Point of clarification: When I said your last two sentences, my screen wasn't showing your last paragraph. I was referring to these (three) sentences:

>>For a reference from our office, she apparently had the new employer contact a manager who had taken a leave of absence before her problem came up and so hadn't been told about what happened, and didn't know anything about her job performance.

I heard about this through the office grapevine.As always, there were a few people around who knew what was going on the whole time, but kept it quiet.<<