Feint Praise!

Professor Robert J. Thornton of the Economics Department at the Lehigh University notes that job candidates often see reference letters and sometimes sue the writers.  For this reason, he has developed the Lexicon of Inconspicuously Ambiguous Recommendations, or LIAR, to convey unfavorable information in a format that needn’t be construed as negative.  Here are a few examples:

To describe a candidate who is woefully inept:
“I most enthusiastically recommend this candidate with no qualifications whatsoever.”

To describe a candidate who had difficulty getting along with fellow workers:
“I am pleased to say that this candidate is a former colleague of mine.

To describe a candidate with lackluster credentials:
“All in all, I cannot say enough good things about this candidate or recommend him too highly.”
 
To describe a candidate who is not particularly industrious:
“In my opinion you will be very fortunate to get this person to work for you.”
 
To describe a candidate who is so unproductive that the position would be better left unfilled:
“I can assure you that no person would be better for this job.”

To describe a candidate who is not worth further consideration:
“I would urge you to waste no time in making this candidate an offer of employment.”