Thanks for all the responses. This has been very helpful and immense moral support. The dilemma that I am facing is this – Should I accept the offer from prospective employer or not. If I do resign from my job, accept the offer, and after conducting the reference check the prospective employer chooses to retract the offer then I would essentially be unemployed. My other option is to stay put with my current employer for a period and hope this washes out. But what is the guarantee that in 8 months or a year, I would not be in the same situation, i.e. a negative reference about disciplinary action could be given in future too. So I am trying to weigh the risk of resigning to move on. Would this led to being jobless from current and prospective employers. Could I take legal action against my current employer, if they were to give negative reference and damage my reputation?

Thank all for the responses. My current employer is indeed a multi-national organization with 50k+ employees. I was told that my written warning will stay in my personal file for 12 months. I was also verbally told that this incident will not have an impact on my career progression in the company. I am considering leaving as I cannot really trust if this is truly the case. A factual reference would work in my favour, but I had heard that some organization reveal additional details, such as Disciplinary Action Taken - Yes/No, Will you rehire this employee etc.

Hi, I have a question pertaining to background or reference checks. I had an incident at my current employer. I had used an USB device to connect to my work laptop to the internet at home. My intention was to perform some work from home. Internet connection is necessary to connect to my work network. However, the USB device was a counterfeit device, it didn’t work and instead every time I tried to use it, it ran sum inappropriate programmes and files. I had no idea of this till HR told me that they found some inappropriate activity on my work laptop. My employer tracks all activities on work laptop. In light of this finding my employer took disciplinary action and after a disciplinary committee meeting, they gave me a final stage 3 written warning. Now I am considering resigning from my job moving to a different company. I have an offer. But I am worried about the background check that the new employer will conduct. My entire career and academic history is spotless and excellent. I will also get strong reference from all my previous employers and educational institutions. But I am not sure how the reference from my current employer will appear. Does anyone know if my current employer will reveal this disciplinary warning to my future employers during background/reference checks? Any thoughts in how to approach this situation is much appreciated. Thanks, Jason