should I recommend someone who I was told something very bad about?

A reader writes:

Years ago, I got to know Fergus, the head of a local organization I worked with through my previous job. Fergus eventually left the organization to pursue other opportunities, and shortly afterward, I had a meeting with other members of the team, including the person who had succeeded him. At one point in the conversation, I asked if they knew how Fergus was doing and received a fairly non-committal answer.

A couple days later, I received an email from the new manager that had very clearly been written by lawyers, informing me that after Fergus’ departure they had discovered financial improprieties during his time running the organization and had severed all ties with him. This was surprising to me because, while I had never worked closely with Fergus, he had never given me any reason to question his integrity.

A few months after that, the CEO of my organization mentioned to me that he had had conversations with Fergus about joining our team. I felt duty-bound to tell him about the email I had received. I’m not sure how much of an impact that had, but in any event he never came to work for us.

Fast forward to last week when Fergus, with whom I’ve stayed in touch with over the years, asked me for an introduction to the CEO of a company where he is applying for a job. My instinct is to let bygones be bygones and make the introduction. It’s been five years and I don’t even know the details of what he was alleged to have done, much less whether it’s true. And as I said, other than this one incident, I’ve never had any reason to doubt Fergus’ integrity.

Still, I’ve found myself wondering, if I felt an obligation to tell my boss about the email five years ago, why wouldn’t the same obligation extend to my professional contacts at this other company? (I know the CEO, but not particularly well, and he’s certainly not someone I would consider a friend.)

There’s also the question of, if I do make the referral, whether I should give Fergus an enthusiastic recommendation or simply pass along his resume without comment. Given how difficult it is for job candidates to stand out these days, I almost feel as if the latter action would be equivalent to not making the intro at all.

Ugh, this is hard. The fact that Fergus had never given you reason to question his integrity doesn’t mean that he wasn’t involved in financial improprieties; in fact, the way many successful embezzlers (to use one example) are able to get away with it for a long time is that they come across as friendly and trustworthy.

On the other hands, it’s a little odd that the other organization felt the need to send you that letter. Was there any reason for them to spill Fergus’s business like that, other than sullying his name? Maybe there was! Depending on the work Fergus did, there could be reasons that you/your organization needed to know what happened. But if there weren’t, I’d be uncomfortable with that and trying to figure out why I was being informed.

In any case, when your CEO mentioned he was considering hiring him, you were right to share what you’d been told with him. You had relevant info that he had the right to consider.

It’s different in this latest situation, where you don’t work for the person he’s applying with, so there’s not as clear an imperative. But Fergus is asking you to use your reputation to vouch for him. Before you can do that, I think you’ve got to know more. Would you be willing to ask Fergus point-blank about what happened with the old job? You could say, “Before I contact Joe, can I ask about what happened when you left OldOrg? My sense was that there might have been some issues there, and candidly I feel like I’ve got to ask you that first. I’m sorry if I’m putting you in an awkward position.”

This won’t necessarily clarify things for you, but it might. Or it might further muddy them! But I don’t see how you can vouch for him — which is what you’d be doing — without at least asking him about it. If you don’t want to do that, I don’t think you can ethically refer him, given the info you do have. And so if he didn’t do anything wrong, it’s actually fairer to give him a chance to clear things up.

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