The Recommendation

I took a day off a few weeks ago to get some baby errands done. During my random tasks, I got a text message from my boss asking if I knew a certain someone because they had applied for a job on my team. This was quite a horrible flash from the past. My boss asked if I had any comments about the person.

As much as I wanted to be kind and think about karma, I couldn’t lie. I responded saying “I have nothing nice to say about” that particular person. So my boss said, we would talk when I was back in the office. I felt conflicted about being honest because I don’t want to keep anyone from getting a job. But I couldn’t lie and give this person a good recommendation when they didn’t do a single thing to deserve it. And in lying, if this person were hired, I’d be creating very real problems for my team.

Finally the moment of truth came and I spoke with my boss. I told her the background of how I knew this person and the reasons why I couldn’t give my blessing to his being hired. She was very open-minded and accepted all I had to say. I told her that I felt bad but I knew that adding him to the team would be detrimental as we would all have to pick up his slack (provided he hadn’t changed in the least since I worked with him). My feeling was that he definitely didn’t change much because I couldn’t understand why he would even mention that we worked together. I thought it was pretty clear how much I disliked him and thought he was a useless member of my former team. Goes to show you that some people can’t read other people at all.

When I mentioned all of this to a former co-worker and friend, he gave me kudos for being honest. He said it was the right thing to do because it was the truth. This guy in question  really made my life miserable for almost a year because he had no initiative, couldn’t figure anything out on his own or  even with many job aides and spoke badly about people behind their backs. I found that I had to work extra hours to fix his mistakes at probably half the salary. It made me very angry then and even thinking about it now, I seethe. 

On top of that, my boss had mentioned that someone we work with had worked with this person. And I reminded her of our feelings for  this work colleague and she said ‘You know, you are right!’ I am pretty sure this person is no longer in the running for the position. But it did put a damper on my spirits for a day or two to think that this person could be rearing his head back into my life.