Am I Over-reacting?

[duchessofnc]

I need a community consensus on this just to make sure I'm not making to much of this.

I work for Company A. I'm extremely unhappy with Company A and so I've been trying to find employment elsewhere. I've been struggling with it and someone was kind of enough to tip me that my reference for Company A couldn't be verified.

So I decided to call the company number that I was given for employment and income verification. I couldn't get anywhere and so I had a few others call it to make sure it wasn't me. The voice recording referenced a website. So I went to the website. Low and behold you had to register. I started the registration process using my side business name. In order to check any reference I have to pay $14.

From my point of few, I feel like the company I work for is not only making my work place a nightmare but on top of it all they want to make absolutely sure that I can't leave by at least providing a means of saying "yeah she worked here from this date to this date". My close friends and family are of course on my side. But it's not giving me an objective view.

When I talked to my company to verify everything (so I'm not misinterpreting this) they told me that references weren't important. And that I should just include my first and most recent check stub if the company wasn't willing to pay to register. Even so this just isn't sitting well with me.

Isn't the company I work for or have worked for obligated to at least confirm employment without making someone pay them for it? Or am I blowing it out of proportion and that I need to just take a breather and chill on this?

[Marshal Moroni]

I'm not sure that there's much of anything you can do about it, but I do agree that this is one of the nuttiest things I've ever heard of.

Good Luck, and hurry and get out of that nut house,

Marshal Moroni

[sydnie7]

Never heard of such a thing, and I would be PO'ed beyond belief if this had happened to me! Two ways to approach it, off the top of my head:

1. Battle stations. Check with your state to make sure this pay-for-ref scheme is even legal, or if the company is obligated to provide mininum dates-of-employment confirmation on demand at no charge to any party.

2. Exit stage left. Pay the $14, get an innocuous sign-in name/password to the site, and list that on your resume for benefit of potential employers who wish to check the ref.

Both tactics have their upsides/ downsides. You could easily do #2 while researching #1 (and then sue your former employer at your leisure whilst happily and gainfully employed elsewhere).

Then again, you may find that your state (and/or the Feds?) have no such prohibition, and #2 is your only graceful way out.

Best of luck in any case.

Sydnie

[James MacMillan]

That's just weird! Seems wrong to me!

[Mipi]

I'm not sure how the things are in States, but for sure this is way off the expectations...

I would do as sydnie7 suggested; first get out and then think of additional actions!

GOOD LUCK

[Rex_Tremende]

I've heard of this before. I don't recall the specifics, but I think it was around the time I was in between jobs about five years ago that I discovered that some companies outsource this HR function. (In fact, it was probably my own: AT&T.) It ensures that only serious inquiries get through and spares the HR department from constantly answering calls to look up and verify payroll information. Come to think of it, if Company A has outsourced payroll, it's not at all surprising that they'd ask someone else to do this, too.

Your employer's advice is correct - if a future employer seeks proof of employment, a copy of one or more recent paystubs should be sufficient. I'm pretty sure that the only bits of information a prospective employer is legally permitted to seek from a former employer are your dates of employment and your last salary. An X-Marker with a PHR certification may be able to verify this.

It is not a reference. For that, you seek the support of someone who can vouch for your performance on the job and you provide that person's name and contact information on your résumé or separate letter of references.

My advice for you in your job search is to be up front about this with any prospective employer. Tell them how to verify your current employment and explain that it is outsourced. Make it easy on them by providing them an alternative without them having to ask you, otherwise they might just skip over you. This way, you present yourself as someone who anticipates problems and finds ways to overcome them before they occur - an excellent trait that many hiring managers look for.

And by the way, it is far easier to land a job when you have a job than to be unemployed and searching. I've been in both situations.

Good luck,
Rex.

[MACKAY]

This article I found touches on what you are talking about. My employeer uses this service.

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http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...obHistory.aspx

The next time you apply for a loan or a new job, a lender or prospective employer might go online to access a database instead of calling your human resources department to verify your employment and income.

In most cases, they'll contact a St. Louis company called Talx, which has developed a service called The Work Number.

Companies, government agencies and creditors, such as credit card companies and mortgage lenders, have been using The Work Number for almost a decade, tapping into a database of about 165 million to 170 million individual records (an employee has a separate record for each employer) covering roughly a third of the U.S. work force, says Janet Ford, vice president of Talx, a subsidiary of credit bureau Equifax.

Employers use Talx to handle salary and employment verifications and, in turn, share their payroll information and often several years' worth of payroll records. Employees can challenge the accuracy of any information.

Participating companies submit payroll information every time they process paychecks, Ford says. "So the data is as fresh as the last time they ran payroll," she says.

A company has to go through a credentialing process before it can access the database, says Ford, who adds that the majority of users are businesses attempting to grant credit or government agencies attempting to grant benefits.

Employers pay a fee for Talx to store the data and to respond to employment and salary inquiries. They can also elect to receive a monthly report with the Social Security numbers of their own employees whose records were accessed, the date of the request and what type of records (salary or employment history) were viewed, says Ford. But employers are never told who is making the request or why, she says.

Companies, including would-be creditors, that make inquiries pay to access the data, which costs from $12.50 to $31 per employee, depending on the number and type of records sought, Ford says. To access salary information, companies need the employee's permission.

Employment verification data include the company name, the employee's job title, whether the employee is active or inactive, the start date, the most recent hire date and the total length of time with the company, Ford says.

Salary inquiries include the same information, along with pay rate and frequency, year-to-date earnings and two years' wages, she says. To access a work history, a company must provide the employee's Social Security number and a legitimate reason for the inquiry.

"We are a conduit to efficiently and electronically provide this information to verifiers who need it from employers who have it," Ford says.

What about security?
Some consumer advocates and privacy experts worry about the security of databases storing personal financial information.

A database like The Work Number that uses online interaction can be "a significant convenience for employers and employees," says Peter Swire, a law professor at Ohio State University and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C., think tank.


At the same time, "the size of the database makes it a big, new target," he says. Besides the risks of insider abuse and identity theft, he says, "it's also a tempting target for government investigations and discovery in lawsuits."

"The first rule of databases is, 'If you build it, they will come,'" Swire says.

And a Social Security number isn't the big secret a lot of people assume it is, he says. "For millions of Americans, their Social Security number is up on the Web. So using a Social Security number as a 'secret' is bad security."

Still, online and electronic systems "for better or for worse, make background checks easier," Swire says.

As for the records themselves, "I look at it as a reality of our age," says Evan Hendricks, the author of "Credit Scores & Credit Reports" and publisher of the Privacy Times newsletter. "This is straightforward information showing that you had the job and what it is."

At the same time, he says, "there are dangers: accuracy, data security, hacking or authorized users looking for an unauthorized purpose."

Talx has taken a number of precautions to prevent those problems, says Ford. "We employ the strictest standards with regard to security."

The company will not sell repackaged data on identifiable individuals, Ford says.

"We do not sell it to anybody to use for marketing," she says. Talx's agreements with employers "allow for data to be used for demographics," but only after records have been stripped of any personal information, such as names and Social Security numbers, she adds.

How to check your Work Number
Talx abides by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Ford says. That means you can request a free copy of your Work Number records every year. That file also will tell you who has been looking at your information. To get your files, you can print out a request form and mail it in or call 1-866-604-6570.
Ford says the number of consumer disputes is "very small" despite more than 600,000 record checks each month. The company has had a dispute process in place for a little more than a year, and in that time it has had about 150 disputes, she says

An employee can dispute information, and the company will investigate by contacting the employer that supplied the data. During the investigation, which is completed within 30 days, the company won't allow access to the disputed information.

If the employer reports that the information is inaccurate, it is changed, and the employee is notified. The employee also can request that the corrected information be forwarded to companies that have recently viewed the inaccurate information.

If the employer reports that the information is correct, the employee is notified and has the option of adding a note to the file explaining the discrepancy.

If the employer doesn't respond, the company adds a notation to the file stating the employee's concerns.


Corrections can be problematic for current and former employees. First, a job seeker might fear tipping off a current employer. Second, former employers may not be willing or able (if the company is no longer in business) to correct past mistakes.

In the current dispute system, it appears that employers have the final word, Swire says. "But as these databases become so important to individuals, it's important to have effective consumer redress."
__________________

[sydnie7]

This article I found touches on what you are talking about. My employeer uses this service. . . [snip]

***************

Wow. Hadn't a clue (obviously!). But the bit about "free report every year" is heartening, and sounds like another possible solution to DoNC's problem (assuming the website she is dealing with is the same, or has the same offer as, the one quoted). Obtain report, black out any items you don't want floating around (such as SSN), and attach to resume/applications.

I still don't like it, but then there are a lot of things I have to live with that I don't like LOL

[vmac3205]

I supervise about 20 people. When one leaves for other employment, and the agency interested in them calls for a reference, BY LAW I can only say that ther person worked for me from this date to this date. I can't say what a piece of s*!#* employee they were and I'm really glad they are gone.

[AcuteEnigma]

Not a great time to be looking for a job so a nightmare job could be better than nothing.

As for the reference, log in and print it out yourself and give a copy to any prospective employer saving them the time and $14.00.

And good luck!