Is It Fair or Legal to Mark an Employee as "No Rehire" After Resignation? Seeking Advice on Next Steps

Hi all, my friend is facing a unique situation and needs your views/suggestions on this. He was working with a top MNC for 6 years and unfortunately had a very bad and revengeful manager during his last year of tenure. The manager was trying to find fault with him in some way for a long time and was jealous of his success. Finally, the manager trapped him in a policy violation issue on an overbilling report. He was unaware of the policy as he had been billing for a long time, and no one cared to inform him about the policy or warn him when it happened the first time. Even though all the reports were approved by management in the department before reaching the finance department, he was unfairly made a scapegoat during an audit to protect the management. He was fed up working there with all the politics and resigned. After resignation, he was verbally informed by HR that he had violated a policy and would be relieved immediately without serving the notice period. He didn't get paid for the notice period but received an experience letter after the recovery of the billing amount.

Now, he tried applying to the same company from a different branch after 7 months, and the HR there has informed him that he is not considered as his file is marked as "No for rehire" and termination. He was shocked on hearing this as he was not given any termination letter.

Is Marking an Employee Like This Legal and Fair?

How long do companies usually keep personnel records before deleting them? Does this mean he can never apply to any other department in that company?

What Information is HR Legally Permitted to Reveal During a Background Check?

If he states to another employer that he resigned, and during a background check, they say termination and policy violation, this will be a huge problem for him.

What Action Can He Take in This Situation?

Thank you.

I appreciate your concern for your friend's career. I have a doubt based on the conversation: why didn't your friend inform the higher management about the manager treating them as a scapegoat? Alternatively, why not bring this issue to the attention of the HR department? It seems like your friend may have accepted the policy violation, which is not ideal. Applying for a job at a company where they resigned is not advisable.

Furthermore, nowadays, every organization maintains an employee database, making it easy to track career experiences. My advice is to keep trying to apply to other companies. Best of luck.

Regards

Addressing Negative Remarks in Employee Records

Your friend needs to write to top management, explaining the whole matter, and ensure that such negative remarks do not appear in his employee file or database. The issue with these negative remarks is that when a reputable company attempts to hire him, they may conduct a background check and discover that he is marked as "not for hire." This could lead to questions that the employee will need to address to clarify the circumstances surrounding the remarks.

A copy of the letter addressed to the top management of the previous company should be retained as a file copy for record-keeping purposes.

There is no way to avoid such incidents entirely, but one can strive to maintain a positive outlook and demonstrate expertise in their work. Office politics has detrimentally affected many people's careers, or at the very least, their peace of mind.

Regards

It is desirable not to go back to the same company that framed him. All that he could do now is, if he has truly been of caliber material, his deeds should speak for themselves. Additionally, as others suggested, send out the complete story to many of his senior management (to whomever possible) narrating how he was framed by his jealous manager and why he made the decision to leave in disgust and feeling suffocated. Regarding notice pay, he should fight for it and secure it.

Since your friend believes that he has been unfairly victimized, why is he keen on going back to the same organization? Are there no other companies in India or in this world? Let him apply to other companies. If he is talented, possesses the necessary skills, attitude, and experience, other companies will be happy to hire him, maybe even with a higher salary.

Best wishes

Thank you all for your advice. Mr. Ashok Negidi, there was no point in mentioning this to the above cadre management in India or to the HR as everyone was playing the game to save their skins. The HR was also playing along with the manager rather than the employee.

Mr. Sundaram, he tried applying to another department because the company itself was good, but it was the individuals in his team/department who were corrupt.

Thx.