Reference Question

[ZTAngel]

A few of you know what happened to me a few weeks ago but here is the shortened version:

I'm moving to Atlanta at the end of this week. It's a decision I've been pondering over for a few months but made a final decision around mid-March. Out of kindness (and now I realize my own stupidity), I gave the head manager my notice to resign back in March; I gave him a month and half notice when I only had to give 2 weeks. My reasoning was that I wanted to help him find my replacement.

My 3 other managers wished me well and were sad to hear about my resignation. The main manager turned into a jerk. This is a guy that forced a co-worker of mine last year into early retirement and laid off another guy out of the blue who had 3 children. He's a big gossiper and passes judgements on his employees based on their religious or political beliefs. He has been quoted numerous times as saying women do not belong in the work force.

Anyway, about 3 weeks after giving my notice, the main manager called me into office. He let me know that he was letting me go that day. I had heard from other people that this is common practice; many employers will let their employees go when they give notice- one of my sorority sisters had this happen to her last month. At first, he cited the reasons for my dismissal as being that he was afraid that my decision might influence others to leave, he was afraid of me becoming unproductive, there was no work for me, and they didn't have the money to pay me. But, a little while later in the conversation, he proceeded to insult me and tell me that I wasn't doing the work I was supposed to me doing and that I had no drive. Not true but that's his opinion. This is the main manager who was quoted the other month as telling another manager of mine that I was an asset to the company and very valuable. My belief is that this main manager became upset that I was leaving the company and basically was trying to find ways to sabotage me out of spite considering he had no problem with me until I put in my resignation.

I applied for unemployment and when the claims guy called my old boss, my old boss said that the reason I was let go was because I was "unproductive and had a bad attitude". He didn't mention any of the initial reasons for my dismissal which were money, no work, etc. His reasons are absolutely not true considering that a) I was working on a ton of projects up until he let me go and b) all the other managers and my co-workers liked me so obviously he was the only one who thought I had a 'bad attitude'. Furthermore, the whole 'bad attitude' thing was never discussed when he let me go; he made no mention that he felt this way about me.

So, after all that, I have a question. I will be going on interviews when I get to Atlanta and I'm sure the prospective employers will ask for references. Naturally, I will not use the mean boss as a reference and instead I will use the other managers who have already said they would give a "glowing reference". Still, I fear that this mean boss will try every way to tarnish my reputation and slander me to potential employers. When background checks are done, do future employers or background check agencies call specifically the references you have listed or can they find out that mean boss is a manager also and contact him? It is also my understanding that there is a fine line between former employer giving a poor reference and slander. If my mean boss were to basically insult me and make false accusations to a potential employer, would this count as slander?