Letter of recommendation

E Hammer

We let an employee go last week and he asked for a letter of recommendation and I'm looking for some input as to what to include in the letter.

The employee has had some personnel conflicts in the past and that was the primary reason he was let go -- last fall he threatened to hit one of our project managers on a jobsite. We are a highway construction company that runs 5-6 person crews so employees need to be able to do labor work along with truck driving and/or equipment operation (they are told this up front when they are hired). This employee was always telling everyone how he was an equipment operator and not a laborer and would do what he could to about doing labor work on the job.

The employee also had a work comp injury to his knee. He ended up having the knee scoped in February and was just returned to full duty work in December after having a job fitness evaluation done that basically said he wasn't in as much pain as he said and was able to do more than he was letting on. We did accommodate his light duty requirements prior to his return to full duty.

We don't want to give him a glowing recommendation but aren't sure what to include.

Thanks for any guidance you can give me.

LarryC

Since he has at least one instance of threatening violence on the job, I would refuse to write him a letter of recommendation. I say this because there is no way I could recommend him to anybody else. Plus if he attacked someone on his new job, I wouldn't want any liability coming back to me.

ray a

Would you hire this person back? If the answer is no, why recommend him to someone else?

HRCalico

Is it a common practice that you write letters of recommendation? Regardless, I agree with Larry - I would not give a letter. Personality conflicts to me aren't the hugest deal because I have found a handful of people over the years that I have been unable to work with. However, I handled those situations without ANY threats of violence! I'm guessing you didn't really document or write him up for the inappropriate behavior. If you did, reference it in your conversation with him.

Or, if not writing a letter is not an option for whatever reason, I might suggest writing an employment verification letter -

(date)

To Whom it May Concern:

Mr. Sam Jones was employed by XYZ Co. from (hire date) to (term date) as an equipment operator which included the following duties:

1) operating such and such pieces of equipment
2) performing minor maintenance on such and such pieces
3) refusing to do anything else.

Sincerely,
E Hammer
Human Resources
XYZ Company

OK, I'd leave out #3, but I'd probably type it in and hit print once then run it through the shredder before leaving it out on the final draft. Really, though, I can't imagine it to be common practice for you to write recommendation letters of employees that you have let go. Good luck!

pork1

E Hammer: Be factual and if you can not do that do not provide one at all. A letter of referral could come back to haunt you should something go seriously wrong at the new position, like violence in the work place.

A general letter of recommendation could be a letter that lands someone a position of responsibility, where something goes wrong; believe me they will be wanting to pin the blame on someone and your letter might just be what they are looking for. Facts, Facts, facts, and nothing else but the facts are the watch words.

PORK

jitrbug

The first question as noted above is..is it common for you to write letters of recom for EVERYONE? If you write it for one (whether good or bad) and then not others you could be setting yourself up when not treating everyone equally. We have a policy that we do not write letters of recom except for a layoff situation and then only to verify the employment info and to state the situation was a reduct in force. If you have to write the letter, then just keep it to employment verification as recommended. We also do not give out any further info on verification of employment inquiries other than name, date of hire, date of term and last title with us on EVERYONE. We tell them it is our policy not to release further info so we do not answer the rehire question, even if we have the ee's permission. Then we are not releasing any info (whether asked or implied)that could be viewed as defamatory on anyone.

E Wart

I think letters of recommendation are worth just about the paper they are written on. You can go to the homeless man on the street and ask him to write you one. With computers and printing today, you can make up letter head stationary.
I make it a practice to not write letters of recommendation for anyone. If a manager wishes to do so, he can do it as a "friend" and not on letter head. If employee wants recommendation, have the new employer call you. The only time I have provided these is when our office was actually closing and no one would be there to be reached. What we did was a "letter of explanation". We explained the dates the employee had been with us, what their job duties were, any skills/talents they used on the job, and why they were no longer employed. I also gave my personal/home number or manager did so that the person could find us if they needed us. (Can throw in comment on attendance if you wish). Never did we say that the person was recommended. (We don't even know what the person was applying for so how can you recommend them.)
E Wart

CindyG

The only letter I would write is as some mentioned above, an employment verification letter that just verified position and dates of service.

Paul in Cannon Beach

I would write a letter of "explanation" as well and avoid any wording that could be construed as a recommendation.

E Wart is right. Letters of recommendation don't mean much. If an applicant hands me four or five letters of recommendation, it just makes my "nut radar" go off. I think a percentage of letters are written by employers who just want the ee to go away.

Whatever

As a rule, we never give out any but factual information (date of hire, date of termination). We do give out any opinions (ie on a scale of 1-5, employee was cooperative).