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Antiwork

How to navigate former boss refusing to be a reference?

I recently put in my two weeks notice after working as an assistant manager for three years. For the past six months, my workplace has become extremely hostile. There is a high management turnover rate in my company, and I started to witness store managers trash talking employees constantly. This is when I decided I had to quit. I have no other job lined up but I could not take another second of the hostility. After putting my notice in, the hostility was directed towards me. My store manager won’t speak to me or communicate with me and she is prying other employees for information. I now realize that I will have no reference for another job. I’ve been in management for three years now, and ideally I would like to find a better company to work for. But there is no way I can put my manager down as…


I recently put in my two weeks notice after working as an assistant manager for three years. For the past six months, my workplace has become extremely hostile. There is a high management turnover rate in my company, and I started to witness store managers trash talking employees constantly. This is when I decided I had to quit. I have no other job lined up but I could not take another second of the hostility. After putting my notice in, the hostility was directed towards me. My store manager won’t speak to me or communicate with me and she is prying other employees for information.

I now realize that I will have no reference for another job. I’ve been in management for three years now, and ideally I would like to find a better company to work for. But there is no way I can put my manager down as a reference for any new job I’m interested in. She will most definitely sabotage my chances at a new opportunity.

I am unsure if this is worth mentioning to future interviewers. I’ve witnessed store managers in my company completely belittle and degrade people for putting their notices in. I thought about going to HR, but the possibility of making things even worse just isn’t worth it. I’m currently looking for a new job but not having much luck yet.

Keeping my fingers crossed for a new job, but I felt a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders the second I put my notice in.

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