Amen to that! A combination of “you should be nice when talking about people” and “no one is perfect, everyone deserves the second chance” makes most people’s references completely worthless.
(Possible exception: Maybe when you are a high-status person asking another high-status person to describe a low-status person?)
Afterwards, when the not-an-axe-murderer with glowing references does something quite bad, and you confront the people who gave you the references, they say: “I actually barely knew him, but he seemed okay; I guess I was wrong” and “I assumed that he learned his lesson and wouldn’t make the same mistake twice”.
Amen to that! A combination of “you should be nice when talking about people” and “no one is perfect, everyone deserves the second chance” makes most people’s references completely worthless.
(Possible exception: Maybe when you are a high-status person asking another high-status person to describe a low-status person?)
Afterwards, when the not-an-axe-murderer with glowing references does something quite bad, and you confront the people who gave you the references, they say: “I actually barely knew him, but he seemed okay; I guess I was wrong” and “I assumed that he learned his lesson and wouldn’t make the same mistake twice”.