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> If you are looking for a new job while at a current one, don't most
> prospective employers understand that you can't give your current employer
> as a reference? I wouldn't even worry about it...
Many prospective employers do understand. However, you will find that there
is always one or two who absolutely insist upon speaking with your current
employer. I had just that happen last year. After the pubs manager with whom
I was interviewing insisted several times that she must speak with my
current employer (I was told it was "company policy"), I finally explained
that I had filed discrimination charges against my then current employer.
Even with that information, the pubs manager still insisted that she needed
to speak with my current employer. It was only at that point that I ended
negotiations with that pubs manager.
As a postscript, two days later I accepted a position from another company.
As for my former employer, they offered a settlement rather than permit the
written evidence I had to be used in a discrimination case.