Can We Contact Your Current Employer

Can We Contact Your Current Employer?
When an employer asks this question, who will they usually contact and what questions will they be asking and what can an employer legally answer?
More and more companies are asking this and my candidates aren't sure what to do.
They're worried about retaliation if their current employer finds out they are working.
How can I assure them it will be okay?
If they check "no" will that disqualify them from jobs?
Here are some of your responses:

Are you crazy?
Don Espinola CPIM

Don:
If you mean Clinically Crazy, not that I've been recently diagnosed.
If you are asking if it is Crazy as in unbelievable that employers are asking this question, it is indeed true.
I've had many candidates go through this.
If you mean Crazy as in I don't know how to answer this question, then I'm guilty.
It is better to ask a dumb question than live in ignorance as I just started saying.
Thanks!
Everet


Everet, I like your sense of humour it is exactly like mine. My point is once any of my old employers find out about my wanting to leave, then they would make it their business to make me go bye-bye.
Don Espinola CPIM

I've also run into this myself on standardized tests for companies a major insurance company and a fast growing IT server company. In both cases I was perfectly qualified but had marked "no" to that question because it was very early in the process. If someone is coming to me with an offer I can sort of understand that they want to contact my employer as a last check to make sure I'm not being fired or disciplined. I think it is asked too early in the process most of the time and I wonder how many good candidates an employer is losing because of that question.

Someone else I know very well had an employer contact them when they applied to the new company on a sort of whim when they weren't too serious about looking for a new job but the position sounded interesting. Their current employer made life troubling enough that they WANTED to quit after being contacted by the new company.
Ev



whenever i have been asked this question i always reply with a big fat NO!!!. As once with my previous employer who i thought was extremely professional tried to make my life a living hell with the new employer even though they ignored his comments but he was too ticked off that i was leaving his organization.
Shua Ahmad
Group COO at Binham Pakistan Pvt Ltd

The easy answer for employers is to clarify when they will be contacting your employer in the interview process. If it is after I have an offer in my hand I don't have  a problem when you contact my current employer. Before that point I run the risk of being fired and I do have an issue with that.

Thanks for reading and participating!
Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy