Where I live, everyone in the IT business knows just about everyone else. This is why it is quite common here to get a phone call from a recruiter asking for your professional opinion regarding people you've been working with in the past, or to be asked by a friend for a recommendation.

This is all nice and well until you are asked to recommend on someone you weren't quite satisfied with professionally. There are several problems I can think about:

• Recommending on unskilled people is generally inadvisable. It is unprofessional and hurts your reputation.
• Giving this person a bad recommendation will probably hurt his chances of getting the job, and refusing to recommend on someone is just as bad as giving a bad recommendation.
• It may be that the new employer will be happy with this person's skills, is it fair to deny this guy of the chance to start a new page and prove himself in a new place?
• Many times you really like this person and are very uncomfortable with the idea of giving him a bad recommendation or refusing his request to recommend on him.

What would you do in each of this cases:

• If this person asked you to recommend on him personally
• If you got a phone call from a recruiter asking for your opinion on him

Thanks!