Resignation Pro

To HR rep, I was terminated from my job, and forced to resign from my job. Advice?

On Friday I had my SEPAP performance evaluation on a job I started 3 months ago. The same thing was done to me as the past 2 employees in my same position. They were also told they were being terminated in 30 days, or submit a resignation letter so the current employer reference if a potential employer calls her for a reference will be "the employee resigned." So they both submitted their resignations, not having a choice. There is no winning there. The VP of HR backs up my manager who is the Director of HR. No one has the courage to know there is a problem in HR and do anything about getting rid of the Director of HR. 1) I submitted the resignation letter since she told me I am being terminated, last day 12/23 2) I am then free to apply for other positions within the university. 3) I checked the box on the SEPAP form "I do not agree with this performance evaluation". 4) By Wednesday I need to submit my typed statement to my director which will be attached to my SEPAP performance evaluation. Instead of writing a detailed explanation on why I do not agree with her on each item and point, I am going to attach this statement to my evaluation: "I would greatly appreciate any potential employer to contact me directly so that I may address any questions that you may have regarding anything in my performance evaluation. I can be contacted at the following phone number" Tthe potential employers who have access to my performance evaluation and employee file are only other departments within the university, if they request it. External companies would not have physical access to information on my evaluation in my employee file. At least I have more of a chance of obtaining a neutral reference from her. What do you think about this? If I do that, I believe it will be better than contesting her on each point and attaching that to my performance evaluation because then if I contest her on my typed attachment on each point, I guarantee she will become extremely angry after reading it and retaliate without giving me a neutral reference, and will definitely give me a negative reference. I have received over 15 individual employee performance awards from my past employers over the last 10 years. Thank you in advance to anyone who has been in this sitatuation, or any Human Resources representative.

Public Comments

1. You can ask them to refer potential employers to you, but they probably aren't going to do it, and if they do it will just raise big red flags to potential employers about why they are not allowed to talk to your previous employer directly. It's a tough call - as you say, if you contest each point you are likely to get a bad reference. Since the best you can hope for at this point is a neutral reference, go for a neutral response that disagrees with the evaluation without pointing fingers and just get this incident over with and behind you so you can move on to better things.
2. Hello, I could relate to this situation very much, word of advice, everything that happens is a learning lesson. Okay first thing is first, since you were only employed for 3 months with this company it is evident enough that you were on a 3 month introductory period (probation). This is the time when you become familiar with your job and the company, as well as the company getting to know your work ethics and performance. By the Department of State Unemployment you are entitled to Benefits if you have worked a continous 6 months in a job within the same year, or vice versa, or if you had 2 jobs within the same year you are entitled to unemployment insurance. Based on my knowledge and experience, I believe that when an employer calls for a reference the company is only allowed to give start and end dates, position and possible salary information. Performance is not an issue when requesting a reference. They may ask things like "how did you work with senior management"? How well did you work under time constraints? When companies check for reference it is very minimal information required, but critical to the position you are applying for. If the manager who is giving the information on your reference issues to much information it will cost you not getting a new job. Normally all the evaluations in an employee's file is confidential information, and you may only view your information in the HR department. If the VP of HR backs up the Director of HR, from experience , I am sorry to say but the Director of HR' his/her job is to follow the lead of the VP of HR, no matter what the consequences.. Normally if an HR department is structured well, you will see less of the unlawful requests for submitting resignations. When an HR Department requests that an employee submits there resignation without any explanation, it is not viable. First there must be 1) A notice of disciplinary action if any on file, 2) Initial steps or agreements marked on the Notice of Disciplinary Action taken, 3) Final written on Notice of Displinary Action, if employee was insubordinate, given warning and did not consider cleaning up their performance, then and only then may the HR department have that choice, either Terminate the employee, and allow you unemployment insurance benefits, if allowed or ask you to resign, so you will not be entitled to unemployment insurance. You must understand that it is very coslty to companies to terminate employees, so they will ask them to resign. Sometimes, you are in a bad situation but you will always learn from it. My advice to you is don't fight it, and just move on.