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Current employer warned off prospective new employer.

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DDQueen

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

I am unsure where to post this as it doesn't fit any of the main categories in this section. If this is in the wrong place, please advise and accept my apologies.

My current employer somehow found out that I was recently approached about a new job that would pay me twice as much with full benefits. It would be a huge advance for me professionally and financially. I would go from a $14/hour job with no benefits to a $55,000 salaried position with full benefits in a managerial position which I am qualified for. I do not know how my current employer found out I was approached and probably never will. This prospective new employer contacted me when a business colleague from my prior business told them about me, thought I would be a good asset for their company and gave them my number.

By way of a short explanation, I had my own business for 16 years but due to many long distance moves for my ex to find work, I gradually lost my client base. I tried to get it up and running again after each move but wasn't in one place long enough to re-establish myself. It was a service business based on personal interaction with my clients and the further away I moved each time, the more clients I lost. He left our home 3 years ago, moved out of state, left me flat and divorced me this past August. I had to find a job and, at my age at the time, 52, it wasn't easy. I took the only job I was offered 3 years ago to try to support myself. I know I am lucky to have a job when so many don't but it is a job where my skills and experience are sorely under used not to mention I am poorly paid with no advancement options at all.

Obviously, I would welcome an opportunity to not only improve myself financially but also professionally where my skills and experience would be put to good use.

The prospective employer left me a voice mail message at my home today and I returned the call when I got home from work. I was then told that they had been warned by my current employer that they were to not contact me in any fashion whatsoever about hiring me. I was told that nothing negative was said about me, quite the opposite, and that if I left it "would leave a big hole to fill".

Can my current employer try to warn off a prospective new employer like this?

Thanks in advance for any input.
 


cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
So your current employer thinks enough of you to want to keep you, and to let the other employer know how big a difference it would make to him if you left. Nothing negative was said to you - in fact, your current employer praised you.

And you think this might be illegal because...?
 

DDQueen

Junior Member
You're right. Having thought it over better there is nothing here.

Maybe nothing negative was said but the huge hole I would leave has nothing to do with my value to them; I know them too well. It has to do with not wanting me to leave because I am the only one who can do my job - literally - and they only have to pay me $14 an hour and provide nothing else.

Sure, everyone is replaceable, me too, but it would take them months and more money to get someone else up to speed. I stepped right in the spot, required no training and got on with it. Believe me, it has nothing to do with valuing me.

Going away now to make that call and accept that new job.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
do you have a non-compete contract with your current employer? That is the only reason I could imagine the prospective employer would give a rat's behind about the warning issued.
 

TigerD

Senior Member
Sounds like it is time to go to your current employer and tell them you have had some interested companies contact you with offers significantly higher then your current salary. Of course, you would much prefer to stay and therefore you are giving them an opportunity to match or make their best offer.

DC
 

swalsh411

Senior Member
I was then told that they had been warned by my current employer that they were to not contact me in any fashion whatsoever about hiring me.
Or what? It's a baseless threat. (and completely unprocessional).

Even if there was a non-compete, I don't think it would hold up for a $14 an hour job.
 

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