Does an employee have the right to consider other job options?
 

Does an employee have the legal right to consider other job options?

lets take this a step further - does an employee on a company trip have the right to listen to a job offer from a rival company? MIN time frame. No corporate secrets given out.

can an employer fire an employee if they catch them entertaining the idea of another position?

capitolism means even employees have the right to LOOK in my opinion- so long as it doesn't take away from company time and no one on a company trip is 100% of their time working....

is this a legal reason to fire someone?


discuss

can i get an employee fired if i walk up to their booth and start talking to them about hiring them?

An offer is only that. They come and go. This space is full of incestous hand-offs of staffers and usually its due to inter-personal reasons.

Every person has the right to entertain any employment offer as it directly affects their livelyhood.

No one looks out for #1....like #1. IMHO

I think it would be fine as long as it was not on company time. But if they started to talk to you at a booth and stopped doing their job that would be a reason for possibly firing them. If you really want somebody though just slip them your card and ask to meet with them later on their time.

I think it would be innapropriate for an employee to discuss another job while working at their company's booth at a convention.
It would be better to schedule a meeting after working hours and spend the time the company is paying you for doing the company's business.

However lots of people do look at the classifieds on thier computers at work....happens all the time.

NO
anyone fired for that needes to find another job.
Its understandable that someone on a biz trip might get other job offers.
Unless the person spends a huge ammount of time trying to get a new job i dont see a problem with it.

no its not imho. if an employee is good at his job its obvious that he willalways have other offers. and some of them can be better than yours. its a free world.

Depending on where you live, you can fire someone for any reason you want. The company just felt like letting them go for no major reason, they can.

I believe their current employer would still need to give them a two week notice, and
they are probably liable for workers compensation.

ahh - fine line - their job at a convention IS to talk to me- what if i suddenly turn the conversation over to hiring them - do they have to stop talking to me as a client for fear of being fired or should they as a good employee continue to talk to me for the sake of business i may do or be doing with the existing company not really considering my offer but just talking to keep me happy as a client?

ahh- that isn't exactly true - in many areas if you fired someone cause you found out they were jewish or something like that you'd have a BIG legal problem on your hands.

THey should politely change the subject or tell you that they are unable to discuss the matter at the time, but would be willing to accept your business card for future reference.

Just fire the person and tell him it's because he's not a woman with big natural tits and his religion and age interfere with his performance. But firing because the person was looking for a new job.. that's a tough one. As long as you don't discriminate you should be fine :1orglaugh

now - does their boss have the right to terminate them for listening to an offer and accept a card on company time?

He can always claim he did so in order to not piss off a potential business partner for your firm and for networking purposes for when you promote him to be your busines development guy.

No thats an insecure boss thats worried about people leaving trying to make an example.

:helpme :helpme

yes, he has the right to listen
yes, he can be fired

If a person wants to leave a business I have going - so be it. There's absolutely no way in hell I'd want him to stay ANYWAY. All employees can be replaced, and the goal of every manager should be having a Plan B for any of his top personnel. Besides, the moment an employee starts thinking about going that route (accepting new offers, going to interviews), his productivity goes down and both sides are unhappy and I have no time for games.

any decent employee gets job offers on a regular basis.

Thats life

Scott,

If someone was working at a booth and was approached, I think it would be a little out of sorts to make that person an offer at the booth. You could ask to speak to that person in private away from the booth.

I would also think that if that person was a good employee, their current boss should value them and not fire them. But now that they are fired you are in a better position to hire them.

:2 cents:

I would say no. There are alot of variables, of course. Such as the amount of time devoted to the discussion.

seems fair to me

Re-read what you wrote.

Any employee fired for that needs to find another job

:helpme

That's assuming of course that it's in passing and not a blatant conversation right in front of the employer.

Of course. Why the hell not?

Legally, they probably could. Ethically it could be image busting to the point that the person LOOKING to hire them should immediately question their integrity.

If it was on a paid business trip? Quite possibly.

Perhaps, but you're also there representing that company. As I said, anyone discussing this at their employers expense would need to be seriously questioned. However, casual conversation about it at the Island Bar at 3am is a little different than 2PM while you're walking the show floor where you SHOULD solely be representing your employer and NOT yourself.

Assuming again, you mean the paid business trip, I wouldn't be surprised if it is. I'm not a lawyer however.

If the employee actively entertained the idea by showing further interest AT the booth, I would say yes. If you simply walked up to them and asked them if they'd consider working for you, I wouldn't think you could be fired for that. If they had ANY tact or common sense, they'd simply tell you that wasn't the time nor place to discuss it.

While their job at the convention is to talk to you - their JOB is also to represent the company they are currently working for. They're job is to talk to you on behalf of the company. Any ethical employee would say 'Hey Bob, I'm on company time here - let's meet over drinks later tonight after I'm off and we'll talk numbers'. Just common sense business ethics, IMO.

Also, keep in mind that this may be an opportunity for you, as an employer, to learn WHY your guy wants to leave. It could be his wife pressuring him to move on, him not satisfied with the salary you're paying, or even the way you ignore him when he comes to you with ideas. YOU NEVER KNOW. Instead of ending the relationship in a bad way, I'd just sit down with him and EXTRACT this useful information from him as it may prevent your other employees from going that same route in the future.

I would never take you serious because a professional would never do this. Also, would you hire some one that's willing to jump ship on company time?

Your exact problem is ?

ALSO, I've had an employee who was simply INSECURE and liked the notion of being desired by other employers in the same line of business. It's just like a man who feels good knowing women still find him attractive after 5 years of marriage. Same thing. Again, YOU NEVER KNOW :)

If I paid for someone to for example attend Internext and other people hit them up to work for them, I would just congratulate them on being good and myself for having a good taste in who works with me.

If I paid for someone to attend a show and they were actively looking to work for someone else, I would certainly think they were kind of a sucky person and feel kind of chumped. If I kept them on after that, that trip would probably be the last perk they ever got because someone who did that obviously does not appreciate getting perks.

corporately, you have to protect your territory, you cant allow your business info to be divulged, or even the possiblity of it...

loyalty is important to me

Very well said, but conventions like Internext aren't really perks imo. They're vital for people to do business at, at least if the employer wants their employees to do WELL at their job.

True, but there's only so much one can do to protect itself if you have employees.

If someone was gonna give company secrets away, who the HELL would do it when they're working the company booth. THAT'S a person I'd really have to meet to believe it.

No, they'd do it at home or something, which isn't something an employer can really protect against.

Edit-Nice thread btw Sleazy.

To turn this around a bit..

Would you hire someone as an employee knowing that they had no problem talking to you on their employer's time about working for you? In other words.. if they could do it to that employer they could easily do it to you?

I got some wise words from my brother from a jewish mother - virtumike

'don't bring your best employees to conventions, people will hire them away from you'

True there are 2 sides to everything :)

i have got offers at internext... and said no. i would hope that someone whould not fire me becuase of that