My Boss is Causing Me to Lose a New Job

[meche24]

My question involves defamation in the state of: MD

I am a Federal Employee and US AF Reservist. I work for the unit that I am attached to in the Reserves and I feel that my current boss is defaming my character.

I worked in my current job for two years prior to his coming on board. During that time I have not had the issues that I currently have with him. Not only do I get blammed things that I do not do, but my boss goes around telling people that I do not work and not to talk or to be in the same room as me. I recently found out that this is not out of character for him and that he left his previous position due to the very behaviors that I am experiencing.

Recently, I have been offered another Federal position but I fear my boss will call them and do the same thing that he is doing now. Is this considered defamation of character.

I am a single mom and losing this new job will put me in a hole, and my boss knows it. However, he is bias and passive aggressive and purposely is trying to get me out of my current job and my new job.

[cbg]

Gee, I'm sorry to hear that.

When you have a legal question, be sure to let us know.

[tex11]

Are you asking if have any legal recourse against your boss for bashing your job perfomance if a prospective employer calls him asking for a reference?

The answer is generally NO. Even if the statements your boss makes are defamatory.

And that is because employers are generally afforded qualified immunity from defamation claims when providing job references. There are good reasons for why this is so. But as these things go, there are also downsides to that kind of legal protection.

The exceptions to the immunity privilege are if you are able to prove the statements are defamatory and false, that they cannot be construed as opinion, that they caused you tangible harm, and lastly you MUST prove actual malice on the part of the employer. And malice in this context is legally a very difficult hurdle to overcome.

And given that one is almost never able to really nail down and undisputably prove exactly what one person stated to another in a private phone conversation, the odds of winning this type of lawsuit is almost zero. The only sure thing is the costs of such a suit can easily run into the tens of thousands of dollars and higher.