So, a couple years back I had a terrible manager. He was a nepotism hire, and didn't even have a degree, let alone one related to the technical department he managed.
I unwittingly made management look like a joke with my projects and studies, and he took it personally. He made my life a living hell, and set me up to fail, and fired me.
Now, years later, employers are calling him up and he's badmouthing me so I got ghosted for a second round interview!
Fuck this stupid fucking chud of a man. He made my life so bad I considered checking out of life, left me unemployed for half a year, and I got saddled with 10s of thousands of dollars of debt from said unemployment.
Should I warn employers of this bad egg? "Hey if you contact this employer, my direct manager had personal grievances with me"
Or do I just say nothing since that warning would cause hiring managers to skip over me?
You should say nothing. If he still works at the place you used to work at I think its technically illegal for him to badmouth you when they call to verify employment.
Usually companies have an HR dept that will only say "Yes, Mr. Propaganda worked here between <date> and <date>" for this very reason. I'm not sure entirely what recourse you have for this but there's some liability involved on his part if this is the case.
If he doesn't work there and these aren't verification calls but you're instead listing him as a reference, leave this manager off your reference list since it sounds like its going more harm than good. Get a friend to pose as a manager to call.
Absolutely this, all he is allowed to say if not giving you a recommendation is confirm the dates of the beginning and end of your employment.
Can I take legal action reasonably?
I did not list him as a reference.
Edit: Thanks for replying. I'm mostly just pissed that this asshole is still fucking with my life. Sure other things influenced my life, but without this man, I'd be $50k richer at minimum, have a better career, and wouldn't have almost died in a car accident (totaling the best goddamn car I've ever owned).
Get a friend to call him, use the typical "all our calls are recorded for quality assurance purposes", and then pose as a hiring manager who is considering you and record him badmouthing you while recording him. Then talk to an employment lawyer about it with your recording.
The recording consent is important, very good point
Only in the orange states do you need consent to record people
Total non sequitor but I always think it's weird how this is one of like two issues (the other being dst) that don't break down along ideological lines. Like what's another issue where you would get Florida, California, Massachusetts and Montana to agree on something and have new york and Texas on the other side of the issue.
Just curious what’s DST?
I’d throw gun rights in there too
“Once you go far enough left you get your guns back”
Edit: oh daylight saving time I guess
If you can get a statement from one of the people that made the call that is the only way I can think of to get proof.
Unfortunately libel is extremely hard to stick in the US but it is absolutely illegal for someone to do what your manager did.
Sadly I have been in the exact situation you are in because I got fired from my last job in the midst of trying to form a union.