离职证明:前老板使绊子怎么办?

Dear Annie: I read your article about quitting over ethics, and I have a somewhat related question about my own situation. I was recently forced out of my job, following a dispute with my boss that was partly about ethics. I spoke with both an attorney and the local labor board, and because of the unusual circumstances surrounding my firing, they both think that I could win in court if I decided to sue the company, but I'm not interested in a long, costly legal battle.
亲爱的安妮：我拜读了您那篇关于出于道德考虑而辞职的文章，我自己的情况多少与此也有点相关，因此向您提问。最近我和老板发生了争执，部分原因就在于道德问题，此后我被迫离职。我和律师以及本地的劳工委员会谈过，由于我被解雇的情况很不寻常，他们都认为如果我决定起诉这家公司的话，我很可能能够赢得官司，可是我无意卷入旷日持久、成本高昂的诉讼。

However, I did work out a separation agreement with human resources. One of the provisions in it states that my former employer will not discuss the reasons for my departure with people who ask for a reference. I suspect my old boss is violating this agreement, because I just had a job offer withdrawn after the hiring manager contacted this person. Keeping in mind that I really don't want to sue, what can I do about this? –Norm
不过，我和人力资源部门达成了离职协议，其中一个条款就是：如果有人要求原雇主提供离职证明，公司不得透露我离职的原因。可是，我怀疑前老板违反了这份协议，因为有家公司本来已经答应聘用我，但招聘经理与我的前老板联系后却反悔了。我该怎么办？重申一下：我真的不想打官司。——诺姆

Dear Norm: This problem is a lot more common than you might think. Even without a separation agreement that specifically prohibits a former employer from badmouthing an ex-employee, most big companies have blanket policies in place that permit references to confirm nothing more than dates of employment and job title.
亲爱的诺姆：这个问题相当常见，并不像你想得那么特殊。就算没有离职条款来专门限制前雇主不得说离职雇员的坏话，多数大公司也都有统一的政策，除了员工的在职时间和工作头衔之外，不得透露其它任何信息。

Unfortunately, like so many corporate policies, these are honored mainly in the breach.
不幸的是，如同其他众多公司政策，上述规定也得不到切实执行。

"About 99% of the time, people we call for a reference don't even ask who we are before they start talking," says Heidi Allison, managing director of Allison & Taylor, a firm that specializes in finding out what people's references are actually saying about them.
Allison & Taylor公司专门分析推荐信的真实含义，公司执行董事海蒂??艾莉森指出：“约99%的情况下，我们打电话要求提供推荐材料时，对方都不问我们是谁，就开始大讲特讲。”

People's tendency to reveal more than they're supposed to isn't new, but Allison notes that it's gotten worse since the recession started. "HR departments now have a lot of young, inexperienced staffers answering the phones. Sometimes when we've been referred to them by managers we've called, they've read us someone's entire personnel file verbatim -- the good, the bad, and the indifferent," she says.
人们一向容易逾越应有范围，透露过多信息，这不是什么新鲜事，不过艾莉森指出，经济衰退开始后，这个问题更严重了。“人事部门现在有许多年轻而缺乏经验的员工接听电话，有时候我们给经理们打电话，但却会转到这些年轻员工那里，他们甚至会逐字逐句把前员工的整个个人档案读给我们听——无论好话、坏话还是废话。”她说

"Or some companies have no in-house HR department at all anymore," she adds. "So a request for a reference gets shuffled around to employees in other areas. They're busy, it isn't really their job, and they may not be familiar with company policy, so they have a tendency to say whatever pops into their heads." Yikes.
“还有些公司根本就不再设立内部的人事部门，”她补充说，“因此咨询前员工表现的请求会被转到其他方面的员工那里。他们忙得很，这本来也不关他们的事情，况且他们也不熟悉公司的相关政策，因此倾向于想到什么就说什么。”

Even a less-than-enthusiastic tone of voice or a terse "no comment" can be as damaging as a negative remark. So how can you make sure the people you're giving as references aren't sinking your prospects?
就连不甚热情的语调或者简明扼要的“无可奉告”都有可能像负面评价一样影响你的形象。那么，如何保证向潜在雇主提供的“推荐人”不会毁掉你的前途呢？