[Porsche-O-Phile]

Problem is, you can't say anything negative about someone on a "reference call" (not legally anyway) or else run the risk of getting sued. All you can do is verify employment dates - and a lot of people damn well know it, especially if they have the potential to claim discrimination based on minority status, gender, whatever. It's a big problem. If they get a good enough lawyer, they can make life VERY uncomfortable for a former employer.

Also consider this scenario (happened at a place my wife used to work) - employee "X" gets let go (the termination was presented to her as a "downsizing" scenario to avoid a confrontation, but the reality was the person had been underperforming, hence the reason for the "downsizing", if you get my drift). When leaving, Employee "X" asked if she could have a reference, which management said they would provide. The former employee immediately turned around and sued the company for wrongful termination, using the fact that management was willing to provide her with a reference as "evidence" that she was a valuable employee that never should have been let go in favor of some other individual. The girl won the case. Scary, but that's where the laws are today.

What happens "off the record" is another story, but it's a very real concern in today's business climate. A former boss of mine told me over a beer once that he'd received a call about a former employee (slacker) by another office. When asked, "can you verify that John Doe worked for you from MM/YY to MM/YY", he paused and said, "I can verify that I had him on my payroll for that period of time, but I can't verify that he WORKED here during that time - draw your own conclusions about what that means". Too funny.