Do interviewers have a duty of privacy?

Gavin83

Andrew_Ryan_89 wrote: »

Let's say for example my friend gets questioned about his whereabouts that day and it's painfully obvious that his manager knows that he went for an interview. Does the other person have some kind of legal duty to the candidates not to notify their employers about job applications and such?

Firstly be honest, was this friend actually you?

Secondly did your 'friend' book this interview off as holiday or call in sick? If it's the later I'd expect the job hunting to become a bit more critical.

If it's the former you've no duty to explain to your employer what you were doing on a day off so just refuse to answer.

Saying this there in no way you couldn't expect one friend to not ask another friend what they think of one of their employees off the record. I would and it would greatly influence my decision as to if I employed that person or not as I'd expect my friends opinion to be totally honest, especially being off the record. Are you seriously telling me in his shoes you wouldn't do the same?

Stu_N_ wrote: »

What industry are you in?

I can think of many reasons why people in my line of work (broadly, energy & engineering consultancy) would not want their boss to know they're job hunting: if they don't get a new job or simply choose to stay put, their company will probably put less into training them and overlook them for promotions, viewing them as a near-term 'flight risk'.

Depends. Letting an employer know I'm looking elsewhere has worked in my favour before as it got me a promotion and pay rise. Of course this very much depends on how valuable an employer considers you. If your considered a poor employee chances are they wouldn't heavily invest in training and consider you for promotions anyway. I'd probably always let my employer know I'm looking elsewhere.

ringo_24601 wrote: »

I've heard tales of people being asked for interviews just so the recruiters can find out about their firm - a low level of industrial espionage.

I'd let the interviewer know where I worked (via CV) and roughly what I do in terms of relevant experience. I certainly wouldn't be telling them any client details, any confidential information or my current salary. None of that is relevant to the potential employer.

pioneer22

sangie595 wrote: »

Well we take up references before interview and always have. So the employer would know by the time they came to interview anyway. It's not all that uncommon to do this. But what is wrong with job hunting? Every employer knows that staff are going to move on. For all sorts of reasons. It wouldn't bother me, or anyone I know, that someone was job hunting. In fact it would be rare that I didn't already know. It isn't really something that needs to be a state secret. Unless, of course, you happen to be "sick" on the day of the interview.

Why would you undertake references before an interview? Seems like a waste of time. Or do you mean internal references?

Andrew_Ryan_89

sangie595 wrote: »

But what is wrong with job hunting? Every employer knows that staff are going to move on. For all sorts of reasons. It wouldn't bother me, or anyone I know, that someone was job hunting. In fact it would be rare that I didn't already know. It isn't really something that needs to be a state secret. Unless, of course, you happen to be "sick" on the day of the interview.

I guess the problems comes with the awkwardness of your employer knowing that you want to leave. Let's say for example the reason for you leaving is due to a lack of progression or money and if you got that with your current employer you would stay. If your current employer finds out that you are going to interviews, even they are not malicious in any way, they are not going to look to you for promotions or pay rises.

Worst case, they can be really bitter about it and try to manage said person out. Some where I was previously employed at, one colleague kept working from home and being sick for at least 1 day a week for about 5 weeks. One of the other managers found out he was interviewing and let the rest of us now. It was then a cruel project of managing this person out.

andygb

Polarbeary wrote: »

How DARE you job hunt! Don't you know you need to show loyalty to your employer. <sarcasm>

I would be pretty annoyed if an interviewer told my current boss and then I didn't even get the job and my boss treated me badly badly after that.

Exactly this, because it happened to me around twelve years ago.
Things were deteriorating at my company because the boss was trying to fiddle HMRC and breaking industry regulations, and he was trying to use me to do this, which I refused to do.
I got an interview at another firm, had to give references, was told two weeks later that I had not got the job, then three weeks later my boss "made me redundant".
There should be laws put in place to stop this, but as with the discrimination laws regarding age and disability, they would be very difficult to enforce.

Andrew_Ryan_89

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

Calm Down! I didn't say I would condone sacking them did I, all I said was I would tell my friend to be aware that an employee is looking to move...it gives them time to start training other staff up to minimise disruption.

And ultimately, would you not put your ahem 'friend' above your employer in a similar situation?

A friend above your employer? It's a silly way of thinking to be honest. It's not that deep, it's not like we're talking about a high level exec or inventor moving from Microsoft to Apple and taking trade secrets. As mentioned, you have notice periods for a reason. The more crucial your role is the longer the notice period for the very reason of finding a replacement and doing a handover. This is not a life and death situation.

Your view is very "!!!!!y". I have a lot of friends in senior positions and if I knew one of their employees was leaving, I'll keep it to myself. Fair enough, if there was a job offer to be made then there is no harm talking as you would be talking to them anyway for references. But to !!!!! and say "oh, so and so is thinking of leaving by the way" is a !!!! head move.

Takeaway_Addict

Andrew_Ryan_89 wrote: »

A friend above your employer? It's a silly way of thinking to be honest. It's not that deep, it's not like we're talking about a high level exec or inventor moving from Microsoft to Apple and taking trade secrets. As mentioned, you have notice periods for a reason. The more crucial your role is the longer the notice period for the very reason of finding a replacement and doing a handover. This is not a life and death situation.

Your view is very "!!!!!y". I have a lot of friends in senior positions and if I knew one of their employees was leaving, I'll keep it to myself. Fair enough, if there was a job offer to be made then there is no harm talking as you would be talking to them anyway for references. But to !!!!! and say "oh, so and so is thinking of leaving by the way" is a !!!! head move.

Firstly you are presuming the employee is going to work their notice, if they don't then there is a minor recourse through suing but this is unlikely, as such forwarning is beneficial to the employer.

If you knew one of your friends boss were likely to sack them in the next month complete with notice period would you not tell them so they can prepare? Of course you would.

As such its no difference in reverse.

Gavin83

Andrew_Ryan_89 wrote: »

A friend above your employer? It's a silly way of thinking to be honest. It's not that deep, it's not like we're talking about a high level exec or inventor moving from Microsoft to Apple and taking trade secrets. As mentioned, you have notice periods for a reason. The more crucial your role is the longer the notice period for the very reason of finding a replacement and doing a handover. This is not a life and death situation.

Your view is very "!!!!!y". I have a lot of friends in senior positions and if I knew one of their employees was leaving, I'll keep it to myself. Fair enough, if there was a job offer to be made then there is no harm talking as you would be talking to them anyway for references. But to !!!!! and say "oh, so and so is thinking of leaving by the way" is a !!!! head move.

Don't fancy answering my questions then?

Really wish people would just be more honest on here. It's totally anonymous, it's the perfect place to be truthful.

A 'review' from a friend who currently manages/works with the person will tell you more in 5 mins than any CV, reference or interview could. CV's are at best written to highlight a persons strengths, at worst full of total lies. A reference is often very basic these days, no employer wants to open themselves up to potential legal issues. As for interviews I know people who interview terribly who are great at their job and also people who are brilliant at interviews but totally inept at the job itself. An off the record chat will be totally honest and give you a tonne of information.

Andrew_Ryan_89

Gavin83 wrote: »

Don't fancy answering my questions then?

Really wish people would just be more honest on here. It's totally anonymous, it's the perfect place to be truthful.

A 'review' from a friend who currently manages/works with the person will tell you more in 5 mins than any CV, reference or interview could. CV's are at best written to highlight a persons strengths, at worst full of total lies. A reference is often very basic these days, no employer wants to open themselves up to potential legal issues. As for interviews I know people who interview terribly who are great at their job and also people who are brilliant at interviews but totally inept at the job itself. An off the record chat will be totally honest and give you a tonne of information.

1. Where you quoted me I was quoting Takeaway_Addict and not yourself. That's the reason I did not respond. It has nothing to do with honesty.

2. It's not me. I recently started a new job

3. As I have mentioned, there is no problem talking to said person once an offer has been made or is going to be made. This is just standard referencing and it will happen whether the interviewer knows your boss or not. To call a friend and say that someone is interviewing just to give them "heads up" is not a nice thing to do if they haven't even passed the second stage interview.

I don't know how much detail they go into but most jobs offers are subject to satisfactory references. All my previous jobs have been a case of me being told that I have it, subject to references, and they call up and do their checks. This is before I have handed in any notices or given any start dates. I am confident in my own ability, references so have no problem with them checking once they have offered me a job.

However, if my boss suddenly finds out I am looking for another role by the interviewer and it's at a stage before a damn job offer, I will be well !!!!ed off. What do I do? Go into work everyday with my manager questioning my commitment? Overlooking me for promotions, pay rises and other opportunities?

The company I started working for back in 2011 was quite new. A consequence of this there were a lot of people who came from junior roles from rival companies and suddenly found themselves in senior positions, hiring and firing positions. They lacked experience but most importantly they lacked empathy to be a manager. Cronyism was well established.

When I got promoted there was one girl, a team leader, who was working her !!! off running the store. She done as good as a job as she could, especially as most of the problems were down to the store managers manager. She was taking the odd day off here and there, most of them booked holidays. A friend let is slip at the table that she was looking for a new job. The manager (who was supposedly a friend) brought it up during a management team meeting. Next minute there was a snap reaction to get her replaced ASAP. Lining up a replacement was not a problem but they could not be bothered to wait.

What followed was a meeting about her time off with none of her "holidays" no longer being approved. She was asked to "help out" at other stores. Minor problems were blown out of proportion and bigger ones placed solely on her. Performance Improvement Plans were imposed on her and got called to a disciplinary meeting. Nothing came out of it because it was complete bull but she left with nothing lined up in fear of her "reference" being destroyed (being dismissed and opposed to leaving at her own will).

If only that friend kept her mouth shut and the manager kept the business to herself, all that would have had happened was the team leader would have got another job, handed in her 6 weeks notice (we are talking about professional people here) and during that time, someone would have been promoted from the ranks to fill in the role. No harm done to any party.

Detroit

In the examples you give where you believe people suffered detriment when their employers found out they were job hunting; you seem to be saying that both took sick leave for interviews.

In which case, of course the employers questioned their commitment. They lied and said they were sick when they weren't.

If I found one of my employees doing this, I'd feel the same.
It's the deceit that's the issue, not that the time was taken off for interviews.
Abuse of sick leave is costly to the company and puts added pressure on colleagues. I certainly wouldn't want to invest in a person I caught doing this.

I would find it strange if an employer was no longer invested in people solely because they were job hunting,
If a valued member of staff is looking elsewhere, I would expect it would be the reverse, as the employer looked for ways to encourage them to stay.

Unfortunately if employers pass over job hunting staff, it may indicate they don't much care about losing them.

As a final point, of course two friends would chat informally about prospective employees.
The only exception may be if the role concerned was too insignificant to make their radar.

sangie595

People don't have "holidays" - they have holidays, with no inverted commas. And you say that MOST of the days off were "holidays" - what were the rest of them? You have an anecdote about a single situation in which you think that an employer knowing someone was looking for a job meant that they were treated poorly. Maybe that is true. Maybe you can find a dozen anecdotes the same, and all true. But we can all find a dozen anecdotes where looking for another job has resulted in pay rises and/or promotion when employers are keen not to lose someone.

None of which matters, because your question was is there a legal duty not to tell the current employer? There isn't, and they can; and you misadvised your friend by telling them it won't happen.