For some people, their professional reputation follows them long after leaving a job.

So, what would you do if someone who previously fired you ended up applying for a position at a company where your opinion carried weight? Would you refuse to get involved? Or would you share your honest experience of what it was like to work with them?

In the following story, one former employee finds herself in this situation and opts for the latter. Here’s what happened.

AITA for badmouthing my ex-manager who fired me, and costing him a job?

One year ago, I was unfairly fired from my marketing position at a mid-level beauty brand. I had been there for 2 years, had glowing performance reviews from everybody, and had just received a significant raise. Until my new manager (whom I’ll call Paul) joined the company.

He and I didn’t get along from the start. Long story short, he only got the job because he was friends with a manager, and had NO idea what he was doing. Yet tried to change every process the company had, and cost them thousands doing so.

He also fired the entire creative team (7 people) who had been there for years within 4 months of his arrival. This includes me, although he had lied to my face and told me multiple times that my job was safe.

He fired her at a terrible time.

There’s a lot more I’m leaving out for the sake of characters, but he made up a lame excuse for the firing, saying that I wasn’t clocking out for lunch and “multiple members of upper management had seen me sitting in my car for 2 hours at a time on several occasions.”

These things are COMPLETELY untrue and outrageous, which my colleagues backed up. I never received ANY warning or anything, but it didn’t matter because he just wanted me gone.

He also fired me at 12:00 PM on a Tuesday, the day after I had asked him to leave at lunchtime to be there for my dad (who has stage 4 cancer), who was having surgery.

Then, she found out he was going for another job.

He said, “Oh, absolutely! I hope it goes well!” and then fired me that very same day. I’m sorry, that’s really evil.

It sent me into a depression spiral for a good 6 months and hurt me financially as well, but luckily, I bounced back. I’m now self-employed and doing better than ever! I didn’t let my anger at Paul get to me anymore, until a friend of mine reached out and told me that he was under consideration for a job at her company.

This is a pretty prestigious brand, and I have a lot of contacts in the industry we both work in. Paul didn’t list me as a reference or anything, but she saw on his resume that he worked at this company while I was there.

When asked, she told the truth.

She asked my honest opinion on whether they should hire him, and I truthfully said no. That he had no idea how to manage a team, a marketing plan, or even form a sentence. I wouldn’t trust him with anything. Safe to say, he didn’t get the job.

Another friend of mine who knew him (she worked at the company while we both did) found out about what I did and told me that this job was his last hope, as he had just been laid off from the company he fired me from and had been really struggling to find work in this economy.

She said that it was a year ago, I was doing fine, and shouldn’t have ruined his chances. I would be lying if I said that this wasn’t a LITTLE personal, but he’s also just terrible at his job. And I’m not going to recommend him when I saw firsthand that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. But here I am…

AITA?

Yikes! He messed with the wrong person!

Let’s check out what the folks over at Reddit think about what happened here.

This would’ve been just as bad.

According to this comment, all she did was tell the truth.

For this person, the friend wanted honesty.

Here’s someone who thinks the guy deserved it.

That’s not badmouthing, that’s being truthful. There’s a difference.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.