Location: North Carolina
I recently applied for a position at a company I previously worked for. I worked fifteen years, and submitted a four week notice before leaving on what I assumed was good terms. My application was denied and so I reached out to the director asking why. I had worked with this individual for all of the fifteen years before leaving the company, and if rehired, I would be working under this individual.
He told me the reason was because the company had me on a “do not rehire” list.
Confused as to why, I reached out to HR and the informed me I was not on a “do not rehire” list.
I’m left then to assume the director denied my application and then lied to me about the reason.
Does this imply any sort of retaliation?
Comments
>Does this imply any sort of retaliation?
Sure. It implies all kinds of retaliation. What it doesn’t imply is any sort of illegal retaliation. Unless it was over some sort of protected class like race, sex etc., over certain union activities or certain specific whistleblower type claims retaliation is generally legal.
Retaliation for what? You no longer work there and no longer have any legal connection to them. They aren’t obligated to rehire you. The reason of the non rehire doesn’t matter.
There’s nothing illegal. They don’t have to give you a truthful reason for not rehiring you or any reason at all.
I can tell you that I filter out any former employees who reapply within a couple years of voluntarily leaving because it’s doubtful to me that the things that were the reasons why they left have materially changed and they’ll probably be looking to leave for the same reasons again if they were to return.
This is very normal. You usually dont know about it unless you find yourself in this situation or you find yourself in management. It’s not usually retaliatory. Typically when you leave or do your exit interview your manager submits the termination or separation documents to HR. And most companies will have a box for rehire or non rehire. Your manager will check the box and a lot depends on the terms you left or more so where you are going. Like if you left to go to a competitor they likely will check the non rehire box. It’s nothing abnormal and nothing illegal. Good luck!
In most states, you can request a copy of your HR file.
Try that?
My company has such a list, and I’ve put people on it. The list is so firm that when we acquire another company, anyone at that company on the do not hire list will be let go if they don’t leave on their own. We’ll do it “nicely”…they’ll be laid off with a severance package instead of outright fired, but they won’t be able to stay.
Lots of companies do this for all ex employees because they assume you’re “a flight risk”
The grass was not greener on the other side. Often companies are happy when a 15 year employee moves on and click a box that says “never again”.