Hired for job description A and ended up working job description Z

[canuckavenger]

Hi there,

I am a Canadian citizen residing in California working on a H1B visa. I have been in the US a little over 3 years.

About 3 months ago I was recruited by my current employer to fill a position that could not be described as anything shy of a dream job for me. It was the next logical step for my professional development and I jumped at the opportunity.

I was working at a competing company at the time, was well respected in my position and enjoyed my job enough that I was not actively seeking new employment, but when my current employer made its offer I couldn't refuse. Slightly money annually, more responsibility, more senior position, better subject matter, all that good stuff....the only drawback was the change in my commute from a 2 block walk to a 35 mile drive and a less lucrative bonus plan.

Well within 2 months of being hired, my position has been reduced to a shadow of the position that they offered me, and by no fault of my own. Executives in the company decided to reduce the funding level of the project. So now I am in a position that is the exact opposite of what I was offered. There is only one bulletpoint on my job description that has remained the same.



So there is my story, my question is what legal rights do I have? I am on a standard "at will" employment contract. I have taken some financial losses to take this job(leaving just before bonuses were issued, lost stock options, car maintainance, pain of transferring my visa) and the mental impact on me has been pretty hard. If I quit my job to go back to my old job or to another new job would that have any impact, does sticking things out here to see what comes have an impact?

Thanks in advance

 

[Beth3]

If when you were hired the company knowingly lied about the job, then you might have the basis of a suit for fraudulent inducement or detrimental reliance. The burden of proof would be on you to demonstrate that the company made promises to you that they knew all along they would not or could not keep.

Chances are, that's not what happened though. What benefit was there to the employer to spend all that time and money to recruit and hire someone of your experience and salary level if they knew they were not going to use you in the role they hired you for? It's reasonable to assume that unforseen business conditions necessitated cutting the funding for your project after you arrived.

Your situation is not unusual and unless you have a history of changing jobs frequently after a short period of time, I don't think moving on quickly from this company will have any detrimental impact on your career. The situation is fully explainable during interviews.

By all means, contact your former employer and see if there's an interest in having you return. I'd also start a job search to see what other opportunities are out there.

 

[gfunk]

My fiance is in a similar situation. He was working for the state DOT as a QC/QA lab technician, and was recruited by a private firm to do what he thought would be QC management for their rock quarry. However, once he started the job, he found out very quickly that he would not only be running the samples in the QC lab, he would also have to put himself into very dangerous situations on a daily basis, without any training or certifications. He never was asked if he was interested in working with equipment such as stone crushers, and shaker screens. He never in a million years imagined that they would put him in that kind of situation, knowing that he had no training in that kind of work. He was told during the hiring process, that if he was interested in learning other aspects of the business, that they would gladly teach him everything he wanted to know. However, if he wanted to do strictly QC work, that was fine also.

He quit this job today, because he was so scared of getting into a situation, and getting seriously injured. There are several things that seem unethical to me about this whole situation. First of all, they hired him to do one thing, and then had him doing something completely out of his field. Next, they put him in very dangerous situations, with no prior training, in the form of a safety manual, training video, certification course, etc... It just doesn't seem right.

 

[BB_Wolfe]

You said you were at a competing company?

Jeesh, could you have been played?

They hire you, let you burn some bridges with the old company, then either lay you off or reduce your job when the time is right.

Sounds to me like they played you to either get you out of the other company or to hinder the other company. Either way, you have no recourse.