Forced to resign

[milehighfraud]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Georgia.

Is it possible to impose a gag order that allows a university/HR Department to confirm employment and salary but say nothing else?

Details:
I was employed (brought in from the state of Colorado) by a GA state university from 8-1-2011 to November 15, 2011 when I was unexpectedly brought into the Director of Human Resources office and told I could resign, work on a filler assignment for the last two weeks of the month and be paid a final paycheck or be terminated and leave that day with no further pay. I chose to resign, finish the filler assignment and be paid for the rest of November. I was told the reason for this was- "Well, uhhh, because you, uhhh don't get things done and uhhh, dont', uhhh get along with others, you can resign or be terminated." There had been instances where my supervisor had come to me and said you need to do this now and I did, but if these were warnings, it was never clearly stated. This happened within the six-month probation period and I realize I have no recourse regarding my forced resignation.

However, during my short employment I was denied part of my moving expenses because no one could agree on a policy regarding pay out of pocket and be reimbursed, direct bill the moving company etc. After constant questioning and asking for a decision/interpretation/policy to be made, I was finally told in pre-meeting chat I had better talk to the VP of Finance myself. I did not further pursue the issue, as it had caused tension and I was afraid it would reflect negatively on me as an employee. Also, my supervisor allowed inappropriate sexually toned conversations to happen twice without a proper reprimanding the offender(s), participated in hostile office gossip that extended to alumni volunteers and admitted to being the type of person to fly by the seat of his pants and not make plans. For fear of adding to the tension and not having a confidentail and unbiased person to go to (including HR), I did not report this.

Bottomline, this was a hostile environment where the university, my supervisor, co-workers and alumni volunteers accused me of being a liar before even meeting me, used everything I said and did to build a case against me, behaved unprofessionally/inappropriately and thusly made it impossible for me to succeed. I realize there is nothing I can do legally, as being unprofessional, inappropriate, gossipy and incompetent is not a crime. I have openly and honestly evaluated my part and short comings in this and have learned much. I've moved back to Colorado and I am trying to move on, but I'm concerned about potential employers speaking to my former supervisor at the university. I know he would not be fair, honest or admit his role in the situation.

 

[eerelations]

Extremely unlikely. Unless you have a signed and witnessed document from the supervisor stating that he is going to say this lie and that lie about you to prospective employers, then you really don't have any factual knowledge that he indeed is going to provide false negative information about you. And you won't have that knowledge until he actually does it.

In other words, you can't file a claim against someone for doing something he hasn't actually done yet.

All you can do is wait and see what happens. If he does what you suspect he will do and you suffer damages from this (i.e., you don't get the job), then you can sue him.

And note - I've been in HR for more than 20 years and when I'm reference-checking, a HUGE red flag for me is when former employers refuse to say anything about the candidate except to confirm employment and pay. In HR this is called a "name, rank and serial number reference" and in HR-code it usually means "Don't hire this person." This may not be something you want this former employer to be conveying to future reference-checkers.

 

[Beth3]

Is it possible to impose a gag order that allows a university/HR Department to confirm employment and salary but say nothing else?

Only a court of law can issue a gag order. Not being happy about the information that might be shared in a reference is not something you can take to a judge.

Also, my supervisor allowed inappropriate sexually toned conversations to happen twice without a proper reprimanding the offender(s) Two suggestive conversation does not constitute sexual harassment.

, participated in hostile office gossip that extended to alumni volunteers and admitted to being the type of person to fly by the seat of his pants and not make plans. That makes him a bad boss but that's it.

For fear of adding to the tension and not having a confidentail and unbiased person to go to (including HR), I did not report this. That was your choice but since nothing illegal was happening, your employer wouldn't have been obligated to intervene even had you reported it.

this was a hostile environment where the university, my supervisor, co-workers and alumni volunteers accused me of being a liar before even meeting me, Under the law, a HWE only exists where there is a pervasive atmosphere of prohibited discrimination. (e.g. wide-spread harassment due to gender or race.)

I realize there is nothing I can do legally You are correct.

but I'm concerned about potential employers speaking to my former supervisor at the university. I know he would not be fair, honest or admit his role in the situation. You can't prevent a former employer from providing factually true information or giving their honest opinion about your performance to other employers if contacted for a reference.

 

[swalsh411]

OP sounds like a troublemaker. "I'm new here and I'm going to create all sorts of problems!". I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did.

 

[eerelations]

OP sounds like a troublemaker.

As evidenced by his behaviour here, too.