Positive-Negative References

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Inspired by the Are You Gentle? thread.

A lot of places won't give negative references (for jobs and so on) nowadays, as a matter of policy, so people occasionally get creative. This is my favourite, from a sixth form college to a university:

X sometimes turns up for classes and is often sober.

Isn't that perfect? Not a negative word in it!

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 22 September 2002 14:01 (twenty-three years ago)

my high school testimonial said i was "individual in her dress and behaviour".

― di smith (lucylurex), Sunday, 22 September 2002 14:04 (twenty-three years ago)

"(Ess) will no doubt meet with great success at university, and beyond, where he will learn to apply his mental energies to his studies."

(this prediction was overly optimistic . . .)

& Martin, that is indeed perfect, hee.

― Ess Kay (esskay), Sunday, 22 September 2002 14:11 (twenty-three years ago)

i've been described as "proactive" by employers, and as "a quizzical joy to have in class" by professors.

― mike (ro)bott, Sunday, 22 September 2002 16:29 (twenty-three years ago)

one of my teachers said of me "what he hands in is often extremely inchoate but sometimes he sees light where others see none"

it was the first time dad or mom or me had ever come across the word "inchoate": of course once i'd looked up i was terribly pleased w.myself — "i am INCHOATE dontcha know" — tho i imagine what he actually meant wz "cd do bettah the confused git"

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 22 September 2002 16:41 (twenty-three years ago)

"James is not cut out for office work" from my work experience feedback form.

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 22 September 2002 17:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Ha I got called "cynical" in some early school report and had never heard the word - and when I learned what it meant I was delighted!

(I got attacked once for using the word "inchoate" on alt.music.spice-girls)

― Tom (Groke), Sunday, 22 September 2002 17:54 (twenty-three years ago)

another one of my professor's said i take "a jaundiced view" of the world, and religion in particular. couldn't stop laughing...

― mike (ro)bott, Sunday, 22 September 2002 18:11 (twenty-three years ago)

My employer said on a reference for a landlord that I had a lovely sense of humour. Presumably I am supposed to laugh merrily at the rotting floor boards and mice living in the crawl space.

― isadora, Sunday, 22 September 2002 21:17 (twenty-three years ago)

He knew your heart too well.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 22 September 2002 21:27 (twenty-three years ago)

I've never seen the references people have given me. An eternal mystery...they probably say things like "works very hard to compensate for her innate shortcomings."

― Maria (Maria), Sunday, 22 September 2002 22:30 (twenty-three years ago)

A school report said I was "phlegmatic". I asked the guy who wrote it what it meant (all I knew was that the word started with "phlegm", which seemed negative), and he lied to me and I believed him for years. The swine

― Sofa King Alternative (Sofa King Alternative), Monday, 23 September 2002 10:47 (twenty-three years ago)

phlegmatic = gob-tastic

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 23 September 2002 10:48 (twenty-three years ago)

my school report at age 11 said i was "dogmatic". i asked my parents what it meant and they fell about laughing. i am sometimes still dogmatic.

― angela (angela), Monday, 23 September 2002 11:18 (twenty-three years ago)

dogmatic = pup-tastic

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 23 September 2002 11:19 (twenty-three years ago)

"Christine is the most unique person to have ever attended this school...."

Read this one as "Christine is freaking nuts. We've been trying to get her locked away for years, but her mother comes to school and yells at us whenever we try to do that."

― Christine "Green Leafy Dragon" Indigo (cindigo), Monday, 23 September 2002 14:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Christine - I am SO jealous!

― Tim Bateman, Monday, 23 September 2002 15:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Catbert Performance Review Generator does it all.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 23 September 2002 16:43 (twenty-three years ago)

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