The lawyers and HR people tell us to never give a bad employment reference. Is it because of some great moral compass these people possess? No, they're just afraid of getting sued.
OK, I get that nobody wants to get sued, but as engineers charged with protecting the public, should we really be passing poor performers from one company to the next because no one wants to risk a law suit? I'm not talking about people that show up late occasionally or don't hand in reports on time. I mean people that just don't have what it takes to be an engineer.
When we finally free ourselves of the offender and get a call from a potential employer asking if we would hire him or her again, we say, "Certainly." All the while thinking, "Yes as a janitor, but never as an engineer." So we've played our word game and haven't told a lie and feel good that we're so clever.
We wheel back over to the computer and continue pontificating on Eng-Tips how important it is as an engineer to have unimpeachable ethics.
OK, I get that nobody wants to get sued, but as engineers charged with protecting the public, should we really be passing poor performers from one company to the next because no one wants to risk a law suit? I'm not talking about people that show up late occasionally or don't hand in reports on time. I mean people that just don't have what it takes to be an engineer.
When we finally free ourselves of the offender and get a call from a potential employer asking if we would hire him or her again, we say, "Certainly." All the while thinking, "Yes as a janitor, but never as an engineer." So we've played our word game and haven't told a lie and feel good that we're so clever.
We wheel back over to the computer and continue pontificating on Eng-Tips how important it is as an engineer to have unimpeachable ethics.