Should I remove references to certain jobs from my CV?

[Mr Allen]

Especially the PDSA because of the way I was forced to quit because of that old guy who called me a deaf "C Word" and my subsequent telling him to F off in front of customers?

Also, some of the stuff I've done isn't relevant to my quest to gain work in Sales, such as doing admin for various Charities.

What do you think guys and girls?

 

[Southern Discomfort]

Hmm, probably best to leave out the negative experiences; I'm never going to use Oxfam as a reference because of how it ended for me there.

But if it's not negative then keep it on there, it shows that you haven't been idle, that you've been doing things.

 

[Beguiling Orbit]

If you do remove it, then you may have to address employment gaps in an interview. That can be awkward. This article may help you figure out how to handle that.

 

[Mr Allen]

Hmm, probably best to leave out the negative experiences; I'm never going to use Oxfam as a reference because of how it ended for me there.

But if it's not negative then keep it on there, it shows that you haven't been idle, that you've been doing things.

My experience of Oxfam was better, the only 2 reasons I left last May was because of the time I got attacked outside the shop while waiting for my carer, and then the time the shop itself got burgled, so I was forced to quit on safety grounds, for my own and my carers' safety.

 

[pjcnet]

The old guy sounds like he deserved it lol! There's no excuse for someone to call you a "C" word even by a customer that is upset, that is abuse towards staff and there should be a zero tolerance policy towards this kind of unacceptable behaviour even if he was an old guy, but it obviously would have been much better if you'd handled it better, in that situation it would have probably been best to warn the customer to calm down and not use abusive language or leave the premises and if he continued he should have then been asked to leave (any good manager should have supported you if you'd done that while keeping your cool, but it doesn't mean there was a good manager there). It's difficult for us aspies to handle situations like that however when they're actually happening and I had a similar situation when I worked in a pub years ago that I didn't handle well (a pub is similar to a bar in the UK for people from the USA).

It's a difficult one deciding whether to mention it. It's good that you worked as a volunteer for a charity shop and it's a shame not to mention it, the only time it would be an issue is if you tried to get a reference so you'd have to avoid doing that and if you were asked why you left you could tell a "white" lie, but if you were only there for a very short time it probably isn't worth mentioning under the circumstances. I would definitely mention working as admin for charities however as it shows what kind of person you are in a really positive way, it shows that you are determined to fill your time and work even if it's without pay, this shows great willingness to work and you are therefore more likely to be someone that puts effort into your work. It's also okay to mention Oxfam and if you're asked why you left you can even tell the truth as this is a reasonable reason for leaving (I think most people would have done the same).

 

[Mr Allen]

The old guy sounds like he deserved it lol! There's no excuse for someone to call you a "C" word even by a customer that is upset, that is abuse towards staff and there should be a zero tolerance policy towards this kind of unacceptable behaviour even if he was an old guy, but it obviously would have been much better if you'd handled it better, in that situation it would have probably been best to warn the customer to calm down and not use abusive language or leave the premises and if he continued he should have then been asked to leave (any good manager should have supported you if you'd done that while keeping your cool, but it doesn't mean there was a good manager there). It's difficult for us aspies to handle situations like that however when they're actually happening and I had a similar situation when I worked in a pub years ago that I didn't handle well (a pub is similar to a bar in the UK for people from the USA).

It's a difficult one deciding whether to mention it. It's good that you worked as a volunteer for a charity shop and it's a shame not to mention it, the only time it would be an issue is if you tried to get a reference so you'd have to avoid doing that and if you were asked why you left you could tell a "white" lie, but if you were only there for a very short time it probably isn't worth mentioning under the circumstances. I would definitely mention working as admin for charities however as it shows what kind of person you are in a really positive way, it shows that you are determined to fill your time and work even if it's without pay, this shows great willingness to work and you are therefore more likely to be someone that puts effort into your work. It's also okay to mention Oxfam and if you're asked why you left you can even tell the truth as this is a reasonable reason for leaving (I think most people would have done the same).

That's why I'm considering taking PDSA off the list, as a company they don't do references apparently, but a company might contact them for one, and they'd mention the issues.

I know they can't give a BAD reference, but indirectly mentioning the circumstances under which I left could paint me in a bad light.

 

[Mr Allen]

Also, with the current negative publicity surrounding Oxfam, should I remove the fact I've worked in their Charity shops? Even though what's happening has no baring on what I did for them?

 

[Beguiling Orbit]

Also, with the current negative publicity surrounding Oxfam, should I remove the fact I've worked in their Charity shops? Even though what's happening has no baring on what I did for them?

I wouldn't. Then you'd have to explain a gap in your employment history. If you do get asked about it in an interview, then explain that you simply showed up and did your job and had nothing to do with any hanky-panky.

 

[pjcnet]

Also, with the current negative publicity surrounding Oxfam, should I remove the fact I've worked in their Charity shops? Even though what's happening has no baring on what I did for them?

Definitely not, working in a charity shop is a very good thing and shows the type of person you are in a very positive way. The current situation with Oxfam as a whole has no impact on this and no intelligent person would hold that against you personally. Saying you didn't work for Oxfam because of this is a bit like myself saying I never worked for a particular local council in Information System Services (previously known as the Computer Division) when their politically elected council leader brought in some very controversial policies that were often condemned on television and were ultimately doomed to failure, but that would be silly.

 

[the_tortoise]

I say leave out jobs that went badly or where the employer would have bad things to say about you.

I also say only use work history that is relevent to the job you're applying for, unless that leaves you looking like you have virtually no work experience (in which case I would say keep the not-relevent ones on there).

 

[Mr Allen]

I say leave out jobs that went badly or where the employer would have bad things to say about you.

I also say only use work history that is relevent to the job you're applying for, unless that leaves you looking like you have virtually no work experience (in which case I would say keep the not-relevent ones on there).

That's the thing though, under current UK law it's illegal to give a BAD reference,

 

[the_tortoise]

That's the thing though, under current UK law it's illegal to give a BAD reference,

That seemed like a very unusual law, so naturally I wanted to find out more about it and looked it up.....

What I found says that employers can give you a bad reference as long as what they say is truthful and accurate. If you believe a bad reference from an employer is not thruthful and/or accurate then your only recourse is to sue them for damages and prove your case in court. (References: workers' rights - GOV.UK)

 

[Starfire]

That seemed like a very unusual law, so naturally I wanted to find out more about it and looked it up.....

What I found says that employers can give you a bad reference as long as what they say is truthful and accurate. If you believe a bad reference from an employer is not thruthful and/or accurate then your only recourse is to sue them for damages and prove your case in court. (References: workers' rights - GOV.UK)

I also checked the legal situation and it certainly is not illegal to give a bad reference provided as you said, that it is truthful and accurate. There is also no legal obligation for an employer to even provide a reference which would also be a way for an ex-employer to signal to a prospective employer, that they were far from happy, or they would just have provided a glowing reference. I remember a manager a few years ago tell me that if he was contacted for a reference regarding someone who didn't deserve a good one he would always say, "I have nothing to say about that man!"
Employers got the message, and he couldn't be sued.

 

[tducey]

I was told by an employment counselor in the past that going back 5 yrs. with your work history on your resume is your best bet. I have gaps in my work history as well from before 5 yrs. ago so doing the 5 yrs. is good for a resume if possible. If your work experience isn't that long I'd suggest using your more memorable jobs on your resume.

 

[Mr Allen]

I was told by an employment counselor in the past that going back 5 yrs. with your work history on your resume is your best bet. I have gaps in my work history as well from before 5 yrs. ago so doing the 5 yrs. is good for a resume if possible. If your work experience isn't that long I'd suggest using your more memorable jobs on your resume.

Well I sent a copy of my CV without the most recent job at the PDSA, which I left last April after nearly 3 years, and I wasn't shortlisted for the new job because I have no work history after 2016, plus I've only ever worked in Charity shops for customer service experience, they said that wasn't relevant to a customer service position, pardon? It's a shop/Store, they have customers, which I and other members of staff serve. what's the big difference?

 

[pjcnet]

Well I sent a copy of my CV without the most recent job at the PDSA, which I left last April after nearly 3 years, and I wasn't shortlisted for the new job because I have no work history after 2016, plus I've only ever worked in Charity shops for customer service experience, they said that wasn't relevant to a customer service position, pardon? It's a shop/Store, they have customers, which I and other members of staff serve. what's the big difference?

No relevant experience, that's total utter b***s**t, it makes me wonder how such dim witted individuals make it into a managerial role in the first place and in fact working in a charity shop is in many ways better than being in paid employment because it shows what type of person you are in a good way by being willing to work as a volunteer.

I would think about including the PDSA job next time anyway and if they gave you a bad reference which hopefully won't happen you could fight it. The old guy who called you a "deaf c***" was totally out of order in every respect. I often don't pick up what people say, sometimes I may appear to even ignore them because I'm thinking about something else or I have to ask people to repeat themselves (sometimes more than once and people can get irate), this is NOT because I'm purposely ignorant or hard of hearing, but because I'm slow at processing such information and background noises make it even more difficult. If that's the case with yourself then what he did was no better than calling someone in a wheelchair a "clumsy c***" because they keep knocking things off a shelf that they're struggling to reach. It's much easier said than done, especially when you're on the autistic spectrum and even though he totally deserved to be told to "f*** off" under the circumstances, it would have been much better if you'd kept your cool and assuming he was a customer, you'd told him to leave the premises because staff legally have a right to be treated in a reasonable manner without abuse, then if other staff didn't back you up on this they'd be legally in the wrong and you could have then backed away refusing to have further contact until the old guy had left, then you would have been in a position to make formal complaints if they dismissed you or even disciplined you for this. I'm honestly NOT criticising you however, I've done virtually the same in similar situations in the past and it's very difficult to hold back when you know how out of order someone is, even if there are other customers listening. It's also easy to spend time looking back at what you could have done better after it's all over when the initial decision was made at the spur of the moment.

As I've said in the past I have a lot of respect for you for trying so hard when you don't even have to and many people in your situation do as little as possible, I know you'll get something eventually and we will all be here giving you masses of "likes" and "winners" when you announce that you finally got a job you wanted. The day will come. Best of luck!

 

[Mr Allen]

I did a new version of my CV yesterday, put the PDSA back in and added other stuff I've done dating as far back as June 1990 when I did my first placement from school, there's been other stuff I could put on there but I can't remember the dates or some of it's not relevant to sales or admin.

I applied to Tuffnell's today as well, a local Haulage firm, and they sent me an email asking for my contact details to discuss the application.