Their employess not slaves , if approached at the booth. The right thing to say would be can we speak about this later when I have a break or go to lunch. I doubt anyone here pays over time , just because you pay for their trip doesnt mean you own them 24 hrs a day during that time. Also I love how employers fire at will for cause or not , outsource good people and then expect loyality thats too funny. lol

Here's my take on it..

Although I am an employee, I side with the employer on this one.

An employer pays for his employee to travel to a show, sets him up in a nice room, offers him an expense account to take out clients, and gives him the freedom to drink and have a good time with both clients and friends. During the day the employee's job is to man the booth to answer questions and build rapport with anyone interested in the company.

So if another company is talking to the employee during a show regarding a job offer, I would consider this to be on company time and unacceptable. If the employee took the guys card and called him after the show, fine.. everyone has a right to consider other job offers.. but not on company time.

I don't think it would be just cause to fire the employee, but it certainly would be a reason to put him on notice.

Uhh no one would get fired for entertaining job offers. Unless the precog's are telling someone about this, and we are currently existing in the movie Minority Report. Is this a survey? What's going on?!

The reality of any trade show is simple. Employers are looking for new employees and employees are looking for new employers. Sometimes its not even a conscious thing, I think. I've been to probably 200 trade shows in my life and it's always the same thing.

How the situation is handled is the key here. If you, as an employee, embarass your employer by your actions, then you deserve to be fired, as I see it. However, if you carry yourself in a professional manner, do your job to the best of your abilities and perform as expected, then if I were your employer, I'd sit down and talk with you, if I had heard any suspect rumors regarding your leaving the company, and see where there was common ground. And depending on the scope of the rumors, that would govern my attitude towards how I dealt with the situation.

Many times, in such situations, employers may suspect that an employee is looking for another job -- and that usually stems from the fact that the employer KNOWS the employee is not happy. Hell, if the employee were that happy, they wouldn't be considering another job unless there was some huge gap in pay or status with the new job versus the old one. Miscommunication between employers and employees is probably the number one reason that people exit a company, whether they quit or are fired.

Former employers would be well advised to do the same thing that former employees should do. Keep their mouths shut about any shortcomings or issues with the employee that's leaving -- after all, they were good enough to be hired to work in the company, and you don't want everyone thinking that your judgement as an employer is bad, nor do you want to give potential new employees the idea that if they come to work and leave, they'll find their name dragged through the mud.

Once again, like my grandma used to say, you can never be too gracious or too courteous when dealing with anyone.

Some very good posts in this thread.

My opinion: if you go there working for an employer and actively seek jobs, that's wrong. If you go there working for an employer and another approaches you at the booth or a company sponsored party/dinner and you do anything more than tell them you'll talk to them later and take their card, that's wrong.

However, if you someone DOES approach you, you agree to talk at another time, preferably after the show but at the very least, at a one on one during your "off" time, then I don't see why you'd be fired just for entertaining the idea of a better offer.

If any company "secrets" are exposed, then you're history IMHO and the "new" company should realize how easy you turn.

LOL that is hysterical. First of all, you don't take it from an employee that they are the "best". And why would you not bring your best employee's to the show (perhaps I will ping Mike to ask him seeing that he said it lol). It sounds to me that someone is being fed a lot of horseshit (if this situation is not hypothetical of course). You don't bring half-assed employee's to a show (if you are even stupid enough to employ them in the first place) You bring people that can get business and who know what they are doing.

It's amazing what people can drum up in their own minds, there are a lot of "Legends" in this industry (Legends in their own minds that is). Besides, your best employee's don't get fired for lame shit like that anyway, no matter who the company is. Dead weight is everywhere and what makes them a semi good sales person is the fact they can make you believe they are number one even when they're not, until it's time to prove themselves. I have seen this happen a lot.

If people AREN'T trying to hire your employees away from you then should worry.
It's kinda like if you have a girl and nobody tries to hit on her when you take her to a bar. She either isn't as hot as you think or people are afraid of pissing you off.
Keep your employees happy and they won't cheat on you. :2 cents:

you better believe they do. expecially if they've got no contract with the current employer.

If you can get fired for recieving other job offers I would have been fired 8 times already :winkwink:

I'm bringing this thread back because it has a lot of very important thoughts. Nobody mentionned the caliber of the employer....Superdave mentionned some employers offer incentives to avoid these kind of situations. But how about jackass employers who give contradictory orders based on their drug dependancies and paranoia from their self involved universe? Bastards like those people should perhaps either move on or NOT hire other people to run their businesses. Someone like Steve Lightspeed seems like an anomaly in this industry, he has a solid reputation.
Another issue with firing employees based on this reasoning [entertaining offers] is the sour grapes, missing vacation pay and commission pay up until the date of severence. Too many morons run companies from hard work, fluke and abuse of employees and governent policy(In Canada at any rate). Ripping off employees at any turn is often justified with solid benefit packages that are initially subsidized by the government and offered at group rates. Seen it many times. Private industry blows. :2 cents:

ok

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:upsidedow