> What is your experience with this? Do you find that some managers
> simply don't bother?
First, if it's a large national chain, rest assured that the managers there
will say nothing about you other than your hire date and your date of
termination. For fear of a lawsuit, managers are generally reluctant to say
anything more, and most large companies forbid anything more. For this
reason, a lot of places won't bother calling - it's too time consuming, and
since it's a chain, you're going to be getting a fair amount of training
anyway.
Personal references are another matter - those they may call, as they have
more leeway in what can be said.
Personally, as a manager, I believe it's irresponsible to not call.