I think it’s very unfair that the only the previous supervisors has the power to give good or bad comments of your previous work history, because how can all supervisors be perfect and be all ‘good’ people. In this situation, why is that they have so much power to give comments about your previous work performance?
Here’s my situation. I actually quit my job due to lots of politics at this government office, I just couldn’t handle the stress anymore. People loved to gossip, make up stories and even tell others about my personal life; it was my fault to share too much about my life, because I trusted them. Now, telling you all this, the first thing that comes to your mind is….I think it might be her problem since she’s complaining about her ex workers, but if you could just give me a benefit of a doubt for one second and assume that you know me and think that I’m a nice person, good worker.
Well, my first ex boss at this first agency bad mouthed about me to my second ex boss at this second agency I worked at. Now these bosses have been there for 35 years for most of their lives and I was a new comer, a lot younger, a lot more naïve and I was a very quiet person, unfortunately, my second ex boss were friends with my first boss even though they work for different agencies, but they do business together for like I said 30 something years…eventually, I just couldn’t handle the gossip and having the bosses call me in a room, asking me, ‘so…I heard you said this before, is it true?’… they would harass me and monitor me what time I came back from lunch. I would bring in my own chair due to my back ache and I would get called in for that too, they said I would need a doctor’s note just to bring in another chair…these are just some examples….

But anyways, I’m a very weak minded person and called it quit even though I knew I was giving up all the great retirement benefits from the gov.
Now the thing I worry the most is, I believe both of these bosses could bad mouth me when I’m ready to go back to the work force. If I check on do not contact my previous bosses, I think the new potential employer would have second doubts about me, is this true? I’m very sure the first boss will bad mouth me, because she has been doing that to the employees whom left her office, whom wasn’t one of her ‘clicks’.

May I ask anyone of you know, do you think my career is pretty much destroyed? Do you think I should be calling my previous bosses to apologize for any misunderstandings? Do you think that will make things worse? I used to work for a private company and did some volunteer work else where for a few years before I went to the gov job, and I didn't have these problems, so at least I could get some good words from them, but I don’t even know if my supervisor many years ago still works there or not.
Do you believe that the boss at the old jobs really could destroy one's future career? What about changing an entire field of work? Do the new potential boss would have a benefit of a doubt and think it could be the previous boss’s issue? I feel so helpless and this bad work experience has been haunting me at night in my dreams even. How could everyone in this world possibily meet all the boss's taste to get along with the bosses and keep good records to prevent bad mouthing?