Worried about Reference after dismissal for illness

[Bluekeeker]

Hi

Would appreciate any advice on this

My DH started working for organisation A in 2006. Excellent performance ratings etc but became ill in about 2012 with a chronic thyroid condition. He struggled with this for a year or two with medication and then decided to surgically resolve which was not successful initially. In 2014 he went on long term sick leave and never returned to work - he recovered in 2017/2018 and has been a sahd since then.

He was engaged in a process with HR but they kept requesting him to have medical assessments with their doctor (not a thyroid specialist) who would then say he was fit to work and to return with a week of half days and then full time. He found this extremely stressful and in retrospect really should have resigned. He did not engage with HR anymore after 2016 as he was too unwell (I wasn't aware of this) and eventually he was dismissed in 2017 or so (we think) his memory is very hazy.

He is now fully recovered and has interviewed for and gotten a job offer. He described 2013 to 2021 as a period spent raising his family - did not disclose illness on cv.

He has been offered an excellent role but we are quite worried about references. He has one excellent referee but who no longer we works for that company so unfortunately we will need a statement of work from the HR dept I think as this role is looking for two references.

If you work on HR what kind of a reference would you give in this scenario? If he rang and explained circumstances do you think it would make a difference? He is landing on being completely honest on the medical and disclosing his illness.

Thanks

It’s more than likely they’ll just give dates of employment and job title or something, really basic. The problem is less likely to be a negative reference and more likely to be the fact your DH’s information he’s given the new employer won’t tie up- he’s led them to believe he hasn’t been employed since 2013 and the reference from the employer will confirm that that isn’t true, and he was in fact employed for another four years after that.

You must have some paperwork to show when he finished working for the previous company and that is the date from which he should have declared himself as a SAHD. His reference is likely to only state start and finish dates and basic information such as job title but as previous poster pointed out the dates are not going to match - by years! I think you are going to have to come up with a reasonable explanation for that.

Thanks both - I think we'll just have to try to go with a single reference from his previous manager (his previous company was bought out so we can fudge that slightly) and see if we can get a statement of employment from his employer before that. But have feeling this job is not going to work out which is a shame

Sorry, but it was very foolish of him to have said he was a SAHD from 2013. The most basic reference from his employer then is going to expose that as a lie, and inevitably reveal that he didn't part from that employer on good terms.

The previous employer may simply give a factual references of "employed X year to y year" or they may include "terminated for capability y date", all of which would be entirely factual. It will depend on the organisation's standard policy and none of us here can predict what it is.

He told a lie and the most cursory check is going to reveal it. He would have been better to be upfront and say that he ended his relationship with the company in [Year], but he had suffered health problems and been on leave from [Preceding Year].