Problems with verifying my past employment

[kerussll]

I'm so frustrated and stressed out about this I want to cry. Here's the situation: I've been hired for my dream job pending passing the background check and having my references check out. It's been almost 3 weeks since I received my unofficial offer. I can't get a start date or begin working at this hospital until this process is done. Everything has been completed except for one final verification of past employment for a restaurant I worked at 4 years ago. I should never have listed this place on my history but they said to be thorough and not leave any gaps in employment. The background checking agency says that the restaurant has not returned any of their calls. I drove 90 miles and went in to have my old manager print me off a W2 form proving that I worked there, but for some reason their tax software printed off the wrong year on it. We wrote a note and I had my manager sign it after writing out the actual dates I worked there. Now they still say this isn't good enough. I got an email from the agency saying they need "something in writing" to prove my employment. I have no idea what this means??? All they did was call and talk to all of my past employers. Of course, they were much more reliable people able to actually return a phone call within 3 weeks!

Any suggestions on how I can speed up this process? Is there a chance that that the background agency will get impatient and just "fail" me on this? I would be devastated if I lost this job. I am moving out of state once I get this sorted out and am so ready to go and leave my current terrible job! If anything, just agree with me that it's ridiculous to have a job I worked at for a couple of months while I was in college be scrutinized so carefully when it has absolutely nothing to do with nursing!

[everthesame, LPN, LVN]

Why not call the old manager and explain the altered form was not acceptable and ask if he would please call and talk to them. If he was willing to go to all of the trouble of printing the form and even trying to correct it for you I don't understand why he wouldn't take five minutes to return their call.

[BabyLady, BSN, RN]

I'm sorry, I would probably elect to work for a facility that exercises a little bit of intellegence.

A restaurant FOUR years ago is about as irrelevant as it gets as far as an employment history.

God forbid if they went out of business.

A W-2 proves you worked for a company (and you can get this yourself from the IRS), but it does not prove your dates of employment.

I cannot believe they are holding up your hiring process because of something so petty.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

Are you certain that the employer understands what is going on? Or is it just the background agency that is insisting on a college restaurant job being verified?

Maybe you should check in with your contact at the future employer and let them know what's going on.

[onetiredmomma]

Call the nurse recruiter or your NEW manager and explain the situation to that person and see if they can do anything to help. Good luck1

[VolunteerCPR]

If you go to your local unemployment office, they can give you a printout of your work history, whenever taxes were reported. I'm not sure if it goes back 4 years, but if it does, that'd be really easy to prove dates.

[belgarion]

Your wages for any year you paid into social security are on record for every year you had reportable income. You might check with your local social security office.

[MrChicagoRN, RN]

Like onetiredmomma & Roser13 wrote, contact the nurse manager or recruiter & let them know what's going on. Is this your only past work history? Do they really need this, or is the agency being overly bureaucratic?

How about asking the restaurant manager writing a letter, on letterhead, stating you were gainfully employed, with dates, and that you left in good standing.

[foreverLaur]

I feel your pain. I put a college internship in business on mine and the large nationwide company doesn't verify employment for interns as they don't consider us "employees." I lost a job over it since they couldn't verify what I wrote even though it was 8 years ago and irrelevant to the current job. I ended up having to wait a while, create a new profile, and leave that blank to get hired! :-/

GOOD LUCK!

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Your income tax return or social security should have a redord...if there's a W-2....you have a return.....unless you didn't file......which would be be another subject. What type of job is this? It seems a little excessive

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

I would send the manager an e-mail explaining the reason and what you have done to try to fix it. Then he/she can intervene with HR.

In future leave them off your resume. Nothing that is non-medical really matters now that you are a nurse under most circumstances and can only cause issues as you have seen!

[caliotter3]

You can contact the IRS and they will give you a printout of your earnings, but it won't show exact dates worked. If you go to an IRS office, it can be done while you wait. If you do it by mail, it won't be done in a day, it will take weeks. That will prove the employment, but it won't prove the dates, other than the years in which the earnings occurred. Better than nothing.