A few months ago I worked as a consultant for Company X. I worked on a specific platform (a platform like IBM Bluemix for example, though less popular).
I'm not really sure what transpired but things seemed to have gone very badly. My boss, the person who hired me, made a renewal offer for my contract but then rescinded it. Also he blocked me on social media which he had at first really wanted to be connected over. He got mad that I used Company X's name on social media, saying that his client list is confidential. I didn't see it this way - I didn't actually know he was a contractor and not an employee. I asked this before and I still am a bit unclear about the whole bit about you're not supposed to say the name of the company you worked for as a contractor.
Anyway, I don't think my ex-boss would give me a good reference. There was another consultant who I can contact. We attended many of the same meetings and worked on the same platform (though never really worked together). Someone suggested I could ask him for a reference. Is this a good idea? How would I do it without saying that things didn't end well between me and my boss?
Hi. We worked as consultants for Company X last summer. I was wondering if I could in the future use a a reference to confirm that I worked with Platform?
It's hard to put into words but my ex-boss's work style was sort of inherently dishonest. For example he once told me it's better to sound confident in the work place than to be honest.
I felt a bit lied to how after he hired me he said "you're not actually working for Company X because I'm not an employee of there's. I'm a contractor, therefore you're working for me and can't say you work for Company X". I realize "contractor" is a bit of a loaded word but I think strictly speaking neither me nor my boss were contractors, in the legal sense of the word. Is there anything that should/could be done in these situations? In the future I will get much more detailed contracts, but if the person's a schemer they will try to work against this.
