Hey all,
I have lurked in the this forum for many years and have found the boards to be very balanced with respect to ethical questions. Here is my current situation: I have been fired from civil/site firm i have worked at for 10 years for trying to obtain work on the side.
For the past 15 months, I had been cut to 4 days a week for work and pay. I never actually obtained a job, but had offered some proposals to potential clients which never panned out. I never used company time or company resources for these proposals. I didn't utilize company files or drawings.
The only mistake I made was to ask another employee to assist me, on our off day, with preparing a tree plan if a proposal came through. I offered it to him so that he could potentially earn some extra money as well. (He complained about his families' finances quite frequently and so I thought I was helping him.) He initially accepted, but days later said no, then I was fired several days later by my boss.
I am not upset by the firing and surely expected it if it ever came to light. But I feel ok, knowing I only did "work" on Fridays(not company time and by "work" I mean talking with potential clients.) In fact, would never had considered doing this had we not been reduced to 4 days for almost 15 months. The owner never came in so we could talk about my issues as he was pursuing his own real estate business. I was always honest with potential clients that I still worked for my old company, but was available only on non work days. And I never pursued new or old clients of my old company. In fact, I am kind of embarrassed at the lack of effort I put into my self-marketing. And when I did work for the old company, I gave it my all and never sacrificed quality and effort.
The funny thing is, you would have thought that I had been doing this for years and made a great living at it. But at the time of my firing, I had 0 jobs performed by my the side company.
I will say that I had heard stories of how my old company was formed and I think he may be projecting some of what he did in his own startup on my actions in his mind. Which would explain the grilling I received when I left. Anyway, I just wanted to put this out and get any insight you guys have.
Thanks in advance...
I have lurked in the this forum for many years and have found the boards to be very balanced with respect to ethical questions. Here is my current situation: I have been fired from civil/site firm i have worked at for 10 years for trying to obtain work on the side.
For the past 15 months, I had been cut to 4 days a week for work and pay. I never actually obtained a job, but had offered some proposals to potential clients which never panned out. I never used company time or company resources for these proposals. I didn't utilize company files or drawings.
The only mistake I made was to ask another employee to assist me, on our off day, with preparing a tree plan if a proposal came through. I offered it to him so that he could potentially earn some extra money as well. (He complained about his families' finances quite frequently and so I thought I was helping him.) He initially accepted, but days later said no, then I was fired several days later by my boss.
I am not upset by the firing and surely expected it if it ever came to light. But I feel ok, knowing I only did "work" on Fridays(not company time and by "work" I mean talking with potential clients.) In fact, would never had considered doing this had we not been reduced to 4 days for almost 15 months. The owner never came in so we could talk about my issues as he was pursuing his own real estate business. I was always honest with potential clients that I still worked for my old company, but was available only on non work days. And I never pursued new or old clients of my old company. In fact, I am kind of embarrassed at the lack of effort I put into my self-marketing. And when I did work for the old company, I gave it my all and never sacrificed quality and effort.
The funny thing is, you would have thought that I had been doing this for years and made a great living at it. But at the time of my firing, I had 0 jobs performed by my the side company.
I will say that I had heard stories of how my old company was formed and I think he may be projecting some of what he did in his own startup on my actions in his mind. Which would explain the grilling I received when I left. Anyway, I just wanted to put this out and get any insight you guys have.
Thanks in advance...
