CARE WHAT YOUR EX-BOSS SAYS? FIRM WILL FIND OUT.

Byline: L.M. Sixel Houston Chronicle

Ever wonder what your former boss is saying about you? Well, now you can find out.

A California company will call your former supervisor to find out how good - or bad - of an employee you were.

If the news is negative, you'll know why you're having such a tough time finding a new job. If the news is positive, it'll be a relief to know that you've got a good reputation out there. In some cases, the information could be a gold mine that could be used to file a discrimination, wrongful termination or defamation lawsuit.

Documented Reference Check of Diamond Bar has turned up some doozies. One employer told a DRC interviewer that the former regional administrator of an insurance company was reliable and had good work habits.

But he was replaced, because the company wanted someone who was young and aggressive. The report was an important piece of evidence in an age discrimination trial, said Guy Fowler, coordinator of DRC's marketing department. In another case, a preacher having trouble finding a new church hired DRC to find out why.

It took one phone call to the head of the pastor selection committee to find out that the preacher had been kicked out of his old job because he was viewed as dictatorial and just "not a man of God." It's not exactly what an unemployed preacher wants to hear. After an unsuccessful job hunt, Barbara Graham hired DRC to find out what her former boss at a pet store was saying about her. She was surprised to find out she had supposedly stolen items from the store and was a drug addict.

Graham, who lives in Southern California, said her boss suspected that she had turned him into the police for buying a stolen bird and was seeking revenge. She hired DRC to send a letter to her old boss, warning him not to continue saying those nasty things or she'd sue him for defamation of character. Graham found a new job about a month later - after she listed her old boss as a reference.

DRC charges $78.95 to interview one former boss and more to interview other people at the same company. The company has trained human resource professionals on staff who interview the former employers.

The interviewers don't say who they're really working for. But Fowler said that's not deceptive, because DRC has arrangements with real companies that allow them to say they're conducting reference checks.

The interviewers, who use their own names, don't say they're interviewing an applicant for a job. They just mumble something about reviewing someone's resume.

You could strike out and spend $78.95 just to find out that the company won't say a thing about you. But that may be money well-spent.

You may discover there's no reason to bring up something embarrassing that happened at your previous job if your new boss won't find out about it anyway, Fowler said. And not all reports are bad. Some are glowing. "He's a bright, bright, bright guy," one computer department supervisor said of a former employee. "He saw better ways of doing things and opened up our eyes. We'd hire him back yesterday."

Whatever employers say can come back to haunt them, said Don Sessions, a lawyer who represents employees in Mission Viejo.

Sessions said information he receives from reference checks has helped enormously in cases he has filed against employers. If the employee is a whistle-blower - which accounts for about 10 percent of DRC's cases - the supervisor may cast the employee in a false light by saying he was a complainer or troublemaker, Sessions said.

Many states, including California and Texas, have laws against blacklisting employees, which is another reason not to make negative remarks that could prevent former workers from getting other jobs. And even if the news is good, Sessions sometimes can turn that around before a jury.

Companies who want to get an ex-employee off the unemployment rolls as fast as possible sometimes tell prospective employees that he was the best worker they ever had. But that can fly in the face of the company's claim that the employee was fired for bad performance or attendance problems.