On 27/7/06 17:40, in article , "Janet
Baraclough" wrote:

The message
from Sacha contains these words:

However you
pick your workers, ask them for references from others who have employed
them and go to have a look if the garden owners will agree to that.

snip


I hate to think how many fake references are never taken up and go
undetected :-(


I agree. Always check references - always. Reading your litany, I think
I've been very lucky over the years. However, a house cleaner I'd sacked
when we lived in Surrey used my name as a reference to some friends of mine
in Jersey and they had the sense to ring me. I told them not to touch her
with a bargepole! When I was ill, she'd tried to blackmail me into paying
her more than the fair going rate and had simply announced "and from now on
my rate will be........", thinking she had me over a barrel. Big mistake,
especially as various bits and pieces of ours had 'gone missing'. She was
out of the door before she'd finished the sentence with the promise of the
police called if she returned!
Friends and family rallied round and that was the end of her. The friend of
mine she tried to get a housekeeper's job with had cancer, from which she
later died and the thought of this fiendish woman trying that with her was
too much to bear.
If any would-be employee has some excuse or other for not contacting
previous bosses or customers, strike them off the list.

--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(email address on website)