with a future employee would therefore present an inadequate and inaccurate image of the employee.