Why is it not a good idea to "badmouth" a previous employer?

Question

My life is miserable at the company I work for. I'm in the tech industry in an organization with one of the best companies in the world, yet the workplace I'm in is completely toxic. People seriously dislike each other here. My boss is a manipulative clown who often boasts about how he takes advantage of other folks for his own gain at the expense of others' goals. He literally laughs this off without any regard for how the other person may feel. His social skills are so incredibly bad, it's often cringe-worthy to just have a normal conversation with him.

I'm now on the hunt for something new, and I'm feeling pumped about it because I'm finally exiting a terrible relationship. I've come to learn that no matter how good your individual job content and the things you do a daily basis may be, if you're in a place where the relationships make you feel pissed off everyday, you'll never "advance" yourself in the short and long term.

Before I started thinking seriously about job hunting actively, I've asked myself often: is it me? Is my perception just off? Can I adjust it? Am I in control of this department's culture? Can I make sacrifices for the betterment of my career? These questions have always circulated my head for past year, and I've felt like I've put up with a lot of this baggage for way too long. I'm ready to move forward, but my question is this:

When interviewing with new employers, the inevitable question always arises: Why did you choose to leave your position? Candidates often have some canned response, simply following the textbook advice: never badmouth a previous employer. But why not? Seriously. The textbook advice advises against it simply because it puts you in a negative light, people don't want to hear about your old baggage...but I want to express myself honestly, and portray the gravity of such a suicidal career I embarked on for the past year. I need some cathartic explanation without diluting the honesty in my answer.

Answer 1

Because you may be perceived as scapegoating your former employer for your own possible shortcomings since your former employer is not present there to rebut any of your claims.

The company may perceive you as a potentially divisive influence, who when the going gets tough may fall back to your established habit of blaming you employer first, potentially spreading negativism and harming the morale of your coworkers.

By blaming your past employer you reveal yourself as a gossip, not an admirable quality unless you are applying for the job of a police informant or a tabloid reporter.

By blaming your past employer you are showing yourself as not being able to resolve problems with your manager through negotiation and basic diplomacy thus you may be perceived as possibly a cause of needless headaches, and wasted hours spent on mediation between you and co-workers/management.

Also you will more than likely be perceived as someone too ignorant to even take into account or comprehend any of the above concepts to complain about your past employer anyhow.

Answer 2

Why is it not a good idea to "badmouth" a previous employer?

Well, at one point, your prospective employer might become your previous employer. And if he knows that you have a tendency to badmouth previous employers, why would he want to hire you? You're probably going to badmouth him later.

Diplomacy is key. It's OK to say that you've had disagreements with your boss and/or coworkers. If you badmouth them, however, you come off as the badmouthing type. This is not ideal.

Answer 3

The bottom line is, there must be "something" wrong or you wouldn't leave. You're going to have to find something, but:

• Don't make it personal
• Don't make it emotional
• It can't be something you have control over, but failed to fix it.

Your team and manager are dysfunctional, so you may have to say, "There is no room for advancement." The company isn't growing fast enough. You want to expand the technologies you work with and want to be challenged because your current project is treading water.

You can't say, "I don't like my boss and he is a fool." No one cares what your opinion is of the company, but if you bad mouth them, they'll think less of you. Remember, most of your interviewing will be with management. No one wants to hire a disgruntled employee. Anything you say against management, they'll take it personally. Sorry, but that's human nature. Everyone else who has a bad boss will feel sorry for you, but they're not hiring.

Answer 4

Basic idea:

If you are going to talk bad about him to me, why wouldn't you talk bad about me to someone else?

You might have personal bad feelings about your current employer or a specific member of your team because of the situation you were in. But from a professional point of view it is good to brush it away and focus only on the value you are bringing in.

Here are a few other reasons:

1. Nobody likes complainers.
2. Your new employer may know people at your current work place. You do not want to risk it, after all it's a small world.
3. Forgive and forget: Even if they had really troubled you.

Answer 5

I agree with most of what's already been said, but let me add this.

Remember that the person interviewing you does not know what your present job is really like. It MAY be that all your complaints are completely valid, your boss is a total jerk, etc. But it is likely that they will also wonder, Could it be that it is this person I am interviewing who is the problem? Maybe he's just a trouble-maker and a malcontent? Surely we have all, at one point or another, heard a friend complain about a problem with another friend, and you think, Wow, Bob is really being a jerk. Then you hear Bob's side of the story and you think, Wow, if he's telling the truth than Alice is the one being a jerk. People with some life experience start to consider the possibility that a person is slanting the story to make their side look better. Sometimes when I hear someone complain about another person I find myself searching for holes in their story.

And bear in mind if you're complaining about your boss, the person interviewing you is also a boss, and is likely to see things more from the boss's point of view. He might well be thinking, Is the boss really domineering and manipulative, or is this guy someone who just insists on always getting his own way and can't take direction or be part of a team?

Even if the interviewer accepts that your complaints are justified, they want someone on their team who solves problems, or at least copes with them, rather than just complaining about them and/or giving up. They know that there organization is also made up of fallible humans and that their work environment is not perfect either. When you find faults in their company, will you complain and stir up trouble there also? Or quickly quit?

Note I'm not saying that there is anything you could do to fix the problems at your present job or that quitting is not the best option. What I am saying is that a prospective employer can't be sure if you are being totally reasonable or over-reacting. And if you get all emotional and whine and complain or yell and scream, it makes you sound less rational and more emotional.

The purpose of a job interview is not to prove that you are in the right in your disputes with a previous employer. Certainly not to provide a cathartic release of your frustrations -- if you need that, vent to a friend or see a psychiatrist. At a job interview you want to convince them that you are the best candidate for the new job.

Answer 6

A lot of negative (i.e. "Don't say such and such") interview advice is given considering the possible assumptions that an interviewer could make about you based just on the interview.

In this case the possible assumption is this.

More often than not your interviewer probably is a boss, or a HR person or someone who's had to deal with staff. She doesn't know you're a perfectly reasonable person in an unfortunate situation. She just knows that you have had trouble with a boss before and despite your protests that your boss was the bad guy and not you, from her point of view it's possible that you're the problem and you just have difficulty getting along with bosses.

"People seriously dislike each other here." You may be speaking the truth, but your interviewer may think, "or do people just not like you?"

You want to give the impression that you're a positive person who is enthusiastic about your work place. Badmouthing your boss does the opposite.

Answer 7

If you need to give a cathartic explanation, then explain to a therapist or someone else you trust to keep confidentiality. It is not appropriate behavior for a professional setting, or even a public setting, unless you believe that the situation actually poses a threat to the public.

Your boss certainly sounds like a toxic character, at least from your descriptions. But ultimately, it's not relevant to your (prospective) new job: they're hiring you, not him. You've carrying a lot of self-doubt, which isn't surprising for someone coming out of an abusive work environment, but advertising your self-doubt invites others to share in it. That makes interviewers nervous, for the same reasons that it makes you nervous, only they're the ones who have to decide whether or not to hire you.

I agree that you need to express this stuff in a full and honest manner. But an interview is not the time or place for it. I am sorry to hear of your situation, but you sound like you could benefit from a few sessions with a professional. Aside from giving you a safe place to vent, it may also help with your self-doubt.

Answer 8

This is a difficult one.

As an interviewer it's important to me to determine why a candidate is leaving, because that reason may very well be relevant to my choice of whether to now hire him or her. In the same vein, it's in your best interests to make sure the interviewer has that information: if you dodge the question, that's suspicious, and I'm going to start wondering what you're hiding. Hiding the reason you're leaving a company is not something that is going to endear me towards taking a risk on you.

On the other hand, you don't want to come across as a gossip, a rat, or a moaner.

I can't tell you precisely what to say, but I wouldn't dodge this entirely: I'd try to find some way of indicating the real reasons that you're leaving, but without accusing individuals of any specifics.

Answer 9

Why should you badmouth an obstacle you can't shape, but only avoid? Moreover, you should be fair to your previous employer: even if people in your team were unpleasant, that does not necessarily apply to the whole company.

A job change is all about you. You got yourself in a situation where no career improvement was possible, so you move on. The only thing you are in control of is yourself. You can't change the company someone else owns.

Answer 10

Bringing baggage from your previous employer into an interview is career suicide. Plain and simple.

Just put yourself in the interviewer's shoes. When I'm hiring someone, I'm looking for positivity and enthusiasm. Being positive and enthusiastic about the job is way more important to me than credentials.

I already know there are a lot of jerk bosses out there -- I've had my share, too. BUT: I also know that there are a lot of employees who are basically immature babies who can't work under direction and make their bosses' lives a living hell.

If someone came into my office for an interview and started going off on their previous employer, I'd tend to put them in the second category. Not a place you want to be.

Consider saying things positive, like "I am looking for a place where I can much better apply my talents." Better yet, do some research on the company before you interview and say positive things like "I'm excited to have the opportunity to work on project xyz with John Smith."

Answer 11

During an interview, it's your word against the company's reputation, and unless your employer has already been sullied by proven allegations of misconduct, you'll just make yourself look bad even if what you described is true (but neither proven nor alleged in a court of law).

Answer 12

Is it me? Is my perception just off? Can I adjust it? Am I in control of this department's culture? Can I make sacrifices for the betterment of my career?

You must remember that you will always be you. You can try to change your views, but to drastically and you may end up just hurting yourself. Unless you are designated to be in control of a department, it's not your job to keep it "clean". Just avoid trouble and you usually end up fine. Sacrifices meant to better your career is a double edged sword. You need to make sacrifices to succeed, the question is what you want to sacrifice, and if you do the right ones.

Why did you choose to leave your position?

Textbook answers are common, but everyone knows them, and thus it can lead to sneaky questions trying to peel the exact reason why you left to begin with. The cards you can play here heavily depend on what you carry to begin with. If you need to move house, and the new job is closer\more available, that's a start. Got kids? Maybe the area has better schools. See where I am going here? Just don't lie.

Never badmouth a previous employer. But why not?

Easy, if your old job is similar to the new one, and maybe even close in a geographical setting, your previous boss and potential new boss MAY know each other. Slim chance, but it's a trap you DON'T want to step in. Besides, you'd want some papers from your old boss, to show your new, and likely they will end up talking on phone regarding you.

Lastly, as mentioned, you don't want to seem like the asshole. Not like your new boss can know if your old boss actually was a douche, or it was you who were the douche all along.

In short: If you badmouth your previous boss, you only badmouth yourself.

Answer 13

If you left your old job because it was a "toxic work environment" it is ok and right to say that. That is not "badmouthing your employer".

What you want to avoid is an unsupported, subjective criticism, like "My boss was a jerk" or "My coworkers were assholes." Subjective judgements, especially negative ones have no place in an interview. If you stick to the facts, you are fine.

One way to phrase your previous situation is: "My previous workplace was very politicized and success at the company had nothing to do with performance. I wanted to find a place where my work performance would be appreciated."

Answer 14

The way you have described it to me, you had a truly terrible experience at your previous job and want to escape it as quickly as possible. That's completely reasonable and understandable.

You still should not say your boss is a terrible person, or even dwell excessively on this previous position while applying for a new one, especially during an interview.

"Conflict of Interests" Is usually the code word prospecting employees use to say "I hated my previous job", and leaving it at that is usually acceptable. If you know for a fact your boss and co-workers hated you, or as you said that they would 'take advantage of you at the cost of your own personal goals', you can add that it was a toxic work environment that you wanted to leave, but do not name names, do not refer directly to your boss or the terrible things he did, and don't expose any of the previous employer's dirty laundry.

Regardless of how good the next job you have is, they will be looking at you as an employee, and how you will represent the company, during your interview. If they think you are going to represent them badly, they won't hire you. And holding onto a grudge against your previous company is exactly the kind of thing that they do not want to see.

You hate this previous company, and that's fine. Let them know you left for personal reasons to find a better work environment, that is also fine. But do not hold onto that grudge. Both because it will make you look bad, and because it is really bad for you personally in the long-run to hold that grudge. You're out of that company. You do not need to drag out your grudges in front of a new boss.

Answer 15

All answers till now have harped on 'diplomacy', 'dont complain' etc which I sum it up as 'politics'. You can choose to be political - 'work' with your manager even if it can shoot your blood pressure up, say nice things to him though you have a different opinion in mind etc or you can choose to be honest. You can decide based on the choice that you have - say in another company, how likely is it (not) to have a similar manager? Generally, 'honesty' doesnt work - if you say 'it was difficult to work with my manager', even if it is the truth, no company will see you in a favorable light.

Answer 16

Because the employer of the new job you are applying now may be self critical enough to recognize his own usual behavior.