When you get fired from a job, the last thing you should want is to use them as a referral. This is especially true when you were fired for something very serious.

That is what happened when a manager in this story was fired after harassing the female employees at his company.

He told his boss that he wanted to use him as a reference and just asked that he be honest about his performance, so that is exactly what his boss did. To nobody’s surprise (except the fired manager), he was not hired at the next company that called for a reference.

It is scary how oblivious some people can be to their misbehavior. Read through the full story below and see what you think of what he did.

“Tell them the truth” you mean how you were fired because of misconduct? Okey dookey.

To be clear, this isn’t my story, it’s my sister’s. She randomly told me this last Friday when I dropped by for dinner, and I just thought I would share it.

Let’s see what happened.

Her previous employment was with a branch of a Swedish retail store. They sell expensive, luxurious furniture.

When my sister was working there, they had about 20 people working the floor, the highest being the regional manager, he’s also the only Swedish in the store, 5 people working in the higher office and the rest were floor attendants.

Competent coworkers are a real asset.

Each person in this higher office covered a different part of the store. There were, an accountant, a biller, an HR, a purchaser, and a Head Office, to whom basically everyone reported. My sister was the biller (I never cared enough to ask her what exactly her job was).

The purchaser, let’s call him Jack, was a competent guy. He did his job to near perfection and would often help others with theirs, as well as went out on the floor interacting with people.

Oh, this isn’t good.

But, apart from the high office, floor attendants resented him. Not publicly, but my sister was paying enough attention to notice. Nobody would say anything though, they just said he’s “creepy”.

Until one day, when the boss (the Swedish guy) came in. He would often work remotely and only came in during disarrayed hours.

Jack is extremely unprofessional.

Apparently, when he’s about to enter the store, he saw, from outside the window, Jack pestering a female floor attendant. She was clearly very annoyed. The boss observed for a while and eventually caught the guy placing his hand on her thighs.

He immediately called the office, all 5 of them, into a meeting, and asked Jack to clarify his intentions. Jack said they’re just “playing around”.

This is truly unfortunate.

Now, as sickening as it may sound, in my country this is somewhat normal. When girls get harrassed like this, it’s their fault for not covering themselves properly.

In these instances, people would justify the harassment and blame the victim instead. My generation is trying to reject this mindset, but some people are just built differently.

This is being taken very seriously.

But, because the boss was not from my country, he saw this as a major issue. Despite Jack trying to plead that it’s nothing, he decided to launch a store-wide investigation, into the high office as well (my sister included) because he thought they were covering for Jack.

My sister said she actually thought she’d be fired, or at least reprimanded, she had never seen him so serious before.

Their culture makes it hard to report these issues.

The result was… alarming. Each and every female floor attendant (6 or 7 of them) said they’d been pestered by Jack at least once, some even said he touched them without consent.

The boss asked why nobody stepped up, they said they were ashamed and feared retaliation. He then questioned the high office to find out that they were too busy to notice what was happening. Also, nobody ever threatened retaliation, people just assumed there would be because it’s usually what happens in my country.

Jack still doesn’t realize that what he did was wrong.

After a week and a half, another meeting was scheduled, in which Jack was given the option to resign or be fired. No action was taken against everyone else in the high office, but they were told (quite firmly) that this kind of neglect could never happen again.

Even at that meeting, Jack’s still insisted that it was nothing. He’d spent the whole duration of the investigation complaining to everyone in the store, including the people he’s harassed, that the boss was overreacting. People just gave him the stink eye, but he didn’t seem to care.

Wow, quite bold of him.

Things were quiet for a week or two, and then it got interesting. One day the Head Office lady received a phone call from Jack, during which he asked that they’d be his reference for his new interviews.

She was taken back a bit and asked him -“You want to make us your reference?”

This is not going to go well for him.

Jack -“Yes, I believe I had done my work well enough for you guys to put on a good word” It’s true, he’s very efficient. In fact, they’d had a hard time finding his replacement, they ended up taking a portion of his work for months while looking for someone suitable.

Head Office lady -“But… the commotion…?”

Jack -“Oh that, I’m sure it’s nothing. Just tell the truth and I think they’ll understand”

He truly does not see anything wrong with what he did.

Head Office lady, still baffled -“But… but…”

Jack -“Look, I won’t ask for more, if someone calls just tell them the truth. I’m sure it’s nothing”

Apparently, Jack still thought if people heard about it they would agree with him.

If he wants them to be honest, they will be honest.

When she got off the phone, she was still stuttering. When everyone knew what happened, they were as well.

Nobody knew what to do with it, so they informed their boss. He said it’s fine if that’s what Jack wanted.

Everyone wants to hear how this plays out.

Starting the following day, he’d come to the store every day. He also instructed everyone that if it’s a call about Jack, it’s to be directed to him. I think I also need to mention that after almost 7 years living in VietNam, he can speak decently enough.

When the call finally came, the whole office stopped working and instead eavesdropping, there were some people from the floor as well.

Jack is not going to be happy with this.

My sister said that they can only hear from his side of the conversation, but it’s pretty easy to see the whole picture.

Boss -“(praising Jack with words that would make even the ugliest of witches look like a fairy godmother)”

Also boss -“Anything you’ll need to worry about? Oh it’s just that incident that gave us no choice but to let him go”

This is not what that caller was expecting to hear.

The other side asked something

Boss -“I’m sure he’s told you, but he put his hands on one of our female employees without her consent”

The other side -“(gasped)” (okay I imagined this one)

Officially, it only happened once.

The other side asked something

Boss -“Yes just once…” He did pause at this

The other side -“(signed in relief)” (and this one)

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There is no way he is getting this job.

Boss -“… that I caught him. Every other instance happened without my presence.”

The other side asked something else

Boss -“Yes, I have the meeting record in which he agreed to resign in order for us not to take further actions.”

It is shocking that Jack would even call.

The other side said something

Boss -“Sure, just contact me via this number. If you want to know anything else I’d be happy to help.”

Two days later Jack called the Head Office lady again to ask if anyone contacted them for his reference. She said yes and assured him they were telling whoever called “the truth” about his “performance”.

And yet he is surprised that he didn’t get hired.

He said it’s strange because he was rejected in his latest interview.

I wonder what could have been the reason.

The fact that he refuses to believe that he did anything wrong makes this situation even worse. There is really no doubt that he would do it again if given the chance.

Read through the comments below to see what other people have to say about it.

He has lost his position of power, though.

The company will be much better off without him.

This country is moving in the right direction, though.

He has never had consequences.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who received a work email from a place she never even applied.

This is so true, though.

It is hard to believe anyone could think that this is acceptable behavior. Thankfully, he finally got what was coming to him, and this workplace is safer because of it.

The fact that he thought he could ask for a reference is just icing on this otherwise awful story.