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An even worst situation is the toxic company or the boss from hell. There are plenty of bad companies and horrible bosses out there. If you took a job that turned out to be a big mistake, then what? Do you really want potential new employers to call these people? I had this problem myself. For two and a half years I worked for a company where the owner was very unethical. It turned out he never paid any FICA (Social Security taxes) and there were numerous other problems. My job was technical and I didn't deal with the pissed-off customers or employees. Towards the end I went to the Ukraine twice to help set up offices there for a new business my boss wanted to launch. I discovered that it was intended primarily as a front for an international prostitution business. He also did some very underhanded things to me personally during and after the last trip. Upon my return, he was still there and then proceeded to do some traveling, so when he finally got back to the business we had some big arguments and ultimately I was fired. I intended to quit anyway. This was a bitter situation.

There simply was no way I could use this employer as a reference, and I couldn't just leave it out of my resume creating a 2.5 year blank. I found a way around it, but I really don't know how effective that was. I have applied for jobs that I thought I would be a perfect fit for, and I never even get an interview. What to do?

I know of many people who left good jobs to become part of an internet startup or some other startup, only to realize that they had made a big mistake. Many of these companies were poorly run, had no fiscal controls, or were staffed by people without any qualifications for the positions they held. Some of these are defunct but others are still around in one form or another.

You can't leave an employer out of your resume. Companies can check your employment with the Social Security Administration and find out in other ways. You don't want to have a misleading resume or lie on your resume. Many times a company will hire someone on a probationary or provisional basis while they check out your references and do a background check. If they find out you have lied on the application/resume, they will likely fire you.

So what can you do about the toxic company or the boss from hell? Blue Planet Offices has an answer. It might not work for everyone, but we do offer one approach for this problem.

Much like a reconstructed reference, in this situation we conduct research into the reference. We consider all parts of the reference, but any statements which are not directly relevant or are inflammatory we filter out. The filtered reference is entirely true but sticks to the facts that are relevant to the employment.

Many companies only provide basic information for a reference, but there are those toxic companies and bosses from hell who are only too happy to go out of their way to sabotage someone they do not like. Blue Planet simply filters out this irrelevent information.

Rather than have a reference from hell, Blue Planet will assign you a local telephone number that prospective employers can call and Blue Planet will provide an accurate but filtered reference.

There are limitations to the effectiveness of this approach, such as if the prospective employer looks up the number rather than using the one on the resume, however this is unlikely. Most people will not go to more trouble than they have to. The number should be listed as the HR or Personnel line, not as the general number for the business. The number is answered as Human Resources. This approach will also not work if the company has a policy of sending for reference information by mail. However, I would think that few companies will put any derogatory information about you in writing and send it off to a company or individuals they do not know. Chances are there is no response or the response is very vanilla. Defaming you in writing is an invitation to a civil action.

We have access to many thousands of telephone numbers and will find one that is as close to the real one as possible. Once you have secured the employment and the period you have paid for is ended, that number will be disconnected. Blue Planet will not use the same number again, unless it is for another client with the same former employer. Blue Planet has the use of thousands of local telephone numbers and many hundreds of 800 toll free numbers, so no potential employer would have any idea we were involved.

All of our reference services include up to 20 calls per month for references. If you need more than 20 during the month you may purchase additional blocks of reference on this site.

Filtered Employee Reference -- $79.95

Filtered Employee Reference -- Added Month $49.95

Temporarily payment is made to dschramm, Blue Planet CEO. Our service is billed as a subscription for one month. Your service will be completed within that time. You will only be billed once.