Can a negative reference affect my new job during probation?

[Lou2423]

Started a new job today and my boss has told me a reference has come back from my most recently employer, they had said I was dishonest.

i knew the incident they were referring too and explained the situation to new boss who seeme d understanding and said I had my probationary period to demonstrate my ability. She then said she was going to ask him to give further comments to the dishonesty part and I’m so scared he will ruin this new role for me - are they able to fire me because of this? I also had another reference she said was ‘glowing’

It depends entirely on the context and incident. If you stole something I’d be very concerned, if you weren’t honest about looking for a new job then I wouldn’t care. ‘Dishonest’ has a very broad base of possibilities

It sounds like they’re open to giving you a chance, but may be a bit more vigilant and cautious so I’d tread carefully. I’d also start job hunting just in case.

They can dismiss you for this, you may have some recourse against your former employer depending on if the reference was truthful . It sounds like it was so unlikely you can take action, but impossible to say on so little information. Give ACAS a ring as you can tell them all the details that you probably don’t want to post on a public forum.

Thank you both - I basically accidentally deleted an email from both my inbox and then deleted box (idiot), once I realised I had I was going to tell my manager the next morning as truthfully I was scared of his reaction but he had IT look through my inbox and it looked as if I had hard deleted it on purpose. When I explained it to him he essentially didn’t believe me

If it’s any consolation OP I think as an isolated incident that’s incredibly harsh and I certainly wouldn’t dismiss for it. Hope your new organisation is similarly understanding

He sounds horrible tbh. Was it a email for a contentious issue or evidence for something else though?

Just because someone says something about you doesn’t 1) mean it true and 2) mean everyone believes it. It’s hard to get your head around that well for me it was

What kind of email? Was it business critical? Seems like an overreaction to a fairly minor issue.

Those can be recovered easily. Once you delete from your deleted box they can still be recovered so I think we need to know why deleting it caused such a huge issue.

It was an email organising a catch up meeting with a supplier - the main issue is that he thought I lied and tried to cover my tracks which I can understand by what IT saw but it wasn’t the case

Then this is a big overreaction from him and if your employer is given a true representation then I expect they would think similarly. Try not to worry and just carry on doing a good job.

How long before had the email arrived? Was it something that had been on your to-do list for a while and never been actioned? If so it might look like you were embarrassed and wanted it to disappear, so the deletion was more convenient than accidental. All you can do is make sure you keep on top of your inbox and follow any response protocols.

The email had arrived to me the same day I sent it to the person, and it’s a mistake I admitted . I think the big issue as well is my boss went mental at the supplier for not responding to my email (a common theme with them) and then it turned out they did and he looked stupid, then it looked like I lied so he was just furious

I'd be taking legal action over that reference. Honestly the little Hitlers that ends up mangers

I’d be tempted to as well. It’s disgusting to try to ruin someone’s employment prospect for a very simple mistake.