Quote Originally Posted by NoahsMommy View Post
btw, in the U.S. (or maybe its a state-by-state thing, but I'm almost 100% certain its a country-wide law) employers can legally only ask a few, vague questions, such as:
'How long did he/she work for you?'
'Is he/she rehirable?'
'Did he/she have a problem with attendance?'
Vague, but will be able to give a picture.

They cannot ask: 'Can you tell me about this former employee?' or any questions that lead to personal information, such as 'Why is this employee leaving your company?', 'Where there any disciplinary problems with this employee?', 'Has this person been arrested? Did he/she steal from you?' etc, etc...

Some times, if your former employer is extremely rigid or overly conservative, wont even answer the "would you hire this person again?" question! When I left State Farm, my former boss, with whom I had a fabulous relationship with, told me that State Farm's position on those types of questions was that they could NOT answer them. All they could answer were, "Did he/she work for you?" and "How long did he/she work for you?" that's it! <---this kinda worked for me in the "attendance" area, even though my absences were approved and my management and co-workers were amazing with me.

By law and former employers are only allowed to answer in "yes", "no", or "not applicable" -type answers so as to avoid any lawsuits.

Sorry...but this is all wrong. An employer can ask anything they want. An employer can answer anything they want to answer.

Many employers have a policy that they will not give out any information except dates of employment and position held, but it is not the law. (I recommend my clients not to give out any other information.)

If fact, if an employer fails to disclose certain imformation to a prospective employer they can be held liable. (Such as if there was illegal activity, violence...that type of thing.)