Referral of roommate might end up backfiring DALE & J.T. TALK JOBS
DEAR J.T. & DALE: I work at a cool startup. They’re aggressively hiring. My roommate just lost her job — again. She wants me to refer her to my company. I don’t want to, but I’m afraid to say so and hurt her feelings. What should I do? — Claudia
J.T.: If you lie and say that you referred her, she may find out if she calls in to follow up on her application. But if you refer her and she gets hired and then screws up, your credibility will be questioned. I’d suggest passing along her credentials, but letting your company know that she has had a bumpy career history. It’s up to them to decide if they want to hire her. They can ask her about the career challenges and decide for themselves. That way, you are doing both sides justice: You are doing what your roommate asked, but you also shared what you needed to in order to keep your reputation intact.
Dale: That would work, although, if you’re like me, Claudia, that plan leaves you feeling a bit oily. If you care about your roommate and believe you understand what’s gone wrong with her career thus far, then you need to be honest and have one of those “I love you, but ...” conversations. You might make a difference in her life. Perhaps you’ll even end up being your roommate’s career guardian angel and helping her succeed. On the other hand, if that scenario leaves you cold, then I would go further than J.T. and take your employer a “dead résumé walking”: Tell the HR person that you felt pressured into passing the résumé along, but that you wouldn’t recommend her. The HR person probably will glance at it and say something like, “That’s OK, because we’re only hiring people with X or Y qualifications anyway.” Then you can report that you handdelivered it to HR and explain why your roommate shouldn’t get her hopes up.
Dear J.T. & Dale: I saw your column about noncompete agreements and I thought I’d pass along my experience. One company gave me a noncompete to sign and I insisted on adding a clause that stated if the company were to take unilateral action to terminate me, the noncompete would be null and void. I worked at another company that had a “nonsolicitation” clause instead of a noncompete, the difference being that you could work for another company, but not solicit the present company’s clients for two years. Signing was not mandatory, but there was a financial incentive offered to do so. I do project management and technical design, so I would not be soliciting anyone’s customers
anyway, and I was happy to sign. — Ken J.T.: Our thanks to Ken Ciszewski of St. Louis, Mo., for his thoughts. It’s a good reminder that it’s possible to successfully negotiate terms of noncompetes.
Dale: We passed Ken’s comments to Scott Gordon of Rodey Law in Albuquerque, a specialist in employment law and the one who’d offered us his opinions in the original column. Scott wasn’t encouraging about limiting noncompete provisions only to employees who quit. He told us: “When working with employers, I advise against such limitations because they don’t fully protect the employer. To defeat the noncompete agreement, a devious employee could simply make himself less desirable and try to get himself fired. The employer is faced with a dilemma: tolerate a non-performing worker or fire him and lose the benefit of the noncompete agreement. A noncompete that applies only if the employee resigns is toothless.”
J.T.: Scott did, however, say that it isn’t uncommon for him to see “non-solicitation” in employment agreements. “Nonsolicitation provisions,” he explained, “typically prohibit the employee from soliciting former customers for a year or two after the employee separates. Non-solicitation provisions can also apply to vendors, suppliers and even co-workers.” As for the last of these, Scott added: “The fear is that an employee will leave and poach the best workers to join her in a competing business. So the non-solicitation provision prohibits the employee from enticing her former co-workers to quit.”
Dale: Our thanks to Ken and Scott for their insights.