Enough21

Long story short, my alcohol abuse infiltrated my work life and I resigned from a position. Although I desperately wanted to quit the job for quite some time, I would not have quit when I did if it weren’t for the drinking (it more likely that I resigned out of cowardess than anything else at the time, but I digress). I was in the position for only three months and I resigned over a year ago. Since this time, I sought help and thank God, it has been over ten months since my last drink. I am now beginning to apply for new positions and I fear the inevitable discussion of that job. How, or did you, address this past behavior with potential employers? TIA

yeahgr8

So i guess you are thinking ahead to the possibility of them contacting your previous employer with regards to a reference?

I would say that you had some personal stuff to deal with, stuff that life throws at you and it was just one of those things, and instead of trying to juggle the 2 balls at the same time you decided to do the right thing and resign your position in order to resolve your personal stuff as, thinking ahead, you did not want to end up taking a lot of time off and becoming a problem to your previous employer so you were straight up with them.

Now you have had the time to sort out your personal stuff and that is all resolved and are able to give a job 100% of your focus again and are looking for your next challenge in the work arena.

Something like that:-) If you gave notice when you quit your last job, even better...then you say that you gave notice in order for them to replace you.

You'd be surprised how people deal with ex-employees who have been a pain int he ass, i have given quite a few references, some have been to employees who are just awful...in the end i always say yeah great i'd take her/him back on no probs...

Funny story and lesson to learn here...i employed this girl and she was deadful, she openly berated the directors, would trun up late consistently and i did not like her one bit. She leaves and i'm in a taxi, get a phone call from a company...we have a mrs xxx who has applied to our company and we would like a reference...im like yeah cool no probs...HR says can you tell us about her, so i go off into this tirade of how great she is and how much i enjoyed working with her (she has 2 kids so she needs a job so wanted her to get it)....so after about 10 minutes i finish and then the HR says...oh, thats odd, because she said she didnt get on well with you at all and was worried that you would give her a bad reference...i burst out laughing, silly cow

FYI i have just eaten a kit kat mcflurry and feel sick:-(

ViciousCycle

Your past employers can not say anything bad about you, it would be a defamation of character. They can only state whether of not they would hire you back. You have the right to resign from a job and I don't think you owe them a deep, drawn out explanation. Just my opinion, keep it simple and undetailed. Congrats on 10 months!

Enough21

yeahgr8, I did not give notice, I left in a completely unprofessional manner. I was also under the impression that in order for a statement to be defamation, it had to be untrue. It is totally true that I was an active alcoholic and behaving like one.

smacked

The only thing past employers can do on a reference check is verified that you worked at the place of employment for the dates/times you said on your new application.

I was fired from a bunch of jobs because of my drinking and the behaviors that followed.. whenever I got a new job, I just let them know that I left because it wasn't a good fit for me anymore, or that I wanted to explore new opportunities. Period. It's no one's business otherwise.

DoneIn

Enough21, I recently resigned from a position that I had for a year. My alcoholism was getting in the way, and I had other issues going on as well. I went to the employer and basically left on the note that I was taking a leave of absence and would return when my personal issues were resolved. I have absolutely no intentions of returning, but thought this would help in my future endeavors employment-wise.

Like others have already said, employers can only verify dates of employment and whether or not you are rehireable.

yeahgr8

That's still not too bad, then just leave out the notice period bit that i posted...

You can also contact your old employer and go in and explain the situation and say what you have achieved, what you are doing etc...this would mean that you are not walking into the new job not knowing what the reference will be! That's step 9 if you are in AA:-)

It's nice to think that an employer just gives information like dates, work responsibilities, and whether they would rehire and that is all the new employer will get, but that is BS and does not work in the real world, reasons:

1. Employers know that if they receive a letter just stating the following, even if the previous employer says they would rehire without any further comments on that employee HR will flag this up as a potentially bad reference
2. A previous employer can refuse to give a reference or simply not reply to the request, once again flagged as a potential bad reference
3. Most HR depts will want to speak to people on the telephone for references wherein all the guidelines outlined in other posts go straight out of the window
4. Most medium/large size companies have a form that they use which will have stuff like rate from 1- 5 the employees attendance, work aptitude etc.

This is based on my experience of having employed a lot of people and having given a lot of references and knowing a lot of people that have given references and having a good working knowledge of HR depts worldwide.