While obviously terrible behavior on the part of Zenefits, it highlight that there's a weird line you have to walk as a potential employee. You need to pretend

While obviously terrible behavior on the part of Zenefits, it highlight that there's a weird line you have to walk as a potential employee. You need to pretend that you are 100% committed to the new company, even when you barely know them. And if you have counter offers you need to maintain that charade while simultaneously keeping open a bidding war. So while that employee was entitled to check their options, their 'sin' was that they did it publicly.