Former employee who was terminated with cause now wants a letter of recommendation.

You read that correctly.

Former employee, terminated with cause (gross misconduct including fabricating statements & misrepresenting authority, as well repeated attendance issues and violations of remote work policy, all documented and discussed w them prior to termination) contacted me (who was their direct supervisor but also on senior leadership team/role,) via email now 5 months later asking for a “positive letter of recommendation” citing “positive feedback in my reviews and one-on-one discussions.” And yes, the employee did sometimes have decent reviews in their 1.5 yr tenure, but also a slew of PIPs and documented warnings etc. they also state very passively that they apologize for the “unfortunate circumstances surrounding their departure.”

We responded with a very straight forward two-three sentence… no, we do not provide LORs for employees who were terminated.

Here’s where things get even more surreal, the employee emailed back stating they don’t understand how their termination bars them from a positive LOR. They also ask for the exact reasons they were terminated. Laughable. The employee was provided all required documentation (which were in an at-will state, so we technically didn’t even need to to provide anything beyond “you’re no longer employed here.”) but we did provide them a brief statement and termination letter listing that they are being terminated for gross misconduct, which they signed. They also signed our reference release form and only approved us to share dates employed and eligibility for rehire (which is an obviously; no.)

At the time the employee was terminated, they were very emotional and cried, stating over and over how sorry they were. The meeting was maybe 10 minutes and they had another 10 minutes to collect their belongings before being escorted out.

Anyways, our HR is third-party, not in house, and we will be handing this off to them on Tuesday. But my recommendation is we simply do not reply or engage this former employee any longer. If they wish to review their personnel file and do the request through the proper channels, that is the only obligation we have to interact w them further… but we’re not even obliged to tell them how to go about that. Not worried at all about them pursuing wrongful term or EEOC stuff. This is just ridiculous and I am looking for some solidarity, similar stories or just general bemusement. I’ve had some doozy HR/term matters in my time in leadership, but this is just something else!