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I worked at an entry level job for 14 months. I was treated like trash by the managers every single day because I didn't fit into their "culture", avoided and ignored by the main store manager (my employer) and despised by everyone I worked with. I eventually quit because of the toxic and negative work environment and feelings of extreme anger I felt towards everyone there.

I would always be left out of conversations, tell my manager private things only to have the entire store talking about it a few hours later, several of my coworkers (including managers and my employer) would give me the middle finger when they thought I wasn't paying attention, I was told that I would be fired many times only to say it was a "joke"... I had an extremely negative workplace experience with no friends or positive references.

Now, 5 months later I'm trying to sign up for a job at a college in a professional career position - I fit all the requirements of the job. But it's asking for contact information with my previous employer. I'm 110 % certain I will get a negative review from anyone I list. Unfortunately this toxic job is the longest amount of time I've had a steady job.

Should I leave my work experience on my resume? I'm guaranteed to get a bad review if I do. If I leave the work experience out I will be asked about my large unemployment gap.

Suggestions?

Glorfindel
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Edith
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    @gnat: the question does not seems to ask if the OP should "badmouth" the previous employer but if he/she should put on the resume. Not mentioning is different from badmouthing – Gianluca Apr 10 '18 at 07:43

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Yes, you should leave the experience on your resume.
What you should not do is, as the comment said, talk bad of your previous employer in the case the argument came up in the interview (quite sure, normally it been asked why you want to change work)

If your problem is that the new employer will ask for a reference from the previous one, you can try to not mention the name and if the argument came up during a interview, you can just say that you quitted since some events made the work environment too stressfull to bear and that you don't want to badmouth the previous employer for this, without giving any more details.

Gianluca
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You should, because you did work there. Not including it leaves a very noticeable gap on your CV that you'll probably be asked about.

On the bright side, the request isn't for a reference (in which case you should list someone who will say something good about you), only for contact information. The new employer is not likely to ask about your performance from the old employer. Most likely, they'll just verify that you did work there during the period your CV says you did.

Here's a Forbes article on a similar problem, including what to do if your old employer does badmouth you.

Allure
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