Some time ago, someone who's been a friend of mine for several years had been looking for work and applied at my workplace. The person in charge of the department in which I work asked me about him, for though I had not mentioned him or that he was interested in working here, he had apparently name-dropped me as he was applying. Having found myself in a corner, I hastily yet sort of cautiously said that he might be a good fit though I'd never worked with him before, though I'd been in classes with him before.

He got hired and everyone ended up finding him lazy, incompetent, or something to that effect, overall not a good fit. So after he'd already been spoken to by supervisors once or twice, he ended up getting fired. Though I was sort of "forced" into recommending him, you're right. Although it has never been said outright, I'm pretty sure the whole series of events reflected poorly on me, and my friendship with him (which had already been "on hiatus" for a while, and had been rough at times) was damaged by that, though that is mostly because he did not thank me after using my name to obtain the position.

Regardless, I agree with what u/Mohnchichi said about it being more of the company's fuck up than that of the one who found themselves in the position of getting a friend to work at their workplace where they turn out to be a bad fit. That doesn't alleviate my worry that supervisors/coworkers there now view me more negatively because of that, but it's true, and if they do, it may be just a wee bit misguided (especially since I feel as though I was kind of forced into "getting my friend the job" by both he and the company).