In most countries, it is nor illegal for the employers to fire an employee over a blatant lie about performance, culture fit or whatever bs reason. Yet, we as workers have been sosialized and taught that we as workers should always get references and worry about our reputation. The hard fact is that many people have been treated like shit, mocked, bullied and fed into dogs in some part of their career, so there is a huge power disequilibrium between a toxic boss firing a worker trough lies and the worker’s power to control his reputation in this kind of situation. Hence any article or piece of advice about ”you should be careful about this and that as a worker” is a form of gaslighting. In reality we have no control over our reputation because the employers can legally fabricate reasons to fire you and alas you get no references and/or get a bad reputation.