Reference blunder?

[Fairygarden1992]

Recently a friend asked me to be a referee for a new post she was going for (I was her manager a couple of years ago previously). I said I would, I had to fill a out a bit in relation to her sickness absence, so I contacted HR for the information and weeks went past without a reply. My friend's new organisation were really insistent the reference be sent over as it was the only pre-employment check which was outstanding, so I asked her to go through her calendar and send me every sick day which she did (8 days in total). She has since taken up post. Today HR finally sent over her sickness absence information and she has a total of 80 days sickness in 3 years! I feel like a complete fool, surely this is fraud and my 'friend' knew what she was asking me to do. I feel like I acted in good faith and now this could possibly fall back on me?

I once gave a friend a reference. Later, she told me she'd lied on her CV about qualifications. Never ever again.

Did it ever come back on you?

You did a stupid thing OP.

Didn't you wonder why she was asking YOU and not her old HR department?

Why are you friends with this girl? Surely if you were friends, you would have known about her sickness absence record?

Not someone to remain friends with.

Her new employer won't do any more checks so you wont get into trouble but in future always direct them to the HR department.

I would do this too

I wouldn't necessarily jump to assuming a friend manipulated me. She can't have known the HR would be so slow to get back to you so I don't see how she could plan to fool you. I would assume that she had 8 days sick in the time she worked for you specifically and so that what she gave you.

Was her 80 days mostly in one block? People are acting outraged but loads of things could justify that. Broken bones, cancer, depression all very straightforward reasons for being off

Yep I would do this. Just say you were filing it away and noticed your mistake or something.

What difference does the reason behind the absence make? It's a statement of fact. If it's justifiable, she can justify it herself.

And yes, op, you'd be a complete fool not to rectify this.

I think you should simply have sent a reference saying that you only managed the person for a short period of time but that you were happy with her performance over that specific period and that you had no access to her overall sickness report so could not answer that question. Job done.

Could it be that your friend gave you a figure of 8 days because that is the number of sick days she had when you were managing her? I know it is still a bit naughty but after all you were not giving an official reference of behalf of the organisation, as you were not her most recent line manager, just a reference as an individual manager to describe her performance during the time she was under your leadership.

Frankly I would leave it. She might have had good reasons to take leave (illness, accident, mental health issues) and might not repeat the same pattern.

If the information is correct there are now two issues, her high rate of sickness coupled with her poor character in providing incorrect information for personal gain and placing you in a difficult situation professionally and personally. I don’t think this would be someone I would want as a friend. I would pass the information on to the employer and let her face the consequences.

Also to add I had the opposite problem once.

I applied a new role and HR sent a reference request that asked for my sickness record in the past year. My record was perfectly normal for that year.

Someone in HR or my former manager either maliciously or out of incompetence decided to instead send them my sickness record for the full duration of my employment which showed a sick leave of almost 3 months which the new potential employer of course queried. The leave was due to me having major surgery, an organ removed and needing recovery time. I was absolutely fuming. Thankfully the new employer once I explained the situation was happy to confirm the job offer.

But this shows that there are perfectly good reasons why someone might need sick leave and also I really did not appreciate having to share my medical history with the new employer because of HR's stupidity or the former manager's pettiness.

Since that incident I personally refuse as a manager to give details of sick leaves when a company asks for references from me. I just stick to performance and dates when I managed the person.

Fairy
Don't think from memory that she was offered the job. What really pissed me off is that she was so blasé about it. No sorry, nothing.

OP, I'd contact the firm saying that you've received the exact figure from HR and it's 80. Cover your arse and all that.

the 80 days in itself is not a huge issue as she may have broken her leg or had a hysterectomy or something that involved a few weeks recovery. If we had an application from someone with that much sick leave we would ask them about it directly and see what they said. The difficulty is then that you are not supposed to discriminate around protected disabilities so if mental health related or die to a long term disability, you could be advised of discrimination of you then turn them down for the job. It is difficult.
I have had half a day off work sick in last 5 years, but previous to that had a 4 month period off with a complicated fracture where I was non weight bearing for 3 of those months. You have to know detail for it to be meaningful.
Not sure what to suggest though in your circumstance. I was told this week by HR when I contacted them for some info for a reference, that only HR can respond to reference requests and ask they will send is dates of employment and sickness records. ( NHS) No one had told me so I have merrily been writing references for last few years!!

I have written a lot of references over the years - and yes, people have comes back to check on them sometimes. Not often, but it's not as easy as saying that nobody will check.

Personally I would agree with @GiltEdges - "in reviewing some paperwork I have just realised that I made a typo and felt that I ought to correct it". It looks very much like she put you down as the "employers reference", and that suggests deliberate obfuscation. But if not, then her line manager would have put the correct figure down and no harm done. And it's a lesson learned - if you are asked to write a reference you clarify the capacity in which the reference is being asked for, and write it in those terms; and check any facts independently.

I don't think I could avoid telling her that I knew she had lied to me and had corrected the mistake now with her employer - and let her sweat for a bit.

Why? It's not going to affect OP in any way!

For all you know this woman was maybe sick for 2 months with something serious, or had an accident.

Maybe she gave OP individual sick days rather than all events. Literally why would you even care.

Next time, OP, you're allowed to just fill in some info, not all - you can say you only managed someone for x time and during that time their absence levels were fine.

I've never heard of references listing specific number of sick days taken - it's really not necessary, were all human and as long as she didn't take the piss that OP would have known of, it's a non issue.

Cover her arse from what? OP isn't even legally obligated to provide a reference in the first place. What do you think is going to happen, they're going to find her and throw eggs at her house or something?

Isn't the issue here what capacity you gave the reference in?

In future if it isn't as a representative of your current company you state as I am no longer an employee of company X I am giving this reference in a personal capacity and then say what she was like as a worker. For all other details say please check with the company who will hold such records.

You should have checked. Sure she was dishonest which is not good, but it's your name next to the reference. Instead of going back to her you should have gone back to the requester and said I am waiting for Hr to confirm I will send it through as soon as I have that information. They could then either wait or they could take a chance and forgo the reference. As is I wouldn't do anything now.

No one’s going to check.

Chill out

Why would anyone have a record of how many sick days they took a few years ago?

I would forget about it op, don't contact her employer! You could mention it to your friend though as there could be an innocent explanation that your friend can explain to help you understand the confusion. For example, I was off for 6 weeks with covid, very unwell. My employer told me that did not contribute to my sickness record, so if asked about my sickness absence in the last 3 years I would say none. However I can't be sure HR wouldn't include it in a situation like you describe, therefore perhaps they would tell you 6 weeks after I told you none.

Wait and see what she says.