competition with previous employer?? Ethical?? 3

[l3city]

Hi, this is somehow related with thread765-155837, but check this real life situation, and please send me your comments:
Enginner A quit the job after 3 years, got a job with another engineer, and started giving business cards to other architects & engineers that make or made bussines with his previous employer.
There was nothing in the policies or a contract that said anything about competition.
However, one day Engineer A met with his previous employer and this ended-up bad. The previous employer alleged he was not happy with that, he called him unloyal & unethical. Engineer A alleged he needed to work & eat, that this country (USA) is free to legaly compete and more when no contract or policies where violated.

Engineer A started out with his previous employer. Whatever knowledge and skills he had at that time, he got it from his previous employer, in fact, he was hired by him when nobody wanted to hire him because he was recently graduated and from another country.

Sooner or later I'll get my license and quit my job, and I ask myself: will I contact Architects & other engineers that are currently working with my boss? Will I compete with my current employer?

Ok, fellas, what would you do? or how about if you wanted to start, say, your own company?? Is this situation showing not being thankful to the one who gave you a hand when you needed it?

Ethical or unethical..that's the question?

 

[TDAA]

"The main issue is the intellectual property and the dirty laundry that ex-employees can bring to bear against former employers." -- The company should not be doing anything it is ashamed of.

plasgears, I think more info is needed to see if that is ethical. If Company 1 had some engineering judgment reasoning not to do the design, then I think it is ok for the client to search out someone that would, or listen to their engineer and go a different design route. Normally the someone would be another company. If in the process of Company 1 relaying that reasoning, you step around them and steal the work, I believe that is unethical. It would be that same as a sub-contractor cutting out the middleman. Companies get sued for that.

 

[HVACctrl]

Taken that way, maybe it could be questionable.

But I took it as company 1 didn't want to do a design that cause them to get paid less money. They wanted the most possible income from the deal and refused to do anything that wouldn't accomplish this.

Then plasgears stepped up and did the right thing. He didn't allow the client to be hijacked by company 1 because he did see a way to accomplish the clients needs. Maybe company 1 saw a way to do it as well but was too greedy to do so.

If my assumptions are correct, company 1 was wrong and plasgears was right- at least in my book.

Ed

http://www.engineerboards.com

 

[Guest0527211403]

My recent experience was with a previous employer who offered CAD consulting services. They essentially told me to take a few weeks off because there wasn't enough work. Instead, I tendered my resignation. I can't tell my creditors to take a few weeks off from bugging me.

Fast forward about a year.

I had since gotten a new job with a company using the same CAD software, through my own network contacts. Someone from my old company made a cold-call to my new manager trying to rustle up business. My manager told them that they didn't need any consulting work, and in passing mentioned that they had hired one of their ex-employees (me) and if the need for more work arose, he would give them a call.

A few days later I got a really nasty message from former boss telling me that he was going to sue me because I was "stealing business" from them. He tried to tell me that since my new company was on their call lists (which they purchased), I must have gotten their name from them, and therefore had used company resources inappropriately.

I politely told him I was too busy for his BS at the moment, and gave him the phone number to my lawyer (who happens to be a labour lawyer and my Godfather). Following that I tore the page out of the yellow pages with my company right under the "Engineering" listing (yeah, it starts with an A), scanned it and e-mailed it to him.

Never heard from him since...

 

[plasgears]

Thanks for the support, guys.

I went to work for another firm out of state, automotive field. I was able to make a difference in a 2d tier company that was light on gear design expertise.

Plasgears