Thanks for the comment. I have worked for companies that told me to never give out more information than verification and dates of employment, though I’ve never had a company tell me not to call references when hiring. BTW, I didn’t exclude calls from HR, which in my memory are even more rare than calls from managers (I can’t remember the last one, though in fairness, sometimes the call is from “Leslie Jones of XYZ Corp.,” so it could be either HR or a manager).

All that said, those kinds of restrictions make it hard to get information from references, and while I understand the legal concern, it’s a real annoyance. I’d like to know whether any company has suffered a significant legal problem from giving an honest reference, or if it’s just lawyers putting on the belts and suspenders.

While I always did my best to follow corporate policy when giving a reference, I have received information “sub rosa” from companies with that policy, especially if the manager thought the candidate was someone who deserved a good reference. And, I have often been able to get a good feeling about someone’s opinion through tone of voice, word choice, etc. But, it can be a real annoyance when you run into a company with that policy.