8 ms·

Ask HN: Has anyone been fired because they were job hunting?

• pmiller2 6y ago
  Let’s add “passed up for promotion or other desirable opportunities,” because that’s apparently a concern, as well.
• JamesBarney 6y ago
  I haven't seen "he's looking for work so let's fire him". But I have seen "George doesn't seem committed let's promote Joe instead". Or "we have to cut someone we should cut Alex because he doesn't seem committed to Acme Corp".
• amw-zero 6y ago
  No, I actually was able to successfully negotiate a better position and higher salary after getting an offer from a different company.
  • shoo 6y ago
    Having offers for alternative employment that you'd be willing to accept puts you in a strong negotiating position. If instead your current employer only had the information that you were searching for a new job, but didn't have any firm offers, then you might find it harder to negotiate (why does a raise make sense if the market doesnt seem to be making you an offer that you consider better than what you've already got -- maybe you're already over paid etc), and might also run afoul of some of the other considerations raised in this thread (managers not wanting to put you in key role on important project if there is perception that you may be gone soon). I've once had the strange and unexpected experience of resigning from a job without any competing offer lined up (was young & naive, jaded with the company, didn't immediately need the money) and then being offered contract work a few weeks later from the same former employer to do the essentially same kind of work on a new project at contract rates, i.e., more than twice what I was getting paid before, albeit with no security of continuing employment. So arguably there are also other ways to improve your negotiating position without needing a competing offer -- by resigning I gave a clear signal that I genuinely wasn't interested in letting the status quo continue. I don't recommend this as a strategy, it is far better to line up offers for new jobs you'd be comfortable doing well before you are sick of the current job. I wasn't resigning as some kind of considered move in a negotiation, with any expectation that this outcome would occur. But it was an interesting way to discover that in some job markets you may get paid a lot more as a contractor than as a permie employee if you're in a position to accept much more risk of having periods where the work just stops and you need to find a new project/client.
• bellwether 6y ago
  I've never seen this in any company I've worked at. Personally, if I saw members on my team looking for work, I would want to understand that decision: is it for personal reasons, is it because they felt unable to grow, is it because of salary, or is it because they find the work no longer meaningful? There are plenty of reasons to move on from a role. Firing someone for wanting something that aligns better with their future is beyond petty imo.
  • schoolornot 6y ago
    I hope you have considered sharing this with your team, especially, if any of them are at a point where job hunting & interviewing is ongoing.
• ThrowawayR2 6y ago
  There are always a few managers who are petty and vindictive. I've certainly met a few over the years. But beyond that, let's say you knew that a certain bank had a good chance of shutting down its branch offices in the town where you live, for whatever legitimate reason. Would you consider opening an account at that bank? Well, clearly no, because those bank branch offices might not be there for you to use in the future. Now let's say you were a manager and you knew one of your team members was looking for a new job. Would you feel it to be worthwhile to assign important project tasks to that person if you knew there was a good chance they would be unavailable in the very near future and you'd have to move the tasks to someone else? Are you going to put them up for a promotion or a bonus to reward them, knowing that the effort might (in a sense) be wasted? The knowledge that an employee is considering leaving, no matter how much the manager might wish them well personally, changes the relationship because of the uncertainty about the future availability of their time and accumulated knowledge. It's better either for the employee not to create that uncertainty and/or resolve it as soon as possible.
  • fsociety 6y ago
    This. I was put in a situation where I signaled I was looking for a job elsewhere and it came back to bite me.
  • jgwil2 6y ago
    Is there reverse also not possible though? I'm a manager and I see an employee who is thinking of leaving, so I try to figure out why. Do they want a raise? More responsibility or autonomy? And then I try to give it to them so they won't leave. Or is that overly idealistic?
    • nsgi 6y ago
      Often this is only temporary, though. They increase your salary, but it comes out of your next raise and you get fewer opportunities because your loyalty is in question, or if they're evil and the employment laws allow it they make you happy temporarily until they find a replacement. If you're company is prepared to do those things for you they should be willing to before you threaten to quit
• spellbounce 6y ago
  Firing employees for job hunting is a mistake on so many levels. 1. It signals insecurity about your culture and why anyone should want to work there. (We can't keep people here except under threat.) 2. It's ineffective against your best employees, who will have options and will not fear you. 3. It demotivates everyone and creates a vicious cycle of fear and distrust, which will drive a culture of keeping your head down and hoarding information, which will destroy the efficiency of your remaining workforce.
  • bernawil 6y ago
    It signals insecurity about your culture and why anyone should want to work there. (We can't keep people here except under threat.) well, unless you're paying top dollar you can be sure people are working at your place until they can get a job at a place that does. It's ineffective against your best employees, who will have options and will not fear you. again, if your place isn't on top of everyone's preference list it's futile to hold onto your best perforers. Better to embrace it will be a revolving door.
• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
• ianmf 6y ago
  Depending on what projects you work on, your org might could have installed "monitoring" software on your computer that triggers alerts when you job search. The purpose is to catch insider threat, make sure nobody runs off to the competitor with IP. If you are job searching at competition's website, they may cut you off specific projects, or just "let you go". I would never job search on company's time or issued hardware, and I wouldn't recommend it.
• throwaways1232 6y ago
  I worked at a small company (less than 40 people in US and less than 30 offshore and 10 in Europe). I uploaded my resume to a job site. Within a week I was called to meet the HR. They asked me why I was looking for a job and if I was unhappy here. I told them I was happy (obviously, I don't want to lose my job) They told me they won't inform the CEO because it would upset him and it was never brought up again. I worked for a while and then had to leave. The place was toxic for me. It really makes sense for small companies to monitor their employees because they can't afford to have people quit willy nilly. So, definitely, I am 100% sure they have monitoring software which detects employee search results. A sudden TripleByte search result showing up on Google is definitely a red flag that the HR would notice. Having said this. I would say TripleByte wanting to award badges and making profiles public is definitely a mistake on their part. I doubt they have malicious intent. They just did not think through all the consequences with this move. Nobody want to lose their job in the middle of the pandemic. Bad move on their part for sure.
  • sumedh 6y ago
    Do they use a keylogger?
    • halfdan 6y ago
      I read it more as the company OP worked for found their resume on the job site.
  • nsgi 6y ago
    > they can't afford to have people quit willy nilly If a company can't deal with people quitting when they give the appropriate notice they've got big problems, and a multinational company of almost 80 people should definitely be able to manage
  • chrisbennet 6y ago
    Thinking out loud, wouldn't getting someone fired/let go actually be good for TripleByte's customers i.e. recruiters? It would be analogous to flushing birds into the air so their customers would have more targets.
• sokoloff 6y ago
  I’ve discussed openly with employees their career thoughts, including many occasions when they were considering leaving. Sometimes that results in them leaving; more often it does not. I’ve never consciously held this against an employee. I’ve also told my boss at times that I was considering my next move and that it might be elsewhere. I can’t see where that’s ever been held against me either. I don’t view looking as disloyal. If employer N isn’t the best option for an employee, they are welcome and even expected to consider employer N+1.
• sloaken 6y ago
  I have known companies that had that policy, but it was only when there were plenty of people looking for IT jobs. When the market is tight, if they find out they might try to appease you. However, once you start seriously looking, it is just a matter of time. I know several people who always put out their resumes, and are open about it. They say they like to know what they are worth. Typically they have not been seriously looking just keeping in practice if they needed to. Myself I went to a job fair, and I was surprised to see my boss there recruiting. I had to get out as the tech was primitive and I was worried my skills were atrophying. I was given a 10% raise, which was nice and I used it to get another 10% at the new company.
• thrownaway256 6y ago
  I was fired from my first job by the CTO of my company after telling him I was job hunting. Context: My first two managers were friendly and we openly talked about what we wanted to do next. My 3rd manager was the CTO, who talked a lot about preparing people for their next jobs/career. I assumed I could be open with him. After a month or two where several people left, he asked me in our 1:1 if I knew of anyone who was thinking about leaving. Assuming that he wanted to know so they could make counter offers or back fill headcount, I told him I was considering it. I was trying to be helpful, and I guess I was, just not in the way I expected. Two weeks later he either quit or was fired. I was fired three days after him. Apparently he had already advocated for my firing before leaving himself.
• _448 6y ago
  Depends on where you are conducting that activity. A big no-no is if you are using your current employer's infrastructure to job hunt(or any other personal activity, including personal projects) i.e. if you are using office premises, computers, printers, phones etc for you job hunting expeditions. What I despise though, and personally experienced, is when HR of present employer use external recruitment agencies to spy on you and block your job hunt. And use that information to discriminate against you in various ways.
• shultays 6y ago
  Why would a company fire someone and pay the severence instead of simply waiting for him to quit?
• Nginx487 6y ago
  Apparently, it's a toxic management practice, and I never worked more than 2-4 days in companies, which considered such employees treatment (heard from long-time employees of that companies). Toxic working atmosphere could be easily spotted during first days by multiple factors, like fearing the management, overtimes, unnecessary and formal daily/weekly reports, and yeah, stories like someone has been fired for updating cv online. That's where you should not hesitate and leave right away, it would never become any better.
• giantg2 6y ago
  My wife got fired for job hunting. She was searching on her phone in the work bathroom. She was connected to the company wifi.
  • mewpmewp2 6y ago
    How are they getting this information? Assuming usage of https they should only be aware of the IP. Do they keep list of IPs which belong to job seeking sites? Is that enough evidence?
    • giantg2 6y ago
      I'm guessing it was http (not logged in or a Google search). I would assume they could also do it based on the IP/DNS.
      • nicholas73 6y ago
        Ok but how did they know it was her phone?
        • giantg2 6y ago
          Her user name connected to the wifi.
    • redmaple 6y ago
      Many companies force users to install self-signed certs so that they can carry out MitM sniffing. I've worked for an IT MSSP and installed many firewalls/APs with this feature.
    • MarkSweep 6y ago
      At some companies you have to sign in to the Wi-Fi with your corporate account.
      • giantg2 6y ago
        I never connect any personal device to company networks. It's just too much of a liability to make a simple mistake and lose my job.
• cwhiz 6y ago
  Don’t job hunt at work! Many comments here are from people getting “caught” because they were job hunting at work on company WiFi. Don’t do that! Job hunt on your own time.
  • mewpmewp2 6y ago
    Don't really want to be at a company anyway who scans for info like that.
  • oliwarner 6y ago
    And don't lie about it. You're all adults. You need a day off to go interview, take a day. But if you start taking mysterious sick days or long personal calls on company time, expect disciplinary action.
    • bradlys 6y ago
      >And don't lie about it. You're all adults. You need a day off to go interview, take a day. But if you start taking mysterious sick days or long personal calls on company time, expect disciplinary action. Until your employer adds 1+1 together and stops letting you take vacation because you're on "unlimited PTO". In the end - who cares what the "official" reason is.