My wife is casually looking for a new job, and she works in a fairly incestuous/insular field. Nothing extremely rare, but the type of field that limits the amount of local jobs available in it.
It turns out that someone she sent a resume to is an old friend/coworker of her current boss, and mentioned in passing to my wife’s current boss that she had received a resume from her. This is just having seen the resume and contact, not after interviewing my wife, not in the service of checking references in order to hire - just casually, “oh, hey, I got a resume from your current employee!”
Naturally, her boss came to her incredibly upset and it caused a bunch of workplace drama, she didn’t know that my wife was looking around, why is my wife unsatisfied with her current job, etc.
The cherry on top is that now, two months later, that position she sent the resume for was filled and the woman never even called her or interviewed her.
My opinion is that this was incredibly unprofessional, a major ethics breach, and could even be actionable (but that’s just my knee-jerk hulk rage and isn’t based on any legal understanding at all). I told her that she should write a strongly worded letter to the woman stating all of this (minus any threat of legal action or anything), just venting about how unprofessional and unethical this behavior was. She’s significantly more laid back than I am, so she has no desire to do that and is just moving on.
What do you think? Totally unethical, or unavoidable reality in insular, incestuous field? Or both!?
First of all, if the field is as insular as you say, ripping the woman a new one almost certainly is not in your wife’s best interest. It’s highly unlikely that Wife’s current boss is the only superviser that the woman knows. Your wife doesn’t need a reputation as a bitch who blew a gasket. She’s right to elect to take the high road and stay professional.
As for the rest – Applying for new jobs without your current employer’s knowledge is always dicey. The best you can do is put on your materials and in your cover letter “I am applying in confidence for the position of . . . .” “Please contact me before calling any references as I am applying in confidence.” etc. Most prospective employers will respect that – you’re kind of an asshole if you don’t. So maybe the woman didn’t know your wife was applying in confidence. If she did know that and still mentioned it to your wife’s boss – then she’s kind of an asshole. But you always run that risk when you’re applying on the QT; there’s always the chance your boss could find out and the shit will hit the fan.
I think this is correct. But I will add that while the old joke about “yesterday’s intern is tomorrow’s executive vice president” is a bit of an exaggeration, if the OP’s wife’s field is as insular as he says, there will probably come a time when it is this woman who is a jobseeker and the wife may casually–and correctly!–observe to the hiring manager that this woman seems to have trouble appreciating the sensitivity of business information and the need to keep it confidential.
I think it was bad for the person who got the resume to mention it to her current boss.
I once interviewed at a place and the HR person told me she was good friends with a coworker of mine but that she would not mention my application to her. I would hope that is standard procedure.
I agree, what the other woman did was extremely unprofessional and unethical. But your wife is wise to take the high road and not bring up the issue. Especially since she may once again work with the other woman someday.
I have worked in such situations, and I can tell you, it happens all the time. In my case, however, it’s a field where it’s expected a typical employee will get itchy after a couple of years and look around for greener pastures.
Still, there are etiquettes that should be observed, and one of them is that all parties involved keep their mouths shut about such things.
Yes, it was unprofessional, but yes, it was in some ways unavoidable. But no, it’s not actionable Your wife is best served by not saying anything, since obviously, news of that will also spread.
But I fail to see why you should have to specify that you don’t want the company telling your current company that you’re trying to leave them. Why the hell would that not be obvious??
I always specify that I do not want them contacting my current employer for any reason, but I have a similar problem. That is, my industry (or more specifically the small businesses within my industry) are all very close and team up with each other as often as they compete for business. I am actively looking, but I am very careful in my personal networking because I never know when someone I contact is in negotiations with my boss for teaming, etc. I have already had a situation occur where we teamed with a company where I had interviewed and the guy who came over said “Oh Yarster, person X and Y from my company said to say ‘Hi’”, leading to a :dubious: from my boss, since I wouldn’t have any reason to know them to his knowledge.