Am I Blacklisted?

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Specializes in Tele, ICU, Staff Development.

Dear Nurse Beth,

How can I tell if I've been blacklisted?

Dear Blacklisted,

Employers and recruiters would never openly admit to having blacklists as willful and malicious job obstruction is illegal. While there is no official, universal "blacklist", blacklists do exist and there are ways to unofficially give a poor reference. One sign of being blacklisted is to suddenly have a job offer withdrawn late in the process. Another is if your job search is unusually difficult in a good market.

Reasons recruiters and employers blacklist employees or potential employees are for bad behavior; excessive absenteeism; failure to show for an interview, insubordination and incompetence.

The policy in many companies is that HR can only answer yes or no when asked if a previous employee is eligible for rehire, without explanation. This protects the company from liability. Accordingly, many employers will only divulge start dates, end dates, and titles.

In reality, a manager contacted as a reference can easily give a disparaging reference without really saying anything, by lack of enthusiasm or strategic inflection. It's not professional, but a manager could say"Oh, Sean? ........ya........he was ......ummm....fine" if they wanted to communicate that the employee was a poor performer. Or they could simply say "No comment", which has the same effect.

If you think a reference you are providing is giving negative feedback, do not use that reference. If you believe a previous employer is blacklisting you, you can reach out and ask for a 1:1 conversation. Ask what went wrong and how you could have been a better employee.

There are other reasons for job rejections. Employers may check your credit history and will check your social media postings. Make sure your resume is pristine and your interview skills are honed as they may also be the culprits.

Best wishes,

Nurse Beth

Author, "Your Last Nursing Class: How to Land Your First Nursing Job"...and your next!

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

If you live in Texas, check GroupOne. Almost all major employers here use them as a background/license/reference check resource. They operate under credit reporting laws and therefore are immune to many liabilities. Many a career has been destroyed in Texas based on malicious reports to GroupOne.

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I live in Oklahoma and worked for OU medicine as a dialysis nurse. I was terminated because they said I refused to treat a patient which wasnt true at all. The nurse on call was not in the unit so I said they would have to call her before I could put the patient on. Policy and procedure says you have to have 2 rns in the unit to be able to put on a patient. No one was there but me. I put the patient on and took all vitals and everything before the 3 nurse came down from doing a bedside. I have never ever in my 30+yrs of nursing refused to take care of a patient. Now they are saying I am ineligible for rehire and almost all of the places I have applied. This is not right. Can anyone help me?

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
14 hours ago, cmbtwalrus said:

I live in Oklahoma and worked for OU medicine as a dialysis nurse. I was terminated because they said I refused to treat a patient which wasnt true at all. The nurse on call was not in the unit so I said they would have to call her before I could put the patient on. Policy and procedure says you have to have 2 rns in the unit to be able to put on a patient. No one was there but me. I put the patient on and took all vitals and everything before the 3 nurse came down from doing a bedside. I have never ever in my 30+yrs of nursing refused to take care of a patient. Now they are saying I am ineligible for rehire and almost all of the places I have applied. This is not right. Can anyone help me?

Sounds like you need a lawyer.

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I was fired from a job as a CNA. There were 2 nurses less than 10 feet away from me while a pt covered himself in poop. The HR lady called me a liar to my face when I stated verbally I was not sure exactly what happen. I have voice recordings of all meetings with HR. I feel like I was done wrong, just completed more schooling and applied to the hospital to be denied with in 30 minutes which is not common with all the applications, it is a big hospital. I feel like I have been "blacklisted" from the hospital as it is the only place I can really get a job with my 2 certifications at the moment as they run our transportation services and ems services. I absolutely hate it and cannot get in contact with anyone to help me at all. No lawyers would take my case either as I feel like the hospital was at fault for putting the pt in the hallway when we had open beds. It is a billion dollar hospital so no one wants to touch them.

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Nurse SMS said:

If you live in Texas, check GroupOne. Almost all major employers here use them as a background/license/reference check resource. They operate under credit reporting laws and therefore are immune to many liabilities. Many a career has been destroyed in Texas based on malicious reports to GroupOne.

Not from Texas but this is true.  Once I had an employer mention to me, "yes I know you're good to go, I looked you up on *&(&. "  She slipped and I didn't catch the name but, man, I wish I would have.  It was not a social media website but it was some sort of record check employers use and I believe past employers write comments on it.  I'm sorry I didn't catch the name, but I was shocked that something like this was out there.

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