I recently changed jobs out of a very toxic company but have a very good coworker who is still struggling. She's been job hunting but as everyone here knows, it's difficult and takes time. In addition to the toxicity of the company overall, her manager has apparently had it out for her since day one, and it's been escalating. (A few gory details below for those who want to know HOW toxic I mean.) My coworker is talented, highly skilled professional and very easy to work with. She's an asset to any company that hires her, and I'm a critical perfectionist, so that's not simply a biased assessment because I like her. If she was just average, I'd say so (or really, not be posting this).

I just learned that they put her on a performance improvement plan today, which has her feeling devastated, demoralized and she's ready to simply quit without having another job lined up yet. I think that might be best at this point. It will let her clear her head, and actually the PIP is just documentation for firing her. I read it and it's full of unreasonable criticism, and concludes by saying if her performance doesn't improve she will be terminated, but it has no specific date to accomplish that.

I've been acting as a reference for her in her job search and directing recruiters to her. If she does quit this place, when potential employers call me to ask about her, if they ask me why she left, how much can I tell them about the toxicity she escaped from? Are references also not allowed to "badmouth" the former employer? (I wouldn't do it just to badmouth them, I would only tell them frankly what they've been doing to her. I also wouldn't even go there unless they ask first.)

(Just a few gory details: She's a business analyst and we were all allowed to work from home one day a week. Her manager started asking her to turn on her laptop camera when they had their one-on-one meetings through Skype. Nobody else was asked to do this. This requirement started when my coworker was trying to work through a very difficult, life-threatening pregnancy. Nobody in the world thought she was faking it except apparently her manager.

Also she's been accused of "just watching other people work" when all the rest of us were "collaborating", not talking enough in meetings, being argumentative in meetings, and waiting for others to express their thoughts in meetings and then simply echoing them. There's so much more, but I won't bore you guys with everything.)