The Dreaded "Blacklist" - what exactly is it?

This is today's topic of discussion - Corporate Blacklisting of individuals.

Lets define "blacklist" shall we?

A corporate blacklist is a list of people who are considered unacceptable for employment due to various reasons. Blacklisting can occur within a single company, across multiple companies, or even within an entire industry.?

Blacklisting can be done for a number of reasons, including:?

• Political reasons: Blacklisting can occur due to actual or suspected political affiliation.?
• Union activity: Blacklisting can occur due to a history of trade union activity.?
• Whistleblowing: Blacklisting can occur due to a history of whistleblowing, such as on safety or corruption issues.?
• Personal differences: Blacklisting can occur due to personal differences with a former employee.?
• Retaliation: Blacklisting can occur as a form of retaliation.?

Blacklisting is widely considered unethical and is prohibited by law in many states. Blacklisting can have a severe impact on a jobseeker's ability to earn a living, limit their career opportunities, and harm their reputation.?

If you suspect you are being blacklisted, you can try these steps:

• Be honest with potential employers about what happened.
• Have a good peer reference available from the role.
• Tell the potential employer your story if asked.
• Stick with facts and avoid getting angry or emotional.?

A corporate blacklist is a list of people who are considered unacceptable for employment due to various reasons. Blacklisting can occur within a single company, across multiple companies, or even within an entire industry.?

Why is this my topic for today? Well, it actually connects back to some posts and articles I wrote several months ago related to what individuals should do in challenging economic times.

I suggested to people who have been looking for a full time role for a while that they should set their sights on contracting.

Contracting has the advantage for those who are looking for work to be relatively quick to find, and quick to start working. Far faster than interviewing for Full Time roles, as you have a couple rounds of interviews just confirming you have the skills to do the work and are a reasonable person to work with, and the contract agency handles the background checks, hardware and benefits items for the contractor.

It can be a short a time as 3 or 4 days from interview to you starting to work and earn money.

YAY!

But, and there are always buts - but I will focus on one of them that happened to me and had longer lasting repercussions.

Lets say you landed a contract gig and are using it as a gap job while waiting to land a real full time gig with benefits, a future, etc...

You get your but into a seat, you get your laptop of choice, you like your colleagues and your client/supervisor - they're all really cool and it seems like they really appreciate you as well.

Rumors abound about ongoing layoffs, and no one in leadership knows where those cuts will be happening. You're on a 12 month contract, but you know that contract doesn't really mean anything to the client or agency since if the client doesn't like you, you're out. (And I have a painfjl personal experience with that case as well)

So while you're working, one of the employers who you interviewed with a couple months ago comes back and has an offer in hand. A full time job offer, nice salary and comp package that you negotiate because you now have confidence of a paycheck each week. And an indication (from reading the analyst reports and news releases for the company) that they will be growing and gaining value quickly over the next couple years.

You accept the offer, because your contract client hasn't given you any answers that make you feel you'll be around for the duration, and the new job pays more and seems better.

You give 2 weeks notice to the agency, and have 1 on 1 meetings with your onsite supervisor, your colleague and her manager to tell them in person because you dont want to make anyone angry or leave a bad taste in anyone's mouths.

Everything seems to go well - you're told by your client supervisor and peer that they understand and would likely make the same decision if they were in your shoes.

Your agency is pissed off since you left after just one month. In Silicon Valley or Seattle, this is often a matter of life and everyone gets over it.

Time goes on (5 months), and that stable growing company proves to not be that. For various reasons you are let go and 20% of the company is RIF'd.

You are back on the market, and contract recruiters are pinging you asking if you're available - yes, yes you are. They want to pitch you to the big company in the area.

One by one, they get back to you saying that you are ineligible to work for the big company - that you need to wait one calendar year following leaving before being considered again.

You reach out to the agency you originally worked for, hoping bygones are bygones.

Your handler gets back to you and in a private conversation relays that someone on the client side has put into their vendor tracker that you're "not recommended for rehire".

AH -The Blacklist! The Dreaded Blacklist!

One person somewhere in the five person chain of owning the relationship decided they were going to put you on The Blacklist - effectively eliminating you from contention and consideration for future roles.

I got a little bit of detail from my handler that I was "arrogant" - I had one day put my feet up on the sidecar filing cabinet by my desk (my legs were hurting some - by means of explanation. I remember because it was the only time I did this) and leaning back in my chair - which I guess is not a great look.

Now, I let it slide for several months. I thought once I hit my anniversary date for leaving the role I would try again and see if maybe this would clear up.

But it has been very very slow since May - at least I'm not seeing a lot of contract roles coming up for this particular employer, a very famous one at that.

Today, I decided to call their HR department and ask directly about this.

I was online with the HR representative, who was profoundly nice and helpful, for a magical 45 minutes as they dug in to find any dirt they could.

What was the result?

There is nothing negative on my magical client employer's personnel record that would prevent me from submitting and getting considered, interviewed and hired as a full time employee by said employer.

Nothing.

I dig down a bit further through contacting said former handler, and find out there are two vendor management groups that the client works through - Magnit and CWM.

There indeed is a separate system for contractors...

And here is where my story ends, because its exactly where I am today.

One individual can make a comment and affect your future options for employment.

• Retaliation: Blacklisting can occur as a form of retaliation.?

Well, if this happens to you - and given that contracting has always been for most people a gap solution to unemployment - be sure you leave on the best of terms. Complete your assignments, turn in your badge and equipment, promise you wont bad mouth your agency or the client, and then live by those words.

And even then - no guarantees.

Go back to your agency and ask for forgiveness. Go to your client's HR team and ask if it's in their system and what you can do to clear that up. Follow up with whatever leads you can to try to fix it.

But there are never guarantees it will. But you still try.