Current employer contacted prospective employer and jeopardised job

broomey

A friend and ex-work colleague of mine has been job seeking and was offered a job interview. The interview was with an 'agency' that works in partnership with her current employer, however her current line manager sees this 'agency' as a threat to her little empire (can you tell there's issues here!!). When the line manager discovered my friend had a job interview, she contacted the prospective employer, without the consent of my friend, saying that she was very concerned about the potential of someone from her team moving over to work with this agency and that she didn't think it would be an appropriate move.

Now, aside from the line manager being an underhanded b***h, where does my friend stand with this? She didn't get the job she applied for and only found out about her line manager's phone call after her interview. There were a number of people that overheard the phone conversation that could back her up. Nothing has been raised as yet because she is unsure of how to go about things and this line manager would make her life hell if anything were to be said, but surely this is some form of misconduct??

whitewing

How did the manager find out?

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Heresay .....

geerex

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth wrote: »

Heresay .....

Heresy! Burn them all!

getmore4less

Never tell anyone you are looking for alternative work unless it is aimed to get a lead.


On the face of it the line manager was indicating to the Agency that the business relationships(money) was at risk.


What you need to do is decide if the line manager was acting beyond the scope of their job and if more senior management would not be happy with that and you can take it further.


It could well be the agency don't actually care and you just did not get the job.


See if the agency will still work with you looking for work or if you have to ignore them and use a different one.

broomey

My friend informed the line manager she had the interview. As soon as she'd left the office the line manager made the phone call. Yes, granted it's hearsay, but three separate people overheard the telephone call and heard what the line manager said to this agency.

broomey

Whoops, posting at the same time!

Business relationships were never at risk, if anything my friend moving over would have been of benefit to both parties since the contacts and partnership working links would have already been there so she'd have had a jump start. The line manager just didn't like the idea of her moving over and 'stealing their ideas' despite the fact the two areas work in partnership and are not in conflict.

Sorry, bad choice of words, I don't mean an employment agency - the job my friend applied for was with the emergency services and the dept she works in at the mo works in partnership with them.

getmore4less

broomey wrote: »

My friend informed the line manager she had the interview.

That was not the smartest thing to do.

broomey

No I know, but when I worked there and didn't tell her I had a job interview and she found out other ways, I got ignored for three days!!

getmore4less

broomey wrote: »

No I know, but when I worked there and didn't tell her I had a job interview and she found out other ways, I got ignored for three days!!

A result if you don't like the person/place and looking to move.

Your friend needs to be asking for feedback from the "agency" to see if it worth looking at future opportunities.

If there is a working relationship already then networking should have been used to have the job in the bag in advance.

broomey

It's not really about whether or not she got the job, it's about the fact that this line manager made the phone call to try and prevent her getting the job in the first place.