Question
I was civilian staff over 12 years ago. I was sacked and they will give me a bad reference but what will that look like?
Background
I was sacked 12 years ago. I worked in a role very successfully for 5 years, got a promotion, and after 2 months in that I was put on an improvement plan. The plan lasted 1 month and I was sacked. Not gross misconduct. I was just out of my depth in the new role (think along the lines of not working fast enough).
I had an impeccable record until then.
During the plan month I tried to do my job well but will admit that during meetings with my manager and HR I had a bad attitude and was unprofessional. I didnt do or say anything personal, think more slamming doors, being argumentative etc.
The reference they provided a few months later was an absolute character assination designed to prevent me from ever getting another job. It was personal and nasty.
I had a side hustle who they also decided to write to for no reason and they got me sacked from that too. It had nothing to do with them and there was no reason for them to do it. They didnt have a duty to inform them, it wasnt dependent on police checks or anything like that. They just decided to do get me sacked.
I am aware that employers can write what they like as long as it's factual. I was stil too fragile to challenge it at the time but ithe reference was at best misleading, if not inaccurate. It also ignored the previous "good" 5 years completely. I remember it said that I (quote) "was incapable of working in any professional enviroment" and that I had a significant negative impact on the whole force (as if admin staff have that much power!).
Since then I've had 2 other jobs and have managed to avoid using the police reference again. Although Ive always been honest about it when asked.
But now, there is a job I want to apply for that asks for 20 years of references!!! So I cant just ignore the police. I can explain about being sacked, what I learned and would do differently etc but if they send the same reference again, Id be screwed.
GDPR suggests they shouldnt have my dismissal files now. Presumably that means they won't have a copy of that reference to send. Does that mean that all they could is just confirm the dates I worked there?
To be clear, if they were to send the reference now, Id be ready to challenge it. However, I also like my current job and I'm a bit scared that drawing attention to myself will risk them writing to my current employer like the did with the side hussle. Again, Id fight that now but I dont want to risk it.
I am thinking about SARS but again, Im just concerned that it will trigger something.
Probably irrational but given what HR did previously I think it's a reasonable worry.