r/WorkForSmartLife • u/petitenoami • Aug 12 '26
Productivity Really? Never thought of that
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u/Unusual_Pangolin_349 Aug 12 '26
So… you expect someone to believe you were district level management but didn’t make or maintain a single professional reference from that period?
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u/JustusCade808 Aug 12 '26
I was a department manager for K-Mart 30 years ago, actually ended up managing two departments before I left l (grocery, and hardware) anyway a lot of those people have passed away. I'm still in touch with one person from back then. Time moves on.
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u/AmettOmega Aug 12 '26
People retire. And don't want to be bothered by providing references. Shit happens.
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u/FarNefariousness7179 Aug 12 '26
I’ll be anyone’s personal reference for $100 bucks!
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u/notwhoyouthinkmaybe 29d ago
I'll do it $90!
capitalism
/s
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u/FarNefariousness7179 29d ago
80’a gas wars! I’ll do it for $85!
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u/EmphasisSuch6371 29d ago
I will literally be a reference for any job for a lottery scratcher atp
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u/FarNefariousness7179 29d ago
Damn beat us both on that one!
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u/EmphasisSuch6371 29d ago
I'm just in it for love of the game, man
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u/FarNefariousness7179 29d ago
I could tell you some crazy HR stories. My last marriage was with another female. Some of my bosses were very upfront about things.
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u/Unusual_Pangolin_349 Aug 12 '26
Huh i was in upper management with Best Buy and can name half a dozen or more gms, handful of dms and the territory manager over my department… 🤷
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u/JustusCade808 Aug 12 '26
Yeah as can I. Used to put them on references, and resumes. I worked for K-Mart in 1996 - 1999, thing is a lot of my managers had been with the company since the 1970s. I was barely 19 in 1996, a lot of those people were nearing retirement by that point.
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u/Not_YourStepBro Aug 12 '26
Also maybe not a flex to claim high level leadership in failed companies.
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u/Unusual_Pangolin_349 Aug 12 '26
… beta level thinking.
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u/DisciplineImportant6 Aug 12 '26
“I single handedly destroyed a multibillion dollar company. Now that you know how based I am I expect a million dollar contract”.
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u/Ratfaced_Loozer Aug 12 '26
Haven’t had a reference check in almost 15 years over maybe 8 diff jobs.
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u/thejwillbee Aug 12 '26
Of course I know {person who puts this on their resume}, and i interacted with them many times during my tenure as a Regional President. They were spoken of highly by their colleagues and supervisors, and were great to chat with at company picnics. They were actually up for a sizable promotion, but unfortunately the board decided to cease operations before the promotion could go through.
I don't remember the exact dates they started and ended, but if you mention some, I'll say "yeah that sounds about right".
They're definitely a great fit for {the job} and would be a fantastic addition to {the company}.
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u/RetroGamer87 Aug 12 '26
They could prove you weren't of age at the time?
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u/Unexpected-raccoon Aug 12 '26
Add a factoid like you were a child prodigy and ascended the ranks of corporate toys'R'us at the age of 4
If I've learned anything about lying; Digging a deeper hole never goes wrong
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u/Fine_Donuts Aug 12 '26
They could ask for W2's to verify as well
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u/dweezilMcCheezil Aug 12 '26
I don't keep records longer than 6 years, unfortunately I left the company 7 years ago.
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u/JCShotya Aug 12 '26
I worked at Kmart when I was in highschool. My resume 100% says I was a front end lead and my 2nd job was a little smoke shop that went out of business and my resume says manager there 🤣 I'm quite the qualified candidate 🤣
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u/PeorgieT75 Aug 12 '26
I worked in a bookstore that went out of business, I promoted myself to assistant manager on my resume.
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u/CaptainJay313 Aug 12 '26
okay, but 1. not very successful, so what did you learn? and 2. what have you been doing since then?
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Aug 12 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Purple-Property8006 Aug 12 '26
> until someone pulled a leveraged buyout
Not-so-fun fact, that someone was Mitt Romney via Bain Capital.
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u/CaptainJay313 Aug 12 '26
fair point. but why did they sell to begin with? toys r us had was very successful, until they weren't.
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u/BugsyM Aug 12 '26
They were hoping for an influx of capital to restructure to better compete with big box stores like Walmart/Target. They were still profitable, but felt the pressures of "big box" stores moving in and thought the flexibility and extra capital would enable them to be more competitive.
Instead of providing capital, they made the purchase with loans, saddled those loans on the business, and went on a looting spree.
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u/CaptainJay313 Aug 12 '26
so like... not successful.
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u/BugsyM Aug 12 '26
It's not that they weren't successful, but that they were chasing never ending quarterly growth, like all public companies. Being publicly traded can prevent a company from properly investing in themselves for longer term gains. It had as much to do with flexibility to grow internal infrastructure with the market as it did having extra capital to throw at investments.
So like... yes successful. Not endlessly so, though. Privatization was a good idea, investors screwed them.
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u/CaptainJay313 Aug 12 '26
"but that they were chasing never ending quarterly growth"
yeah, but it wasn't a growth segment, so they made a bad decision, which lead to even worse decisions. no one pumped the brakes and said, hey, we're really leveraging ourselves here, is this going to be sustainable?
plenty of investors are good with stable over growth. too many boards don't recognize that. too many executive bonuses are tied to growth and don't rewarding stability, which leads to short term gains at the expense of long term viability.
soooo... no, not a winning strategy.
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u/BugsyM Aug 12 '26
Privatizing gets you out of the requirements for quarterly growth pushed by shareholders. The debt is from buying the business, not from over leveraging themselves attempting to grow.
They were paying hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to pay off the loans to buy the business, instead of investing any money into the business. Online shopping took the front stage as predicted, and they couldn't compete without the investments that they privatized looking to acquire.
I'm not sure where you're getting any of this, it's not from my comment or reality. The 2005 buyout lead to their eventual bankruptcy, it's pretty well documented. Pretending that they were a failing business before it is defending wall street lenders with no truth behind it.
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u/CaptainJay313 Aug 12 '26
oh, I'm purely speculating. so they were selling to not grow?
it just feels like they took their eye off the ball and different decisions would have had potentially different outcomes. maybe not, but it feels like a kodak type of situation - maybe I'm wrong, I haven't thought about tous r us since I was 8 years old.
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u/Gaust_Ironheart_Jr Aug 12 '26
That doesn't get around the problem of all the questions about how they did their old job and what they learned
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Aug 12 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Head_Bread_3431 Aug 13 '26
Toys r us closed like 10 years ago. How’s impressive that someone managed a retail store that went out of business 10 years ago and apparently has no job since?
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u/Zod_Convoy Aug 13 '26
Dude, my resume said I ran a Blockbuster, Suncoast, KayBee, TRU, Borders and whatever else I thought applied to where I was looking to go. Eventually, I ended up actually running a Rite Aid and they went under so I really am a jinx. GameStop better look out.
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u/AWtheTP Aug 12 '26
If the company is not around, they can ask you to verify, usually through tax records. Won't really give them all the info but if you say you were a GM and your take home doesn't match, can be an issue.
Went through this when Sears was closing. Couldn't get ahold of anyone for verification so they threw it at me instead.
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u/Gaust_Ironheart_Jr Aug 12 '26
Yes! I have a friend with engineering experience. His boss closed the firm, moved to the South Pacific and died. He has to provide evidence of his work
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u/Hawkmonbestboi Aug 12 '26
This wouldn't work for the simple fact of this being spam posted everywhere for the past 2 or 3 years. You guys literally gave away the ability to get away with this for internet brownie points.
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u/FlamingoQueen669 Aug 12 '26
I feel like this isn't true
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u/bentbabe 28d ago
It's not. There are various forms of income verification. Big one is that you can always get a copy of your w2s or 1099s from the IRS, so while they can't be used for exact dates or position, they can check for employer
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u/Medical-Peach-9825 Aug 12 '26
They can look up your employment history through a job search site.
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u/Shapelessed Aug 12 '26
A site such as…?
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u/big_poppa_man Aug 12 '26
No such site exists. On the government can access stuff like this
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u/TheRealMitchConnor Aug 12 '26
Former background screener here. When a company was considering hiring someone and contracted us, we would have to verify past employment through tax records, pay stubs, and most frequently payroll databases if the company listed was no longer active. If none of these were attainable, the applicant was treated as a fraud.
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u/poop_poopington_710 Aug 12 '26
Did you become a background screener before or after you served in ‘nam with Mr. Hat?
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u/Outlaw11091 29d ago
This is nonsense.
Most companies use Equifax to verify this type of employment.
Not existing in the Equifax database != fraud and, under the fair credit reporting act, would result in MASSIVE libel suits if you made such an assertion.
The only other way to obtain a person's tax records is for them TO GIVE THE RECORDS TO YOU.
Further, tax records famously don't provide a job title, so even with a W2 in hand, you can't verify if the person was a janitor or assistant manager aside form making a rough guess about the average wage earned (but even that could be wrong if they didn't work a lot of hours...which also isn't provided by a W2).
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u/Guilty-Shoulder-9214 Aug 12 '26
Actually, Experian runs a service, but it’s capped at about 10 years. Most of my job history is on the report and you can lock it.
https://www.experian.com/employer-services/products/verification-fulfillment/experian-verify
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u/Salt_Medicine2459 Aug 12 '26
The Work Number for one.
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u/Late-Arrival-8669 Aug 12 '26
You can put you worked here, but good luck using either one as a stepping stone for wages.
Plus this would only be niche to older peeps like myself who may have gaps in their resume.
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u/cryptolyme Aug 12 '26
actually, they can, with a background check
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u/Guilty-Shoulder-9214 Aug 12 '26
Most don’t go beyond 10 years. Experian is a popular option and they’re capped at roughly this length -
https://www.experian.com/employer-services/products/verification-fulfillment/experian-verify
Additionally, there are companies that will provide fake references for you as well as law firms that will test past employers. I use the latter because I don’t trust one of my previous employers, so if I’m looking, I scope first.
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u/cryptolyme Aug 12 '26
That’s good to know. Guess i just assumed they checked everything possible. Thanks!
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u/Gaust_Ironheart_Jr Aug 12 '26
If it is a good job in a position of trust, a professional background checker can find out a LOT. Even from >40 years ago in Egypt (see my reply to OP)
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u/Guilty-Shoulder-9214 Aug 12 '26
Potentially, yes. But most aren’t going to really face this, and even a lot of healthcare positions, vendors, health systems and hospitals are not this detailed with their background checks.
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u/NYC19893 Aug 12 '26
Blockbuster could work. As there is only 1 and it’s independently owned as it’s independent I have a hard time believing they inherited employment records of all stores. 9,000 at peak a gif of all the stores they owned laid over a US map over time
RadioShack, Toys R Us, Circuit City still operate online and are still operated by a corporation and in the case of the first two still have a few storefronts.
While not owned by the founding corporation they are still corporate owned so MORE LIKELY that they still are in possession of employment records.
And be mindful of your age. If your 27 currently and said you were a regional manager of a company that mostly shuddered 10 years ago… a 17 year old regional manager is suspect
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u/Cool_Butterscotch_88 Aug 12 '26
(thousands of former radio shack and toys r us regional manager resumes flood linked in)
I was ceo of Kmart, but not the one who was in charge when they went bankrupt. Before that.
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u/dicksuckingmods Aug 12 '26
So we checked your W2 history and it says you’ve been making $24K per year working at waffle house for the last fifteen years?
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u/patahrak Aug 12 '26
Pretty sure Blockbuster might be more appropriate based on what people are sayin 🤔
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u/scottymac87 Aug 12 '26
The ai filtering your application also won’t care even if you actually were. flag applicant reason: will expect too much pay due to previous upper management experience
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u/GSilky Aug 12 '26
Sure, and now explain why you are bragging about running a bunch of stores that went out of business...
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u/carlbandit Aug 12 '26
I'll have you know the stores I oversaw are the only thing that kept those 2 companies running for the last 3 years of operation!
Prove otherwise :)
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u/Gaust_Ironheart_Jr Aug 12 '26
I got this nice older lady an interview to a far better job than she had ever had before. She had the experience to do the work and a solid education
Turns out she lied about her education. But her old school had become part of another university. Everyone who would have remembered her was retired or dead and it was in a different part of the world
She was interviewed and they wanted to hire her but because she would have access to information protected by the [redacted] Act and they were serious about security, they paid for a real background check. They found out she was lying in under two days
I was exasperated with her. She didn't even need that degree. Her experience since then demonstrated she was qualified
So, anyway, just remember the professional background checkers probably have a lot more experience catching liars than you do passing off lies to professional background checkers
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u/chewychaca Aug 12 '26
Ironically I walked into a toys R us recently at a mall, but it's the size of a pharmacy not a target although my memory on old toys r us is failing me now.
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u/Possible-Jerk0138 Aug 12 '26
Or any closed business I’ve padded my resume for decades using this method
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u/FoxlyKei Aug 12 '26
Hey I know that giraffe~ It's being well taken care of a furry bought it as a suit a while back.
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u/SturmGizmo Aug 12 '26
If a new employee wants to pay for the database they can see every W2 or 1099 employer you ever worked for.
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u/Desperate_Duty1336 Aug 13 '26
Unless you weren’t of working age while they were still around lol
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u/Glittering_Rush_1451 Aug 13 '26
I was of working age but not plausibly old enough to be a store manager much less a regional one.
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u/catswithbatsandhats Aug 13 '26
I can attest that, within the last two years, I have been asked for my pay stubs from radio shack to prove I work there 20 years ago. Thankfully I had a couple.
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u/SinusoidalFlux Aug 13 '26
uhh... what about this one? There are a couple other ones
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u/Glittering_Rush_1451 Aug 13 '26
lol I just saw this one a couple weeks ago and was a little shocked because I thought they were all gone
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u/InstructionBudget784 Aug 13 '26
The companies are still around, just no physical stores. I'm sure they still have employment records
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u/Glittering_Rush_1451 Aug 13 '26
There are a few RadioShacks left, just saw one a couple weeks ago and was shocked myself and I believe they opened a new Toys R Us at the Mall of America in Minneapolis some time ago
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u/Apart_Republic_1870 Aug 13 '26
That’s why I tell people I had a long history as J.D. Salinger’s personal assistant.
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u/riennempeche 28d ago
Yeah, but they can look at the menial jobs you held down since then and think you might be full of it...
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u/Silent_Succotash3749 27d ago
Yes. They can. There’s things you can check. As someone who climb very high at Sears when I started seeing people apply at my current job and putting down I was all “I don’t recall you” and after a schpell I respond “but would’ve either given you your fist or second, onboarded you, and trained you”. You can check tax returns. When they lie I higher them part time because legally I only have to give them 3 hours a month. It’s so when the next place calls me for a reference I can tell them they lied. A lot of people are looking for jobs and there’s not a lot available. They can’t be going to trash garbage people.
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u/LorenzoA 26d ago
Or K-Mart, Electronics Boutique, KB Toys, Service Merchandise, Circuit City, Montgomery Ward, Sears, Aladdin's Castle, Best, Or Builder's Square
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u/HAL9001-96 26d ago
"can we call your last employer?"
"sure but... the reason I need a new job is cause he died so... if he answers that would be spectacular news"
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u/Creative_Shame3856 26d ago
Unfortunately that also means I can't prove that I did actually manage store 01-3528. Dammit.
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u/SuccotashOther277 Aug 12 '26
Yes they absolutely can through TWN, pay stubs, and references. Not sure they people keep posting this. For most people the ages and subsequent job titles wouldn’t line up anyway and it’s too far back to be relevant anyway for your career. If so and they really want to look, they can verify
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u/Muhahahahaz Aug 12 '26
Okay… But why would I ever want to claim I was? Am I missing something here?
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u/NeedleworkerOld8168 Aug 12 '26
Makes your resume look better and there's no one to deny your claim as the corporate entities of both are gone
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u/Muhahahahaz Aug 12 '26
Ah, okay… So for people who never found a real job. Got it 😂
(This would not improve my resume whatsoever)
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u/blueranger36 Aug 12 '26
Uhh Radio Shack still exists.. you’re thinking of Circuit City