Never given an explicitly bad reference. Have very occasionally given non-good reference (while you say nothing bad about them - you say nothing good either...

Never given an explicitly bad reference. Have very occasionally given non-good reference (while you say nothing bad about them - you say nothing good either... as an employer you get to recognise those when you get 'em.) Have very occasionally had to say "I have no idea who this person is - can you get them to remind me who they are?". In reality I strongly suspect that these people had a fictitious CV. Have once given a (genuine) excellent reference followed by "You should probably not be asking me this question when they still work here" ;-) In reality you very rarely get asked for references for somebody you wouldn't recommend. The employee knows that the reference won't be glowing, so they don't put you down. Basically - I never lie, but I very occasionally don't tell the whole truth. Also I've pretty never had somebody who I would consider a bad employee. The worst usually have to deal with is somebody we hired for the wrong job, or they'd outgrown the company, etc. I've never had somebody steal the petty cash and set a client on fire ;-)