How to Repond to Reference Check

[TexRef]

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Stick to the facts, like employment dates, salary, etc. Don't give your personal opinion on anything.

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[ua1176]

based on what i know about the law (and i am not a lawyer so whatever)....you open yourself up for some liability if you say anything negative.

if you want to say somethign positive, say so.
if not, just mention facts. "this person did indeed work for me from (start date) to (end date) in the position of (job title).

[That Foreign Guy]

I've been on both sides of the reference check (not in the US). Most people know that a refusal to say something positive is in fact saying something negative even though you're not really allowed to.

Eg:

"Susan worked for me from November to March as an analyst"
"Can you comment on her work ethic?"
"I would prefer not to"
"OK thanks"

[garcia1000]

Say that your company policy forbids you from commenting positively or negatively. Confirm work dates. Hang up.

[luckyjimm]

"If you can get X to work for you, you'll be very lucky indeed!"

[TheDudeAbides]

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Say that your company policy forbids you from commenting positively or negatively. Confirm work dates. Hang up.

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This is the policy at my company.

[Mike Gallo]

I did not read any other answers, so this may seem redundant.

Give the dates the employee worked for you. Tell the person asking that the employee did his job as required. Would you hire the person again?

Answer the questions truthfully based on your first hand knowledge of this former employee,not gossip from coworkers.

[tuq]

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Say that your company policy forbids you from commenting positively or negatively. Confirm work dates. Hang up.

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This is the policy at my company.

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God I hate that crap, it's just another example of why lawyers and litigious-happy losers suck and ruin it for the rest of us.

Reference checks are retarded anyway, typical HR busywork - who is going to give out the name of someone who will speak badly of them? Well, in the time I've been doing this there actually ARE a handful of times where I've gotten a poor reference, and it's always LOL when they get thrown under the bus.

But the "'no comment' assumes a negative" thing is a good policy. I'll say to them "but if they did a good job for you, then you'll be doing them a favor by sharing that with me!" This rarely works because I think they are only not commenting because they don't have anything good to say.

OP, is there some reason that you weren't gender-specific in your post. It's like you went out of your way to avoid pronouns. "This person", etc.

[luckyjimm]

OP changed his post. Originally it was clear it refers to a woman.

[NickMPK]

You are considering basing your reference off gossip after you left the company? If the employee did a good job while she was working for you, I don't understand why you wouldn't give her a decent reference.