3 ms·

In the past senior people at major companies that were competitors entered into agreements not to poach staff from each other. I have seen this happen to a col

by fian 5y ago

In the past senior people at major companies that were competitors entered into agreements not to poach staff from each other. I have seen this happen to a colleague who tried to leave for a competitor. His manager at his current job found out, contacted their counterpart at the competitor and got the job offer rescinded. Needless to say, my colleague was extremely pissed off and ended up exiting to a non-competitor as soon as possible. Also I used to work at a consultancy. The unwritten rule was that clients would not try to hire any of the consultants directly, especially if they had been seconded in to the client for an extended period. If a consultant applied for an advertised position, it wouldn't be blocked but would be frowned on and cause tension for the client with the consultancy (usually an increase in rates).

bencollier49 5y ago
Your first example is illegal in most places. The second is perfectly normal practice - it's in most contracts and stands to reason - if you're introduced to a client by your employer and you jump ship to work for them, it represents a breach of trust.
- greenyoda 5y ago
  > Your first example is illegal in most places. But that didn't stop it from happening in some of the largest companies in Silicon Valley: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...
JohnBooty 5y ago
Also I used to work at a consultancy. The unwritten rule was that clients would not try to hire any of the consultants directly Here (East Coast, US) this is almost always a written rule in the consultancy contract, because otherwise it is a very common case. Usually I think it's like, "if you hire one of our consultants you owe us $xx,xxx" or something. While I am just about always pro-worker, I accept this as a necessity. Otherwise consultants get "poached" non-stop, because they've basically already "auditioned" for the client and the client gets an extended amount of time to figure out which ones would be great to poach. Makes it just about impossible to run a consultancy otherwise.

by fian 5y ago

bencollier49 5y ago

Your first example is illegal in most places. The second is perfectly normal practice - it's in most contracts and stands to reason - if you're introduced to a client by your employer and you jump ship to work for them, it represents a breach of trust.

greenyoda 5y ago
> Your first example is illegal in most places. But that didn't stop it from happening in some of the largest companies in Silicon Valley: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...

JohnBooty 5y ago

Also I used to work at a consultancy. The unwritten rule was that clients would not try to hire any of the consultants directly Here (East Coast, US) this is almost always a written rule in the consultancy contract, because otherwise it is a very common case. Usually I think it's like, "if you hire one of our consultants you owe us $xx,xxx" or something. While I am just about always pro-worker, I accept this as a necessity. Otherwise consultants get "poached" non-stop, because they've basically already "auditioned" for the client and the client gets an extended amount of time to figure out which ones would be great to poach. Makes it just about impossible to run a consultancy otherwise.