ethics?

[powerslave]

when i left my last employer, i sat down and made a deal with them, that they would pass all the alarm work on to me, and i would leave all their customers alone. about a month after i left, they started to train someone else up in alarms! so i beat them at their own game, i poached the newly trained employee for myself now if they want alarm work done, they have to call me, also their customers are now fair game. one of thei ex customers spends a lot of money with me quite regularly. if you make a deal, stick to it. get even!

I don't know about getting even, but I certainly wouldn't honor my end of the agreement if I saw what they did.

 

[nyerinfl]

when i left my last employer, i sat down and made a deal with them, that they would pass all the alarm work on to me, and i would leave all their customers alone.

Sounds like you were trying to strongarm them. Why should your company be indebted to you to prevent you from stealing their customers? As an employer I would never enter into a deal like that with a soon to be ex-employee.

 

[powerslave]

Sounds like you were trying to strongarm them. Why should your company be indebted to you to prevent you from stealing their customers? As an employer I would never enter into a deal like that with a soon to be ex-employee.

Regardless, they made the deal.

 

[nyerinfl]

Regardless, they made the deal.

The deal makes no sense, it sounds to me close to blackmail. "Supply me with work, if you don't I will steal YOUR customers." The topic here is ethics, and I think this is questionable, to put it lightly.

 

[petersonra]

Since Ive been out on my own Ive been aproched by other contractors and builders that I used to work with when I worked for other bosses. I have declined 4 times already from 4 different builders just for the ethics of it all. But my question is at what point do these other builders become fair game? Usually I run into them in a deli or something and they say so were ya working now and I tell them Im on my own and they say "Do you have a card " and low and behold a few weeks later the phone rings. what would you do?

there is nothing unethical or immoral, or wrong in competing with a former employer unless you signed some kind of non-compete agreement.

 

[cadpoint]

If you sign a piece of paper what does it mean... It sound like a gentleman's agreement!

Frankly, I thought it was harsh OA, you do not, nor I know all that was involved in that conversation as to the nature of what both parties had to protect!

Seems all betting is closed on that, just the same!

 

[EBFD6]

I Have worked for 3 different contractors in my career as a service electrician. While working for company #1 I did quite a bit of work at a precast concrete plant. The plant maint. engineer was very happy with the work I did and basically would call and request the company to send me to his facility (rather than one of the other 5 service guys who worked for my company). Our company cell phones had no service in the area of this plant and the facility was rather large so I had given my personal cell number to the engineer to get a hold of me with.

I eventually left company #1 and went to work for company #2. After about 3 months I get a call on my cell from the plant engineer saying he had been using company #1, but was not happy with the guys they were sending and he wanted me to talk to my new boss about doing some work at his plant. HE CALLED ME! I did not lose a wink of sleep over it.

After some time I left company #2 and went to work for company #3. This time my phone rang after only a week and as before, HE CALLED ME! Again I had no trouble sleeping.

Business is business! (or so I've been told)

 

[Minuteman]

If you sign a piece of paper what does it mean... It sound like a gentleman's agreement!

Frankly, I thought it was harsh OA, you do not, nor I know all that was involved in that conversation as to the nature of what both parties had to protect!

Seems all betting is closed on that, just the same!

What is your "word" worth?

 

[360Youth]

I would not go after a former employer's customers. If they came to me then it is fair game, but even then I may ask why they chose to do so. A current GC of ours called several years ago to do a home. I asked why us and not his current EC and it basicly boiled down to his dissatisfaction with their ability on the larger custom homes. I had done a house for him a few years before that working for another EC. If your conscience is clean about it (providing you have one :wink: ) then it is all you can do. No matter how fairly or innocently a customer is acquired somebody somewhere is losing out and they are probably not going to take it well, so be prepared. Our salesman feels we just recently became a temporary bad guy because an HO bought a generator from us that the EC was trying to sell on their end. But the HO came to us and we offered the better deal. Apparently there is now some tension between EC and HO and probably some bitterness towards us, but what are we going to do.

 

[cadpoint]

What is your "word" worth?

A lot, I'm caring some patents to the Grave, how about U... !

 

[mdshunk]

Lacking a no-compete, how would those customers not be fair game? I have been known to quote "All I want in life is an unfair advantage". If I see a lever, I'm going to use it to pry my way in.

 

[tonyou812]

thanks people that makes me feel alot better about it. I can honestly say Ive worked for a couple of real cool dudes but they would do the same to me in a heart beat. And my last short gig was with this one dude after I got my license and he wanted me to say on "tape" I wont go after his customers and let me tell you he had some real fat ones. I would love to get some of those.

 

[adamants]

why?

why?

Sounds like you were trying to strongarm them. Why should your company be indebted to you to prevent you from stealing their customers? As an employer I would never enter into a deal like that with a soon to be ex-employee.

part of the deal i made, was that i had to purchase all of the alarm stock off them, at cost price, regardless of if i wanted it, because they were "going out of doing alarms" because i was the only one who knew how to do them