..in wanting to see what they say about me?

[Aldora]

Any HR here?
I've been for a couple of jobs lately and everything went extremely well, yet after they get references, I just don't hear back, even when they say they will call
Can I ask to see references or is this a red flag towards me?
Are they even allowed to write a bad reference these days?

Who are you putting down for your referee? Is it someone you trust?

I once worked in an office where the referee gave the woman a really nasty reference. Not in writing though, he asked them to ring him. That poor woman was putting down an old boss who agreed to be a referee but was just Slagging her off. I wanted to warn her but couldn't 😕

I just gave my last place of work. Boss wasn't vindictive I don't believe, but they didn't want me to leave - had to because they didn't make adjustments for my neuro diversity, so I left for my mental health

I would ring the people who gave the reference and ask if you can see it then

No, I am not doing that! I left 13 months ago and haven't been in contact with anyone there at all.

I need to know if a company (government run) can actually give bad references - hence my query about anyone in HR helping

What was your sickness record like? Were you ever put on a performance plan?

On the bad reference thing, it’s a bit of a fallacy that you are unable to give a ‘bad reference.’

Companies are able to give a factual reference, so they can make statements such as ‘Candidate took x amount of sickness days in a 12 month period.’ Which could potentially read as being bad to a new employer.

Of course they can give a bad reference - what would be the point of asking, otherwise?

Many companies choose not to - e.g. they will only confirm that someone worked there between the given dates, but won't express an opinion on them. They choose to do that to limit their risk - if they say something that you consider discriminatory or untrue, they can get in trouble. But they can say something factual, like "she asked for special adjustments which we didn't deem reasonable, and then she resigned". That could make you sound difficult to a new employer.

The Acas website has a page about bad references.

Its a myth that a company can't give a bad reference. A company can give a factual reference. If that contains negative information then that's fine as long as they have some evidence to back it up. For example, if you were dismissed for stealing, and there is video footage of you helping yourself from the till, and a police report, then they can put that in a reference. If you had 27 days off sick in two months of working there, and they have that documented, then they can put that in the reference.

They can also refuse to give a reference at all, that can sometimes be interpreted negatively.

What they can't do is give a negative reference which they have no proof for, and if they did that, you could potentially take some sort of legal action against them.

If you want to see what is in the references your employer has written, you can make a subject access request to your former employer. You could also ask the hiring manager who was doing the recruitment to send you what they received.

Most companies will only give job title and dates of employment on a reference. If they do write something, it has to be factual but it can be a minefield hence the basic data is safer to send.

Government departments are very factual about references, X worked here from this date to that date as a whatever you did. Then a bit about attendance, did you have a lot of sick leave?

@BleachedJumper I had absolutely no sick at all, and no performance plan issued.
@katmarie No stealing or anything like that! I was always in on time, I did my work, I can't think of anything except they didn't want me to go as it was a very busy office. I actually stayed an extra month to help them.