Do they only confirm dates of employment and titles/salaries or has anyone known of an instance where they shared more (like reason for termination)? Thanks!
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i was laid off earlier this year and was able to find a new role externally within 60 days of my notice. my current company was only informed of my start date and my most recent title.
If a future employer chooses to reach out, Tgt will only confirm dates of employment. If you have a good relationship with any leaders or peers you can and should use them as a personal reference. But a company with 400k employees isn't spending time going over a former TMs performance review with a future employer.
@fr ah, being fired, no, just dates. Laid off... dont worry about it.
Doesnt matter anyway, if you havent been laid off, have you really worked in corporate america? It's not a scarlet letter, it's just business. ;)
@ay Not true. What a former employer says is heavily constrained by defamation, privacy, and employment law.
@a5 no there are no federal guidelines, restrictions or rules around what a prior employer can share with a prospective future employer. That being said, any large employer with a robust legal team will have internal guidelines regarding this so as to limit defamation or slander based litigation; this can even include comments regarding a prior employees eligibility for rehire. Most will simply confirm dates of employment.
When I worked in the field all HR did was confirm the dates someone was employed there. There was no discussion about performance or even why they left. Often times the TM was terminated and, again, all we (Target) did was confirm the dates of employment.
@OP Federal law does not prohibit employers from sharing the reason for a termination, although many companies are cautious about doing so to avoid potential defamation lawsuits from former employees. Some states do have laws that regulate what information an employer can disclose. For MN - I found this: https://codes.findlaw.com/mn/labor-industry-ch-175-189/mn-st-sect-181-967/#:~:text=Causes%20of%20action%20limited.,in%20the%20employee%27s%20personnel%20record.
While former employers can give opinions on job performance, they must be truthful to avoid defamation lawsuits, and so for the most part, they just give dates of employment, titles, job description to avoid any liability.
Extra reads:
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/can-employers-find-out-if-you-were-fired
https://www.snagajob.com/blog/post/can-an-employer-disclose-that-you-were-fired
There are strict federal laws that dictate what employers can and can't share.